<p>Writing this from a house without a kitchen for another few weeks. The new hardwood just got the second coat of poly yesterday and the cabinets arrive next week. If there weren’t a great prize at the end of the project, I would not subject myself to the war zone that currently exists on my first floor! </p>
<p>I loved using Pinterest to gather ideas. Looking at what I pinned made me realize that I wanted wood floors instead of tile and I’m thrilled with the decision. With just me here, I’m confident I can keep them in good condition.</p>
<p>I’m needing to buy a new microwave in the next few days, but don’t have to worry about placement since I’m keeping the same footprint for the cabinets and just changing some of them up (more drawers, some sliding shelves, etc.). However, I’ve looked at many pictures and watched many episodes of This Old House as they’ve put the microwave low in the island and I just don’t get it. I have relatively good eyes for my age wearing glasses only for reading things, but I just think it would be a hardship to lean over and to figure out what you are programming on a microwave below counter height. Just my opinion though…</p>
<p>Beyond microwave placement, I am debating other appliances, especially the range. I’d really like to come up with a design that allows me to replace the range down the road with minimal impact on surround counters and cabinets.</p>
<p>veryhappy–my SIL had a Sear’s brand Viking type stove and LOVED it. Her stove was a gas cooktop with an electric oven. It had a smaller side oven and a LARGE central oven. They used the smaller oven the most (big enough to hold a couple 9x 13 pans, cookie sheets, etc.), using a lot less electricity to heat but had the larger oven for turkey, etc. They could put a pretty good sized bird in a roaster, a pan of potatoes and a small other dish in that larger oven. They moved and couldn’t take that stove with them and she misses it dearly! I don’t know that the Viking brand is all that important but if you have room for something like that I don’t know that you would be disappointed.</p>
<p>Well, in an ideal world, I’m putting my house on the market in ten days, it will sell within a week, we’ll be moving to a smaller house a month after that, and I’ll be renovating the new kitchen during June.</p>
<p>Ha, ha, ha.</p>
<p>Seriously: The Sears-type of a Wolf oven sounds great.</p>
<p>^ Yes, I liked that description of how functional it is.</p>
<p>We once rented a little house with an O’Keefe and Merrit stove. It was very old. Gas. Worked beautifully. I was really fond of it. Sometimes I think of getting a renovated one. But it would take the right style of kitchen, sort of retro.</p>
<p>We have a wood burning stove, that is designed for cooking,not just for heat, in our basement. It is in great shape ( cosmetically anyway, haven’t checked out it further). I imagine it was the original kitchen stove. I toy with having it converted to gas, but then I would want a roundish small fridge to go with it. (thanks but I will pass on the icebox) ;)</p>
<p>I have a 48" Wolf dual fuel range with gas burners and electric ovens. I love it! I find it much easier to cook with gas because there is greater heat control. The only part of my range that I don’t use is the grill. You can choose how many burners you want and if you want a griddle or a grill included in the cooktop configuration. I opted for the grill because we live in the North and aren’t able to use the outside grill for much of the year. But it really isn’t very practical to grill inside – too much smoke and flareups.</p>
<p>Just finished a kitchen remodel. Our microwave is under the counter, and I’m not thrilled with it, but getting used to it. I’ve lived with the combo hood ones too, and I didn’t like that much either. If you can’t do eye level, it’s really pick your poison. </p>
<p>We put in a cork floors. It’s great.</p>
<p>We went from all electric to a dual fuel gas range. I would have loved a Wolf, but I got a GE Profile and it’s absolutely fine.</p>
<p>The kitchen in our new house includes a somewhat upgraded cabinet design that features a range hood above the stove instead of the microwave as in the standard layout for this particular neighborhood. The microwave is a freestanding one that goes on a shelf specifically designed for it below one of the cabinets to the left of the refrigerator. It is a couple of inches too high for me to see into conveniently but other than that I really like the location because it is convenient and out of the way at the same time. A great improvement over my old microwave taking up a large corner of the counter in my old house.</p>
<p>I am reasonably happy with our 30” GE Profile (gas), which is simply the newer version of the stove I used to have, but if I were spending money on a custom kitchen redo I think I’d pursue a 36” that gets good reviews–focusing on different burner sizes and a fifth burner (we have the former but not the latter). One thing I miss that we had more than thirty years ago in our first house was a double oven–one smallish and one large enough for a turkey. Lacking a second oven I have used my Breville toaster oven a few times to bake something with excellent results, but still, starting from scratch I’d go with two “real” ovens.</p>
<p>Yes, I think two 36" ovens provides the most flexibility. And I do want a gas cooktop. I grew up with gas but from my first apartment forward, it’s been electric. I much prefer gas.</p>
<p>As you can see from my link on the previous page, we opted for the wolf gas rangetop and the wolf double electric ovens. I have all electric in my current home so I am not used to gas but will weigh on on the high end appliances after the summer.</p>
<p>I have 2 48" Viking Ranges. Whether they are worth the bucks is all relative. They are expected in our RE Market.
One of my ranges is dual fuel with a grill, the other all gas with a griddle.
I like them both, but the dual fuel is superior for baking. I never use the grill or the griddle ever. I used to, but frankly the clean up just wasn’t worth it. We will remodel the kitchen next year and will replace the range with a gas range top and 2 wall ovens. (Anyone in the market for a 14year old Viking?) For certain I will get a cooktop with sealed burners. Nightly clean up on the open burners is a royal pain and a true cleaning of the stove is a production.
But cooking with gas is so superior to electric that I would hate to have to go to electric. Everytime I have to use electric, I burn something.</p>