I didn’t notice the scratch through the Thermador name - that’s a no go for selling the house. I’ll keep looking
I agree that I prefer brand name appliances that look nice together. It doesn’t have to all be the same brand but I don’t want some generic or no name brand.
That said, when we bought our home at full list price it had an awful avocado-colored washer and dryer, complete with coin slot you were supposed to feed. The seller specified that they and the yellow fridge did NOT come with the house. We replaced with new white appliances–GE fridge and Maytag washer and dryer ( the latter two are still working nearly 3 decades later). Obviously, we were not too put off by the ugly appliances that weren’t even included with the house.
I have to say that I do agree on the name brand appliance issue.
But my kitchen preferences are generally out of range for these flips, so I hesitate to mention them. I’m happy that you are again going with gas and a real hood. 
“Isn’t the expectation in a million dollar house to have name-brand appliances?”
LOL, it depends where the $1M house is! In certain areas, buyers would be lucky to get a house with a kitchen. Just kidding. I do agree that cb needs to go with a brand name appliance, but a scratch through the name… no way. The Costco cooktop looks very elegant though.
In HI, there are 7 figure tear downs for sale–I kid you not. It’s location, location, location, as well as supply and demand.
Where I am too. There was a $2.5 million teardown recently. It did have a direct water view, but still.
I was curious what a new Thermador 30-inch cooktop would cost so I found this on Amazon:
Click on the first one, then click on the “2 new” to see the prices. I was amazed at one price – $3,500!!! While the other price is $1650?? That makes no sense at all.
So I looked up my receipts from when I did my kitchen three years ago, and my 36-inch Thermador gas cooktop was only $1400. I don’t get it.
I found the reviews for that Thermador very interesting. VeryHappy, do you have any of the staining issues with your
What I have is discoloration around the curves in the “stars” of the burners. The curves make it impossible to adequately clean. I’ve used Bonami, recommended by Thermador because it doesn’t scratch, but it’s well-neigh impossible to get into those curves. So the curves are stained with a kind of coffee-colored tone and it doesn’t look brand new anymore. That said, unless you’re really studying the cooktop, you don’t notice it.
Would any of these work?
http://www.overstock.com/search?keywords=30+inch+gas+cooktop&SearchType=Header
The reviews for the Thermador star shaped burners all say that it is hard to clean around the star shape.
But, we have to remember… buyers are emotional and go for the looks. I’ve never had a buyer walk away from a house because they read reviews somewhere about one certain model of cooktop. We might get more buyers if the whole kitchen was Viking or Thermador or Sub Zero or something and my renovation budget allowed for it - but that is really high end around here.
Believe it or not a $1 million price tag is slightly above average around here. A lot of the million dollar homes are still in original condition - none of them are high end with Viking appliances. It’s all about location and views around here. Here are some links to the houses for sale in same square foot and price range and you can see what I mean
Interesting… renovated by a flipper, fancy stove but kitchen is not that great, on busy street. Their price is too high. They bought in 9/2014 and just now bringing to market - not an impressive turn around. For some reason, new photos and listing not showing up in Zillow yet. 11 days on market
2980 Chatsworth, 92106
Another flip in same size and view range. I know these guys… they have absolutely no imagination when designing kitchens, bathrooms or anything. Boring kitchen with cheap cabinets and regular appliances. On market for about 25 days and not showing up in Zillow for some reason. This guy has same thing he says in every listing “Over $100k spent in renovations” Baloney
3330 Lowell, 92106
Here is the only one for sale that I can find that has high end appliances. This house has the kiss of death… steep stairs up to house (boy, am I familiar with that situation!) Lower end location, but nice photos and staging
http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/condo,apartment_duplex,mobile,land_type/17061525_zpid/32.74285,-117.208694,32.722743,-117.246888_rect/14_zm/1_sch/0_mmm/1_rs/?view=map
On this one, most of the photos are highlighting the one redeeming feature in the kitchen - huge fancy stove
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3718-Narragansett-Ave-San-Diego-CA-92107/16964395_zpid/
Cheap kitchen, only one photo
http://www.zillow.com/homes/3782-milan-92107_rb/
Original kitchen, bad location
http://www.zillow.com/homes/4201-Newport-Ave-Point-Loma-Heights-San-Diego-CA-92107_rb/
And, look at kitchen in this house being sold for $975,000. No view, directly under flight path but great curb appeal
http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/condo,apartment_duplex,mobile,land_type/16967677_zpid/32.751766,-117.196248,32.73166,-117.234443_rect/14_zm/1_sch/0_mmm/1_rs/?view=map
Prices on the Overstock items are a little too high for the product. But I find it interesting that the same Costco / Ancona/ Fager / now called Cosmo cooktop is on that page. They must rebrand that cooktop a lot!
Most of the houses you linked to are dated in some way or other. Your house will be updated and modern throughout.
Yes, you need a high-end name brand cooktop. Have you checked out Dacor? Theirs are very nice.
Thank you … could not remember which house it was so I just edited and removed that link
And I just edited and removed my comment.
Dang… I was trying to illustrate how ANY cooktop I put in there would be better than the competition houses. But, I will keep looking. I might get lucky and find just the right thing in the budget. I need to be careful because exterior landscape, curb appeal, retaining wall and outside patio are going to cost a lot more money than I originally budgeted.
What about this? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dacor-PGM365-Stainless-Steel-Gas-NG-Cooktop-/331611578074?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d35971eda
BUDGET UPDATE
Well, just moving along at high speed spending way too much money But this new figure includes all of the new hardwood flooring which was delivered last week and is sitting inside the house getting ‘acclimated’. Good luck, we are having the freakiest weather ever in San Diego, extremely hot and high humidity. The raw wood is probably expanding by the inch every day and then will get installed and shrink as soon as we get back to our normal low humidity. I am probably going to have to wait until weather clears up before we can install.
Also includes final purchase of most of the kitchen cabinet items. Seems like every time I go back to IKEA it’s another $1,600 to pick up a bunch of boxes.
I made the decision to spend a lot of money (not in the budget) to build a really good retaining wall at top of back yard in order to give us a nice 6 ft flat area. We could only get 6 ft out to keep the retaining wall under the 36" no permit needed limit. But we discovered that the slope is very steep right at the back of the house at about 45 degrees, but them it flattens out a bit, well relatively speaking, to about 20 to 25 degree slope. There is a lot of land down there but I have never even walked down there because I would need two guys helping me to fall down that slope.
The retaining wall is going to give us the appearance of some sort of patio area off the back of the house for the French Door exit, AND I just could not imagine how we were going to erect any scaffolding on 45 degree loose dirt for painting the back of the house or trying to get up to top deck and install new railing! So I did it partly for safety reasons.
SPENT TO DATE: $46,850
Estimate to Complete - Not ready yet because I still have to pull off cage and meet with landscape guy to figure out what we are going to do for curb appeal and bottom patio. Also, I cannot find a plumber to do the sewage sump thing downstairs. First estimate $5,500 which is ridiculous!!! Second guy was really nice but now says he is too swamped to do the project in the next 2-3 weeks so I have to start looking again.
The Dacor is very interesting, but it is used 9 years old and it is 36" wide. Looks like it is in excellent condition for 9 years old! There are some scratches on the front lip. I hesitate to put in anything Used because it doesn’t come with a warranty. I prefer to offer full warranty on all big ticket items for my buyers. In fact, I usually refuse to pay for a Home Warranty (for a long list of reasons) because everything is brand new and still under manufacturer warranty.
I personally think that Home Warranties are a slight scam, but that is just one person’s opinion. Most of the time, if it becomes a sticking point I will give in or one of the agents will kick in and buy it. But, there has only been 3 cases in all 17 houses I sold where a buyer tried to get something fixed. In two of the cases I went back and fixed it for free because I felt an obligation - and the Home Warranty company either refused to fix it or were incapable of fixing it. Third one was the ‘paint peeling’ debacle which I am sure the Home Warranty company (because, believe me, that guy insisted on a Home Warranty) was not going to address.
Coralbrook, I imagine anyone walking into this house will immediately notice the sleek, contemporary and sophisticated interior design. Then people will see the fantastic view from the balcony. Then going downstairs, they are going to be struck by the incredible additional living space (another wow factor) and its opening to the outside patio.
IMO, the landscaping should provide a “clean” and direct approach (to appeal to the older set) and emphasize drought-tolerant xeriscape plantings that require minimal upkeep. Zen.