Spaw, sounds like you went the Howie Mitchell route.

I wasn't interested in reinventing the wheel myself, so one was enough. Partly as a result of my experience with my home-built, my flirtation with hammered dulcimers never became a lasting relationship. I never took my own advice and bought one from a pro.

As for lap dulcimers...

IMHO it is hard enough to find a luthier-built lap dulcimer that sounds good to my ears. I've played quite a few gorgeous dulcimers with all the tonal quality of a two-by-four with strings. I would consider the chances of a kit-built lap dulcimer's sounding truly good (as opposed to "OK") to be close to nil.