My wife and I are building a new home and am in the process of picking the appliances. I've probably spent about 40 hours looking on GW, as well as other sites, for advice since I love to research out large purchases.

We would love to get all top of the line stuff, but that is not realistic with our budget. We are planning on spending approx. $7500 for a cooktop/hood, double wall oven, dishwasher, refrigerator and microwave. Our builder buys his appliances from Sears commercial so we may not have access to all brands/models.

Based on my research so far, this is what I am thinking (prices I list are the current Sears retail prices, so our builder should be able to get them a little cheaper):

Refrigerator: Samsung SS FD 26.0 cu ft with in-door water/ice (Model RF267AERS, $1919.20) - reviews seem to be pretty high on the Samsung FDs and really liked the look/setup when looking at Sears

Double ovens: Frigidaire Gallery 30" SS convection (Model FGET3065KF, $2235.49) - reviews are very positive, especially for the price

Cooktop: Kenmore PRO 36" gas slide-in (Model 30503, $1699.99) - This is probably the one piece I am having the most trouble deciding on. I really like the slide-in style with knobs on the front, but don't think I can get up to the $3000 that Bluestars go for (also don't know what kind of access our builder has to brands that Sears doesn't carry)

Dishwasher: Kitchenaid SS 24" Superba w/ ProScrub (Model KUDS40CVSS, $1019.99) - Was hoping to go cheaper here, but the KA reviews seem to be great and this model has everything we need/want. Also looked at Bosch, but would like more room and heated dry.

Hood: Kenmore Elite SS 36" Italian Design Wall Mounted Chimney Range Hood (Model 52363, $662.99) - Haven't done much research here, but this was the one that our builder recommended. We like the look of it, which is important since it will be an exposed hood.

Microwave: Haven't picked one yet. It will be mounted under the island. Any advice on brand/features would be greatly appreciated.

Any critiques on these choices or better options would be greatly appreciated. Our budget is fairly strict, so a significant increase in one appliance would require going cheaper somewhere else. This is our first home, so pretty much anything would be an improvement over the apartment appliances we're used to, but I don't want to regret any choices in a year.

Thanks for your help!!!