Exactly! We just moved into our new home this fall that we had custom built. The only thing I regret never asking about was the range hood. Man, I would have upgraded the range hood in a second, even out of pocket if necessary. Now I’m looking at having to have someone come out and install better one. It might have been OK if we never did anything more than “instant” food, but cooking chinese food, or my famous blackened chicken, that little fan ain’t enough.
We redid a kitchen about 8 years ago. Gutted it to the walls.
Electrical outlets. Put in all you think you need, then add a few more.
Drawers - Yep. I had 2 big ones for pans. We also went with seperate gas stove and oven. The stove was thin enough that we could put a shallow drawer right under it. Wonderful for all those spoons and spatulas.
Sink - we picked a 2-part sink, and made sure that one of the sides was big enough to lay a cookie pan down flat in it. Wonderful for cleaning/soaking large pans.
Stove-top - We went with gas, and picked a model that had removable grates on top that touched. That way you can slide a pan part way off the burner, and not have it be wobblie. Also, if you like stirfrying, consider looking for a stove that has 1 burner as a high output burner. It heats faster/hotter and is wonderful for a stirfry.
General lighting AND task lighting. - consider general overall lighting and tasklighting aimed at the spots you work in. I’m always casting shadows on my own work.
Everybody seems to want those 6-burner, heavy duty ranges! My question is why? They coat a fortune, use twice as much gas as a reguklar range, and you have to have special (thicker) pots and pans.
Unless you are cooking for 100 people, I just don’t see it!
I wish I hadn’t let my live-in girlfriend choose the colors. She moved out and I’m stuck with a girly kitchen. The moral of the story: Never let your wife or girlfriend make any decisions, ever.
I agree with you.
We remodeled the kitchen about 6 years ago and everything is holding up well. We did halogen lighting, granite countertops, maple Shaker cabinets, oak floor.
Canadiangirl, we have a few glass-doored cabinets for displaying pretty plates-- they look fine without becoming dirty.
I do not care for stainless steel–I’ve seen it get pretty scratched up.
My white porcelain is fine.
We did gas cooktop and electric oven (both Dacor) and have been very happy with both. For a quiet dishwasher I recommend the Asko; it can be on fullblast and my husband can hear the TV (adjacent) just fine.
We recently acquired a new refrigerator; it is the French door kind with the freezer at the bottom. Lots of storage space!Made by Life Is Good. (LG.)
IN continuation with this thread - I am ordering my kitchen on Wednesday!!! I am soooooo excited - bought dishwasher last night (“3” on the quiet scale), tall tubs, $547.00 Canadian for those who are interested…final measurements on Monday by kitchen people then order on Wednesday. Believe they are working on a six week schedule so, in six weeks, I will have a new kitchen.
dum, dum, da, da, da, do the happy dance.
I’m sure you are going to love your new kitchen! However, I feel compelled to proffer this public service announcement to save your future sanity: In six weeks you’ll probably be looking at a somewhat finished kitchen. Be prepared to tack on at least 50% - 100% more time than your builder is promising. You might get lucky and actually have them deliver on time, but in almost every experience I’ve had, I’ve found that even the best folks seem to run late.
It’s an abosolute mystery to me why contractors don’t just fess up in the beginning and appropriately manage everyone’s expectations. Maybe they are worried about losing the job to someone who lies, err - I mean, promises even more.
Do better research on flooring than we did. We had to have something nicer than vinyl due to the layout of the house (we’d have had 3 different types of flooring in a very small area). We wanted laminate flooring. They tore up the old flooring and determined that the subfloor had too many sags for that to work reliably (laminate isn’t nailed down, and would have flexed too much). So we had to get hardwood. Trouble was - this was after the cabinets went in. Hardwood really should go in before the cabinets (due to flooring thickness issues). So the results weren’t perfect.
Plus, for health reasons, we went with a prefinished hardwood (couldn’t handle the dust and fumes of install-then-finish flooring). Which I don’t like in a kitchen due to the chance for drips etc. to get between the boards.
We chose Corian counters and liked them quite a lot. I like the “coved” backsplash where the little vertical bit is physically joined to the countertop - no seams to caulk and collect crud. You can only get that with Corian (and other solid surface brands, I presume) and laminate; not with granite. Granite is lovely but I worried about the staining potential with acidic liquids etc. Yes, I’m a slob. You can also get neat accessories like switchplate covers and knobs that match the Corian.
Get the rollout shelves in the lower cabinets. If you have a corner area, make sure you have a lazy susan cabinet or other way of taking advantage of that corner storage area - our new house has a large volume of wasted cabinet space because of that.
Sink: I like the double sinks that are asymmetrical, one side larger than the other. Put the garbage disposal in the large side. That’s where you’ll be washing pots and pans, after all. Our contractor tried to talk us into putting it in the smaller side, he said most people preferred it. And in fact I know people who prefer it there. However my SIL let them put it in the smaller side, and now really regrets it.
The concept of an integral sink (you can get that with Corian) is interesting but I worried about if the sink became stained. We chose a stainless steel drop-in sink and were pleased. An undermounted sink is an interesting idea and I might do that next time.
Check into the soffit spaces above the upper cabinets. A lot of kitchens have basically blank walls above the cabinets, on top of them. Usually there are pipes and things running through some, but by no meals all, of the soffit space. We were able to turn part of that space into storage space, gaining a lot of extra storage space. At the cost of increased noise when someone in the bathroom just upstairs was showering or flushing the toilet, true, but that was only a small percentage of the day.
Make sure you have a good place to put a garbage can. Either an under-cabinet rollout, or a hole-in-the-countertop thing, or whatever. We didn’t have a good place for a garbage can even after our remodel. A larger space for that is nice, most cabinets thta have garbage can rollouts only have space for a really tiny can.
A broom closet is wonderful. Never had one of those in either of my kitchens. My mother’s house has a wonderful broom closet with room for vacuum cleaner etc.
Be careful with “full overlay” cabinets (Those are the ones where the door entirely covers the front of the “box”). If you’re in a tight corner, it can be difficult to open them fully (ours ran into a window frame in one place; the contractor had to set that cabinet in at a slight angle to get it to work). Also, with a full-height upper cabinet where the top goes all the way to the ceiling, the cabinet door can run into problems opening if the ceiling is at all irregular. I like the look of the full overlay, but we did have those problems.
I like drawer and cabinet pulls where it’s a closed loop rather than just a knob - i.e., screws into the cabinet at both ends rather than at a single point. Contractors don’t like to install those because they’re more work, however. Single-knob openers tend to get caught in pockets, which we learned the hard way.
If you have a stand mixer, they make special cabinets with liftable shelves (you open the door, and pull the shelf up and out). We opted to not get that because we don’t use our stand mixer all that often, but if we’d had the space to spare we might have gone for it anyway.
Gods, yes. I’ve never been in a kitchen that can properly accomodate a 13 gallon trash can. I’m probably going to fix up one of my sink cabinets to have a roll out or swing out small can.
Mama Zappa: Do you mean storage above the cabinets, or above and behind? I wonder if I can break into that space on mine, too?
Canadian girl: Yay on the happy dance and dishwasher! dances with you
I was going to post about not expecting it finished in 6 weeks, too. Seems like that is pretty universal. My husband used to work for a bunch of wankers that would get your kitchen ripped out in no time flat, then you wouldn’t see them for three months.
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dimmer switch for ceiling lighting. You can crank it up high when you need to see recipes and work in the kitchen, but put it lower for night or when you are eating. Also splurge for a better than average ceiling light/track system.
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dishwasher; pay the extra $100-200 for a QUIET dishwasher. Nothing worse than having to turn your tv volume to high while the dishwasher is on. There are actually some good models that are quiet(er) for not much more than the standard cheapee.
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if you have the room, a middle island is great. We bought one from Walmart, of all places, that is on wheels. You can put it in the center of the kitchen if it is a big production (holiday dinner prep) or scoot it off to the side during normal days.
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lots and lots of electrical plugs, and a good electrical system to handle it. Every gadget seems to need plugs and you will never say, "gee, I wish we had less plugs in the kitchen.)
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I agree with a good vent above the stove, but again…spend the extra and get a quiet version. The one we got with the house sounds like a jumbo jet taking off and we only turn it on if the smoke is too thick to see the top of the stove.
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we hate those “over the stove” microwaves, so we “hid” the microwave in the pantry. Considering you only use it for a few minutes, no need to have it sitting out like a centerpiece in the kitchen if you don’t have to.
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we have Pergo flooring in the kitchen. If you do get tile, make sure it is flat and not textured…otherwise you will forever be trying to get those bits of breadcrumbs out of the tiles.
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countertops - use whatever you want. We got two nice marble cutting boards we use to work on, or set hot pots on.
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good, small stereo/CD player. We have it hooked up and the speakers tucked away above the cabinets. When cooking, it is great to crank it up and get into the spirit of the activity…or just have background music when eating. A nice touch, but I guess not a priority.