Bump.

Just read through this thread and learned some MORE new and useful stuff. We are demo'd down to the studs and just at the framing stage so we can actually make use of this info. Thanks to all who posted.

Our first planned omission is a wine frig, as the built-in Liebherr has bottle racks already; we substituted a wine rack in the base cab. (Yes, I know, whites come out of the regular frig too cold, but we prefer mostly reds anyway.) Our second omission is a second dishwasher. We entertain seldom enough that it really didn't justify the space and expense. Of course, that may change once we have a beautiful new kitchen to show off!

We too decided on a combination of brushed and polished chrome for faucets and cabinet hardware, as it is less expensive than ORB or satin nickel, and timeless to boot.

I am still trying to get DW to omit the glaze on the cabs as I tend to think it could look as if we're trying too hard for a period look--and maybe not such great housekeepers...LOL

Panelled CD fridge: I wouldn't want to give up my divided cab above it in order to have a built in fridge, but I would rather have a built in fridge panelled. Go figure.

The CD with panels looks like her prom dress is too tight.

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Love this thread!

Before we began our remodel, we planned on laminate countertops. The ones we ripped out were 10 yrs old and still looked perfectly good, so I thought this would be an easy place to save money. BUT the house we are renting during the remodel has granite counters, and now I AM SPOILED. I love being able to put a hot pan anywhere. And I love how they dress up the room. I also love that the counter can look clean but actually be quite filthy. :-)

I am also a recent convert to those tilt-out things below the sink. I always scoffed at them before, but now that I have them (in the rental) I find they are the perfect place for the rubber gloves I use when washing dishes. My husband and I actually used to bicker about where to put those gloves, so the tilt-out has been a major problem-solver.

I wonder how people feel about tray storage? They certainly are in all the kitchens now, but I have never had any and don't feel the need. I'm sure it's easier to access trays in dividers, but you can store more trays in the same amount of space if you stack them. And I don't really mind selecting a tray from a small stack.

mmme~~ Have you seen all of the choices that come in laminate now?...oh my, they look so much like granite that one would have to really examine it to tell the difference.
You asked about the tray dividers. I have them and really do like them.

The one thing(actually two) that I would HATE to do without is my pull-out trash containers...or my garbage disposal..love them~~ And if I had to do without something (although it is great for a crowd), would be my warming drawer.

phoggie, I agree that some laminates look just like granite. But you can't put a hot pan on it, and I've grown to love that about granite. In my old (laminate) kitchen I was always shuffling things around trying to find space for hot cookie sheets, heavy pots right off the stove, etc. Now with granite counters I can really spread out--and no more balancing a hot pan while I fumble for a trivet. I love it!

We need a new gas range and I'd like a 'true' convection (I do a lot of baking), but we don't have a lot of money to spend on it. I've read some good things and some very bad things about the Maytag and the Kenmore ranges, which are in the 700$ range. Anyone have any experiences they'd like to share? Or recommendations?
Thanks!

Blaunik...you'd be better off either starting a separate thread here on the Kitchens Forum or starting a thread on the Appliances Forum.

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I learned about the Gaggeanu Combi Steam Oven and the TapMaster here and had to have them in my kitchen. A year later, living in the house, I could have lived without both. I don't hate either, and I do use each regularly, but neither have turned into must-haves. I use the Combi mostly to steam veggies and defrost meat. I haven't been blown away by other applications I've tried, including bread baking, which I was really excited about before purchase. (I seem to get better results with the old pan-of-water-on-the-bottom-rack trick in my plain-old convection oven.)

The TapMaster is a wow item for people who come to the house, but it's just so-so for everyday use and I haven't really found it to be the full-hands helper I thought it would be. (Sometimes it's even quite inconvenient in everyday applications.) Again, nothing terrible, and it does everything it advertises, it just hasn't blown me away in every day use.

-Susan W.

Oh and, as for things I love ... I use my Advantium more than I thought I would. That "soften butter" setting is a godsend, as is the chocolate melt, since I love to bake. It's also a great microwave (we didn't have sensor reheat before) and warming drawer, as well as the perfect bread proofer.

My biggest things though are ...

-My gargatuen pantry--the size of a room and I use every bit of it, even though people told me it was terribly indulgent.

-The trash chute out to the garage. I intially thought it was too simple for what we paid for it--when it was first installed--and now wouldn't live without it. It's just great not to have a trash can in the kitchen, or be hauling bags through the house. I love it!

-Two dishwashers. I cook and bake a lot. I hate to do dishes, so 99.9999999 percent of what I own is dishwasher safe. The two dishwashers are literally used daily and, frankly, if I did it all again I might even add a third. Yep, I use them that much and there are times when both are full and running and there's stuff waiting in the sink. I think the "worst" thing about going back to my old kitchen would be having just one dishwasher.

-And, lastly, the "drinks" fridge--another "are you sure you need this?" item various people questioned during the design/build process. All of our beverages are in one place and my husband's athletes come over and help themselves. It's convenient to get to from the pool, the living room and the home theatre. I would never be without a "drinks fridge" again.

As for what I wish I got, that I didn't ... I still kind of wonder about induction, but I can't say I really "miss" it. The only item I've occasionally longed for is a stand-alone ice maker, but even that twinge of desire has been pretty few and far between, though it is something I might do if we were ever to do this all again (God forbid, as my husband would say).

-Susan W.

Susan, could you elaborate on your trash shoot? I'm thinking about doing one in the house we are going to build--something like this: {{gwi:1924447}}

Is that kind of what you have, or is it something different?

The trash system I have is a Starco, it's a through-the-wall chute (mine is over a counter) that goes to a sealed system. They have a website that describes it all a lot better, and it's not a cheap item, though, like I said, I have found it to work well. If you're handy, you could probably put something similar together yourself. I actually saw it on HGTV and ended up calling the company and buying it on a whim. Be aware that it does NOT include the landing bin for your trash/recycling. You have to provide that yourself and, if you get it, don't do what we (unknowingly) did it and put it next to a wall--you need to be able to access all three sides, or it's difficult to get the bags on and off.

-Susan W.

Thanks Susan. We probably will do it ourselves (since we'll be doing just about everything on that build ourselves!) but it's great to hear from someone who has a similar system that likes it.

A two year old...

and a puppy on the way....

(thank god we planned a wine center in the new kitchen) :P

raenjapan, I have two pull-down doors to the trash and recycling bins in my garage, which do the same thing. I didn't have to buy a ''system'' and it's working out beautifully, for the last four years! Here's a picture of them on the far wall to the left of the light switch and the garage door, and under the big picture. We also use them as a ''communication system'' when one of us is in the garage. I really like that the doors are large enough to put more than one item through. We put felt weatherstripping around the backside of the doors to keep the cold/heat from coming in, and the painted surface is easy to clean. My goal was to stop the ''swing and fling'' from the garage door, which this did!

There's not one thing I would want to live without in my new kitchen. It is heaven!

Cate, where did you find the original post you referred to that was begun by Shannonplus2? I think you posted a link, but I'm having trouble finding it.

Wow, I can't believe that I sat here and read this entire post. I couldn't pull myself away, so I have tons to contribute and ask.

Things I'd do without:
Plug Mold. I'd rather have 2 regular outlets in my backsplash. Regular outlets are easier to reach, and for the coffee maker that sits out on the counter, the plug is above it rather than behind it. I find myself constantly adjusting where the coffee maker is to HIDE the cord.

Convection: It's a setting on both my oven as well as my microwave. I never use it, because as one poster said ealier, I've had several failed attempts and it would have been easier and quicker to just have used conventional bake.

Pull-out Shelves on Lower Cabinets: If I had to do it all over again, I would not have pull out shelves and doors on the lower cabinets. I would have deep drawers all the way around.

Automatic Dishwasher Soap Dispenser: Worthless. Our GE Profile top of the line dishwasher wouldn't get the dishes clean no matter what setting we used. As per the advice of a kind GW'er, we tried using powdered soap. Wah-Lah!
Clean dishes. Now we're back to putting soap in everytime we're ready to do a load. We really liked not having to do that, but the automatic dispenser is just a dinosaur now with no action. A dinosaur I am sure we paid dearly for. On that note, I would have skipped going top of the line in the GE Profile series and got a regular dishwasher without all the bells and whistles.

Cork Flooring: We've had an install nightmare that I won't go into here - but suffice it to say, I think we're leaning toward going with engineered hardwood to replace our VERY expensive cork that was installed improperly.

End Panels on the bar side of the peninsula: Very expensive add-on that is pretty well covered up by 4 large barstools. We could've just adding some kind of trim molding later and saved quite a few bucks.

Tip Out tray under the sink: We had one in our old kitchen and we used it all the time. We *rarely* use the one in the new kitchen for some reason. Not quite sure why. But, it cost around $60, so that was a tiny bit of dinero I could've saved.

Glass cabinet doors: We have 3. Two that are on either side of our flat screen tv/wine rack deal are really pretty and I'd do that all over again. But the one that's next to the fridge - I'd just as soon have a regular door so that I could store less pretty stuff and more practical stuff.

Re: Trash Pull Out: I couldn't live without it. Although I don't have an official bag storage place built in... I do have 1 trash can, and 1 recycling can. I have increased my recycling by 100%, and I was an avid recycler before. So much so, that I had to call the garbage company and request a 2nd 100 gallon recycling cart. It's amazing how much you can recycle if it's convenient. One little "trick" I learned reading Martha Stewart or Heloise or someone like that: put your extra trash bags in the bottom of the trash can, then they're always handy when you need to replace it. I too get the Costco huge box of trash bags, and they go on the Super Susan next to the trash drawer. But I always keep about 15 bags in the bottom of each can and it's great! Replacing the 15 is just a cabinet away.

Pull-out cookie tray divider thingie: I have no idea what I paid for that gimmick/gadget, but I would skip it. There are many other places for my trays and better ways that would be more convenient. I rarely pull the deal out even though it's a pull-out, and I must have too many trays crammed in there because I always end up fighting to get the darned things out.

Cate: Get the new fridge. Match your appliances. Just my opinion. :)

WANT: Foot pedal for trash drawer. Yes, I am obsessed with my trash/recycling drawer. :) It makes me happy!
It's probably one of my Top 3 favorite things in our new kitchen.

There were more comments I wanted to make, but by the time I finished reading through all the posts, I have forgotten about them. Oh well.. as if this isn't long enough.

Happy Saturday, Y'all!
Boxie

WOW! I just read this whole thread and I appreciate everyone who has taken time to answer this. I figured I'd reply to bump it up...and I'll be asking a couple of questions in the forum. :)

Could folks post more? Still trying to decide what I "need" to have and what I "want" to have.

For those with all drawers-- what about heavy appliances like mixers, crockpots. Do those fit in the drawers readily?
thanks

Good question, babbie. I was thinking about doing 1 base cabinet with a rollout to hold my heavy stand mixer, belgian waffle maker and food processor. Seems like lifting those heavy items out of a rollout would be easier than out of a deep drawer?

Erikanh, that is my thought too, not that lifting anything heavy is easy! I currently have planned 2 drawer bases, and a couple of base w/rots, but I am having doubts. For that matter, I am currently having doubts about everything I have decided!

aww babbie, I know the feeling. I seem to second-guess myself on even the littlest things. It's so frustrating because I consider myself a pretty decisive person, but this whole kitchen process has thrown me for a loop.

One thing that has helped me a lot is labeling every single drawer and cabinet with what I plan to store in each. Other than sink bases, my tall pantries and that 1 base for heavy items, I'm planning drawers everywhere.

Don't order easy retrofits from the cabinet company! Things like pull-out towel rack under sink or stainless caddy, drawer organizers etc. can be purchased for much less from companies like rev-a-shelf or Hafele usually for much less.

good point luisa, we are planning on purchasing some of the retrofits afterwards. After reading about the pros and cons of tilt out sinks (and the additional cost for us) we will wait and if I decide I want it, we will install ourselves for $16-- hubby is the diy and he is doing the kitchen. the larger rots will cost as much to special order so those we will have installed by the cabinet company.
now if I could only decide on the wood species and stain-- cherry, perhaps red birch, no, I want maple. All I know is I want a light stain to complement the red oak floors.

Thoughts on drawers vs rollouts (I stack/nest my pans 2 deep)--

In doing both a remodel and new construction in the last 3-4 years, I've found that

--I like 18" and 21" wide cabinet sizes best. Or 24" wide is fine if it's a bank of drawers.

--I prefer 18" or 21" wide base cabinets with 3 rollouts in each + top drawer on both sides of the cooktop. I don't like having rollouts in the island behind me opposite the cooktop--it just feels wrong with the additional move of turning around. Drawers would have been better there. There's more room in rollouts than drawers, which is why I used them where I did. I agree with erikanh about rollouts probably being better for larger heavier small appliances although I just keep these on the counter, but maybe someone else has experience with these.

--if space is at a premium, 27" wide butt door (no center stile) base cabinet with 3-4 (4 is great for putting canned goods on their sides so it's easy to see what you have) wide rollouts + top drawer.

--I really don't like having to open a deep 36" wide drawer full of pans or dishes. I think shallower or narrower might be ok. I got 24" wide drawer banks for the lower level kitchen--both shallow and deep--and I can see where those might work fine if I had pans in them. But a deep 36" wide drawer is perfect for plastic containers.

--I like having the stir fry pan, 5 qt dutch oven, lightweight 12" crock pot, and seldom used larger items in the super Susan.

Anyone else have specifics of their situation that might help others decide? I know this subject comes up a lot.

BTW, now that I have a large (to me) kitchen designed just the way I wanted it, it seems too large. If I still had kids around, it would probably be just right. I could have gotten rid of some things, and made it smaller, but I was designing for resale and it is a great kitchen to entertain in.

Anne

Can't say I regret anything. I bought a KA range with convection which I use. I got a middle of the road KA dishwasher which does a great job. I bought a Sharp convection MW. Love the convection on this as I can use it in hot weather with out making the house hot. We did get the Sub Zero which I though was too much to spend, but my husband really wanted. I am really happy now because my fridge blends very well in the wall of cabinets in which it was placed. Love my farmhouse sink and full extension drawers. I really can't think of anything I would do differently. Thanks again to everyone here who really helped us during our remodel.

I could have lived without my SS sink, and bought a Silgranit sink instead. I didn't know about Silgranite at the time. My SS sink gets waterspots instantly.

Having said that, I do like that my sink is single bowl style, and don't regret that choice one bit. Just wish it didn't have water spots all the time.

Now that I have - a JA CD FD fridge - I think I could have lived without it. Mainly because it's just too small, even for two people. The freezer is the worst - the top slide out bin doesn't pull out easily and the stationary bin attached to the door is way too small. The controls on the fridge part are too large and limit using the upper shelves for anything tall like juice bottles unless the lower shelves are lowered. But if that is done those shelves end up with very little head room, too.

We've been using the fridge for almost 2 years and the novelty of the FDs has worn thin. It was fine when the fridge was located where it open directly across from the island but then we changed the location to the end of a counter run. Now the left door pretty much needs closing before placing things from the fridge onto that counter. The island is still close by but I'd rather not have the door be a hinderance to the counter.

I have a feeling we'll be looking at new refrigerators in the near future.

hoping for more tips!

One more bump :o)

One more bump :o)

Bump

I have a grill on my current range top. It's an old Jennair so it's a cartridge and you can replace it with 2 burners. I always leave the burners in and never use the grill. It is just too hard to clean and creates too much smoke. I would rather go out in the cold and use the Big Green Egg than stay in the house and grill on that Jennair with the cleanup it entails. My next rangetop will be all burners or may-be a griddle -- no grill.

Great thread. Hope the ideas keep coming.

I just had to have the carousel in the lower corner cabinet and don,t use it since I have a large pantry. If we were staying here I would remove it so I could slide big idems in there. The other thing I did wrong was we put the plugin outlets in the bottom of the upper cabinets instead of on the backsplash. Its a pain to have to lean forward and bed over to look under the cabinet to plug something in , and the cords are impossible to hide.

Custom cabinets by xxxx custom cabinets. Yes girls and boys.. they are coming out. Here in downtown Soddy Daisy TN 19 miles north of Chattanooga. Getting a custom cabinet man here was a night mare. Tomorrow the man is going to put my check on the table and take the &%##&^ beautiful Shaker Cherry Custom Cabinets that developed a white haze all over them back to his shop.I checked this guy out up one side and down the other also. BBB and all. Now I am going to look for SECONDS and put them up myself. I will distress them paint them with every kind of stain and sand them with 60 grit.,rub chain over them and hammmer them till they look like hell. ARGHHHHHHH. Maybe I Won't have cabinets at all.

Hi, y'all.

I've had both a slide in range and the "standard" kind... and with my current kitchen project I'm going back to the slide in kind. (This is the kind with no backsplash, where all the controls are on the front). It's more money, for sure, but I think it looks SO much nicer and I don't have to reach over pots of boiling water or spitting oil to adjust the burner temps.

I should say I have had very small kitchens so I always opt for glass (sealed surface) ranges b/c they double as counter space when not in use. Maybe someday I'll have a big ole kitchen with a gas range... next lifetime??

The grill on our BlueStar 48" RNB Range. It is very difficult to keep clean if you cook a lot. It does not get hot enough to sear steaks. The gas oven has also been inconsistent and is diffcult to bake in and above 400 degrees the handles get to hot to touch. But I should also add that the six burners are great. The two SuperNova's really crank out the BTU's!

Everything else in our 4 yo kitchen is great. SZ's, WD, huge Herbeau farmhouse sink, 2 Miele Incognitos, limestone tops, only two glass paneled uppers for display, under and over cabinet lighting, and panels on everything except stove and MW. I used this forum a ton when we were building to help make the decisions. In fact I came back to lookup our garbage/recycling bin cabinet with the foot pedal. We have the Double Waste Bins from Hafele. After four years of heavy use (I mean torture) the kick pedal broke on Christmas. $57.42 to replace it is so worth it!

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I my first designed kitchen I had roll out shelves,the second time I put in deep drawers instead...and this time I'll stick with the drawers. They worked well even the 36" ones,and weight was not an issue. I stored my Le Creuset in a 27" one under the ovens with no trouble.Both are so incredibly better than cupboards but my vote goes for the drawers.
Now that I have a second oven I'd never go back...and I gave up a Gaggenau for 2 27" ovens [Thermador]....but in the post fire rebuild I'm thinking of replacing those with a 24" Miele speed oven and the 27"classic [cheaper if that's not an oxymoron with Miele] Miele wall oven....The thermador ovens were "fine" but not raveworthy.
I've never missed not having an icemaker fridge.
My induction cooktop would be worth worth giving up a Hawaaii holiday for.
Our windows go right down to the kitchen counter and were wellworth it to appreciate our outside view.
I've never missed having a wine fridge even though I drink too much wine.
I like having a counter depth fridge [F-P basic].
....In fact I can't wait till I get my kitchen back...about four months left to go!

-Prep sink. This may be useful in a multi-cook household or a huge kitchen, but I hardly ever used the one I had and it was just once more thing to clean.

-Garbage disposal. My worms do a much better job, don't take up electricity and never smell or require cleaning.

-Fancy multi-function toaster, oven, rotisserie, pizza, etc. Does nothing well.

-Trash can with a motion sensor. Everyone I know who has one has them break in under a year. Mine only took 4 months to break. A foot pedal is much more reliable and a lot cheaper to replace.

-Stainless steel sink. What a pain to clean. You can call it patina, butafter a while they don't look clean no matter what you do. (The one in my apartment right now looks positively foul no matter how much Barkeeper's Friend you use.) Of course cast iron will eventually chip and I don't know if the granite composite sinks will stand the test of time

-Range-top grill. Only pay for these if you have a bodacious vent system and no way to have an outdoor grill. They are better than the George Foreman-like grills but not a patch on a decent outdoor gas grill or charcoal.

----

As for sink tip-outs... since discovering them I have knocked the front panel off every sink in every home I've rented or owned and installed these. In the bathroom they are perfect for the tweezers and nail files and such. In the kitchen, the sponges, scrubbers, stoppers and the toothbrush you use for cleaning around the faucet plate are neatly hidden away but close at hand. Love 'em!

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Bump!!

This is such a great thread and has been so useful to me as I plan out kitchen

[Note: Have only lived in new kitchen for 2 months.] Now that I have two sets of same-sized cabinets adjacent to range...I am thinking about how I should have not worried about that look and done a different configuration that would have put two single large cupboards next to range and two smaller ones farther out. I was too hung up on the idea that this end of the room needed to feel like the other end of the room.

Now that I have four openable windows on the same side of the room, I think I could have saved money by having the middle two be unopenable ones, perhaps a large single window.

Now that I have an oak kitchen floor and a tiled lobby floor, I wish I had pursued the option of doing cork to see how it would have compared in cost and in comfort. I have a flare-up of plantar fasciatis right now and the floors are a problem for me, even with special shoes and shoe orthotics. (I am glad that I put in all those breadboards so that I can sit to work, although I'm beginning to wonder if I should have had all 4 be large sized instead of 3 that aren't.)

stainless steel appliances--I KNOW I could have lived without them.

Bump.

you mean a tip-out?

Please don't bump old threads like this one. By bumping this thread, someone who needs help right now has been bumped off the first page. This thread is linked to in the "Read Me" thread.

If you have a question, then please start your own thread. See the "Read Me" thread for more information. (Plus, if you want help, most people will pass it by b/c it's an old thread and we've had issues with Pros bumping old threads to just draw attention to themselves. I only checked it b/c it's not a typical thread and I wondered who was bumping it.)

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New to Kitchens? Read Me First!

• https://www.houzz.com/discussions/new-to-kitchens-read-me-first-dsvw-vd~5500754