@mathmom bad ceilings make me crazy too. My husband and I surf zillow for fun sometimes and he’ll go “oh, no, swirly popcorn ceiling, that’s out” because he knows I hate them so much. If I can reach up and touch a ceiling (I can with an 8 foot) that’s out, too. I can live with other house weirdness, but not bad ceilings-like yesterday we saw a house with glossy lime green kitchen cabinets. I was like 'well, they’re wacky, but I could live with that."
Our ceilings are 8’-7". I’m always surprised at how much difference those few inches make. Green cabinets you can always paint. But dealing with popcorn is troublesome. Our ceilings were such a mess we took everything down and just started all over.
Calcimine, here. I could deal with popcorn. We ended up re-drywalling those ceilings. If anyone doesn’t know, calcimine was a sort of quick fix 50-75+ years ago and modern paints don’t adhere, so you get massive flaking. Unlike tackling popcorn, it’s nearly impossible to scrape.
Our former kitchen cabinets were old metal, bandaid-colored, Sears delights. I did paint them, before we could redo.
We moved in before any renovations- and spent the first months figuring out who to have do the work. Living with H was/is more important than the ceilings, I pushed on other projects. Most of the time I don’t pay attention to the ceilings. Compromises.
Our house has a mix of 7’ bathrooms, other 8’ plus some vaulted in our one story house. We got rid of the 7’ high kitchen ceiling with its tube lighting. Having closer bathroom ceilings isn’t bothersome as one is using the facilities, not enjoying them the way one does other rooms. When we were house hunting I thought having high ceilings would be great. However, having some mildly soaring ceilings makes a huge difference and we are not cooling the extra space. This house has turned out to be great for us. Can’t get the pond/woods views, overall layout that works for us as empty nesters. Having had a vaulted ceiling and two story foyer in our other house I appreciate the sense of space height gives. Sitting in a room with 8’ ceilings at my desk I don’t see how 9 or 10 foot ceilings would enhance the bedroom/study spaces. Even in the master bedroom. I guess we go more for comfort than grandness. So what if I hit a ceiling fan if I fling the bedspread too high…
Back to kitchens. I am so glad our cabinets were in poor enough shape and design (half shelves in the lower ones) that it was a no brainer to get rid of them instead of trying to reuse them. So many better options than when we built over twenty years ago. And I’m a more experienced kitchen user.
Drawers next to the stove instead of cabinets. Who knew how much easier it is to get at pots and pans, and that they do fit the height? Part of me wishes I had spent the extra money for 42" instead of 36" cabinets although we do not need the space. The top shelves would need a step stool but there would have been an extra 6" to store taller things… I sometimes need to remind myself I have other places that are empty I can use and how inconvenient the short (12") cabinets above the sink (open to the family room) were.
Spent too much time debating some items. Discovered 8" deep sinks are fine since the granite adds the extra inch for depth. Glad I did not get soap dispensers- grungy unless emptied and cleaned every so often. Flexibility for when I change how I want things. Rounded corners on counters! Will never forget when 6 year old son clipped his head on a neighbor’s Formica island corner- head wounds bleed a lot and are a mess to clean up, even if its just a little blood (of course he shouldn’t have been running through their kitchen but- young boys do a lot of things).
This thread has me thinking. More changes and possible divorce court. Hmmm…
Last (for now) word- howcum they always come up with the things you really wanted after you had the work done??? NOW I see the floor tile I would have liked…
^ After you had the work done? Ha, there’s an adage that the worst decision makers are kitchen designers doing their own. They know too much about the choices and trends.
I like my soap dispenser. What I did learn was that a higher faucet, (those tall, arched beauties,) can really splash back when you use them. Least fav thing? The flat top stove. Good idea, doesn’t hold its appearance.
^Too true. I love my tall faucet in my ginormous sink, but I also have a bar sink with a similar faucet that splashes like mad. And of course my son likes to sit right next to the smaller sink with his lap top…
The only cabinet doors in my kitchen are under the sink and to get to the corner lazy-susan. (Which I avoid if I can, but sometimes you can’t. This one is much better than the flimsey one in my old kitchen, but it still has a propensity to get unorganized.
Rather than a lazy susan I put one of these in my blind corner.
http://www.amazon.com/Rev-A-Shelf-5PSP-15-CR-Cabinet-Pull-Out-Organizer/dp/B005CXGL3A
I love it.
Would like to hear opinions on flat top stoves. I love the look and am going to be in the market for a new stove or cooktop and oven, but I have heard multiple complaints on keeping them clean. Hoping I do better on this kitchen remodel than the last. I always did learn things the hard way!
Those blind corner shelves are cool. I don’t like wire shelves in my kitchen and the version my cabinets came with was really pricey and held less stuff. Definitely an option though.
My parents had a flat top stove in a condo they used mostly for rentals. I thought it was much easier to clean than a standard stove. If you have to have electric and don’t want to buy new cookware for induction, I think they are a good choice.
Mater, that’s s huge price drop, they used to be over 2k for the ones in a corner with a folding door.
It’s easy to clean the flat top, you have to clean up sugar spills pronto to avoid pitting. Mine peels from the underside (looks like surface grunge. I had it replaced when still under warranty, but it’s coming back again.) Nothing can be done about that. If you get one, go for a black surface, to mask this.
I’m sure I will be in the minority…but I love my flattop stove. It’s very easy to keep clean. You just get Weimans or some other stove top cleaner. When mine cools off, I wipe it down with a sponge. It looks brand new.
It’s easy to cook on as well. I did need to get flat bottom pans…but that was fine. I was ready to ditch the farberware anyway.
We alsl LOVE our smoothtop electric range. Disclaimer - we are not gourment cooks. We use the stove for cooking sometimes, but we also use the microwave a lot. The stove makes a good landing spot for hot bowls from the microwave.
I had an old fashionoed electric coil range. That was a PAIN to keep clean. I have not had a gas range so can’t compare it.
We have had each kind of range, except induction. I guess the smooth-top is my favorite, though I don’t love how it looks like a counter but might be hot and can fool you. 
Definitely the easiest to clean, the most versatile at cooking, the “cleanest looking” in terms of aesthetic lines, and the most even at heating.
And, if relevant to any of you, the easiest to kosher-ize for Passover if you follow the majority rabbinical opinion allowing heating the burners and then pouring boiling water between the burners, to do the job.
Someone mentioned getting rid of Farberware, but we use Farberware pots all the time on the smoothtop; are we not supposed to do that? It seems to work fine, and no damage to either.
We do a lot of cooking, and it continues to look good (six years so far) except for one fading spot in the center of the most-used burner, not sure why.
Farberware isn’t completely flat on the bottom. Borrow someone’s flat on the bottom pan, and see how fast things cook…or how quickly water boils! Farberware works…but flat bottom pans work even better.
@thumper1 Thank you!
Huh. I always considered Farberware “flat bottom”…
I truly detest flat top stoves. (I haven’t had induction. That might be great, if you consider it a flat top.)
But I do a lot of heavy duty cooking: I use a wok frequently, I make big pots of chicken, fish, and beef stock, I make jams and jellies and chutneys and pickles, I make things like lemon and passion fruit curd. I need high heat and temperature control. Electric coils are better than flat tops, in my experience, if you can’t get gas…
I do use my cast iron skillet on the flat top’s large burners, which I think is a no-no. But you’re supposed to match the pot diameters to the burner size, not have a pot that overlaps or under-matches. (Very different than elec or gas, where the burner has some elevation.) The former can conduct heat outside the burner ring and the latter interferes with the sensors that regulate the heating. I want gas. We have gas from the curb, but shut off years ago, pipes cut off in the basement.
Thank you to everyone commenting on the flat top stoves. I love the look. I am bad at change and have always had gas, so that plays into my reluctance to make the leap. The wiring and gas are there, so I can go either way. I cook very little and simply. A two-burner stove would fulfill 90% of my needs 
I have an induction stovetop. It’s awesome. It heats up fast. Water boils within a few minutes. It’s easy to clean because it’s a flat top. Best of all, it does not get hot. so I can put things on the stove while cooking. Also, once you take the pan off the stove, the element doesn’t “work” so it’s hard to leave the stove on. The downside is of course you may need new cookware. We have cast-iron and enamel covered cast iron - they always work. We’ve had very good luck with cookware from IKEA, believe or not.