<p>My in laws have a trash compacter that was installed in the late 70s, as far as I know, it is the only one I have ever seen in use.</p>
<p>I absolutely HAD to have a trash compactor when we built our house. When it was still a novelty, we used it all the time. Over the last few years, I only use it when we have parties or large gatherings. I should swap it out for a wine fridge. Or maybe with another new gadget that I haven’t heard of yet!</p>
<p>Along those lines, does anyone have a warming drawer? </p>
<p>It sounds so cozy and useful. But I’m sure if I had one I’d try to use it for a dinner party then accidentally leave a side dish in there. 6 months later we’d pull it open for the next dinner party and discover that long-forgotten dish of au gratin potatoes. :eek: 
eww.</p>
<p>We had a trash compactor. Inherited it from previous owners. Did NOT work and we left it there doing nothing for quite a while. UGLY! When we updated our kitchen, we had to decide between replacing it with a wine fridge or a pull out trash cabinet. We went with the trash cabinet. It fits one general trash can and another for recycling. Keeps ALL away from the dog. Much better. </p>
<p>We have a warming drawer. I use it rarely. Haven’t forgotten anything yet. What I DO love about my new range is the power burner. Makes great stir fries and seared fish/meat/scallops. Also has a warming burner for things like melting chocolate. And a convection oven which I generally love but won’t EVER use for a turkey again. Dry turkey…bone dry…two years in a row. No thanks.</p>
<p>I love my trash compactor. It is not noticeable. It has the same wood front as our cabinets. I find it holds the entire week of kitchen trash for the week. The afternoon before trash day I just remove it and put it in the container provided by the garbage company.One bag. It is nice to not have to deal with the trash can under the sink. We do have a trash can for recyling under our island sink and it fills up fairly quick and it is a pain to get anyone to empty it.
My inlaws have a warming drawer. They use it rarely. I think they sometimes use it to warm the plates if they are having a dinner party.</p>
<p>I have a warming drawer. The builder had to put one in, since his wife loved hers (and since I was about the same size and height as his wife and I was also the cook in the family, the builder went with his wife’s preferences for appliances and cabinet heights, etc.). At first I rolled my eyes and thought, “Whatever!” but later I discovered that this was a must have kitchen applicance, especially for us! The drawer keeps food moist at just the right temperature ready to be served when the time comes! No comaprison to dry oveheated food after nuking it in mw - bleh. Convection oven - I do not think I ever used it in that mode.</p>
<p>toneranger - I have a pull-out trashcan, too. Super convenient! And the cats cannot get into it. I saw it at the cabinet store when we were picking our cabinets and had to have one. The builder said he would put one in for his wife :)</p>
<p>PackMom, your house sounds wonderful, enjoy. Building a house is a great dream of mine that will probably never come true.</p>
<p>Same here with the convection oven. I think I have used it once in 10 years. Not worth the extra $$$$.</p>
<p>Packmom, don’t forget to put at least 2 outlets in your screen porch. We also put a ceiling fan in ours…silly, but on really hot days it makes a huge difference.</p>
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<p>I have noticed on HGTV that they always remove the ceiling fans and replace them with lovely light fixtures.</p>
<p>I live in Texas. I’m also starting to have night sweats. NOBODY touches my ceiling fans!</p>
<p>thank you so much cangel. It’s a pretty simple house, less than 1700 sq. ft. Now that the kids are gone, we want to simplify our life. We are moving back to the area we grew up in. Life is simpler and less hurried there. We will be ten miles from the nearest grocery store! DH has declared that the new house will not have one sprig of grass because he is tired of spending half of every weekend doing yard maintenance!</p>
<p>We bought the lot (or rather, started paying for the lot) in 1999. Our kids were 12 and 9 at the time. We finally paid it off and were able to start the building process.<br>
I still can’t quite believe we’ve taken this leap of faith. We’ll spend as many weekends, vacations, holidays there (four hours away) as we possibly can for another year and a half until DH retires and we move permanently. </p>
<p>I really never thought it would happen. I hope it might happen for you someday too.
If you’d like to see the area go to youtube and search for “the inner banks”, then look for ibxlifestyles.</p>
<p>Kajon…yes, we have four outlets and two ceiling fans on the porch. DH couldn’t sleep a wink in the summer without the ceiling fan whirring over the bed.</p>
<p>DB- we have a wine fridge area and during holidays I use it for flat dishes (9x13 glass pans, etc), One year we had a power outage at Tgiving that lasted 5 days and in the flurry to keep food good and deal with the power & company at the house, etc(frozen food in the snow on the deck, fridge food in the garage) I forgot all about the wine fridge and we had some inch high growing fur on one item…yum, at least we discovered it within the week!</p>
<p>There’s a warming drawer in my very unfancy stove. It’s full of pots and pans and I’ve never used it. There’s also a warming space between the burners on top of the stove which I use frequently though it’s not big enough for many of my dishes.</p>
<p>Just a note on convection ovens. I think they are absolutely fabulous for certain things. I can roast veggies and potatoes in record time. Pork tenderloin and roasted chicken ( I cut it in half) come out juicy and crispy…and take much less time than usual. I’m hooked. </p>
<p>Packmom…your place sounds cool. Have you met your neighbors? We have a very modest second home in a remote mountainous area. We use it and vacation rent it now. Very quiet. Big screened in porch with a hot tub (and a ceiling fan!) Ten miles to a supermarket. I often wonder if I could live there full time…would it get TOO quiet after a while?? Not sure. In any case, it’s a wonderful retreat right now. But very “cabin” like…no stainless steel or granite to be found!</p>
<p>Packmom (#48),
It sounds so comfortable and welcoming! (When shall I plan to visit?)
~mafool</p>
<p>Reading this thread reminded me of my mom’s kitchen makeover circa 1964. We lived in an apt. in NYC so the kitchen was galley-style. Looking back, I would LOVE to have this kitchen now. Hardwood floors, plainfront cherry cabinets, stainless cooktop, stainless fridge, sink, DW with stainless double wall oven. Cabinets floor to ceiling with all sorts of exceptionally cool cabinet stuff going on. Feeding the 9 of us, I guess she wanted top-drawer stuff.</p>
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<p>We live in a house built in 1923. Cherry cabinets seemed to work with the rest of the house. Comments?</p>
<p>Like Toneranger I use my convection oven all the time. My oven has the option for convection, convection bake or bake. It cooks more evenly and in less time. There are only a few foods I don’t use it on. Self rising frozen pizzas and brownies.
I first discovered the joy of convection when I was the bake sale chairperson back when my oldest was in elementary school. I can cook 4 tins of cupcakes at the same time and they all come out baked evenly and in much less time.</p>
<p>toneranger, yes we have met a few neighbors, all of them from oos (FL,MD,PA,CT).
Like you, I wondered about being so far out but find the more I am there, the shorter the distance to “stuff” becomes. Just a few miles beyond my 10 mile gro. store is a nice little town of 10,000. If I go an extra 20 minutes beyond that town, I’m in a city of 70,000 that is home to a state university with 25,000 students.<br>
I hope we’re going to love it. I think we will.</p>
<p>mafool, I think cherry cabinets are pretty. My neighbor just re-did her kitchen and chose cherry cabinets that look great. And you are welcome to come visit anytime you’re passing through:)</p>
<p>I think it’s silly to worry about whether cherry is in style or not. It’s gorgeous, and in general will look good in an older house. (It will look good in a new one too.)</p>
<p>Dang! I didn’t even know ceiling fans were “out”. We have them in all the bedrooms, the open foyer ceiling (28x13’ room open to 2nd story–what a stupid fad my H fell for there–I just see the heat $$ going up) and porch. We use them all except the porch one, and that’s because it’s very windy where we live.</p>
<p>We re-did the kitchen 3 years ago and I got the trash pull-out bin. Love it. Hated that trashcan being out in the open. Got rid of the garage disposer. Hated that thing too. The only thing I ever successfully ground up was silverware.</p>
<p>Went with darker red oak, stained and glazed cabinets with inset drawers and faces, more the “furniture” look. I did like my honey color of previous cabinets, but they were builder grade, Merillat junk after 10 years. </p>
<p>Gray flecked quartz counters–they hide everything, but I’m not happy with their look and should have gone granite. I really wanted marble, but see it was probably good I didn’t. Gray laminate slate-looking floor. Again, hides everything, but the kitchen is waaay too dark. I wanted a white kitchen, but H said no way was he paying $$$$ to cover up cabinets with paint.</p>