<p>Igloo,
I was astounded by our cabinet prices. We chose the lowest line of 3 lines our kitchen designer carried. Had we gone up a line it would have been 15% more, and if we chose the "best " line it would have been 15% on top of that. Wood boxes as opposed to MDF add 10%, custom paint color as opposed to standard add 15%. We worked very hard to use stocked sizes because anything custom drove the price up. If you are adding any details like Enkenbolls that adds up.I had to have glass doors with X mullions on some doors and paid handsomely for them. We also have high ceilings so I have tall cabinets which added to the cost. Had I gotten everything it would have pushed the cabinets alone to close to 6 figures.</p>
<p>Yes, I am adding a few electric outlets, gas line will be moved about 6 feet. Water line stays as it is. And yes, we need a new countertop. The cabinet is about 60 years old. I don’t think refacing will do the trick anymore.</p>
<p>Cabinets alone was about 30K and demolition wasn’t cheap, either.</p>
<p>Can you and DH (and maybe a few college-aged kiddos) do the demolition yourselves?</p>
<p>i have a headache from shopping appliances. It started with dishwasher. The Bosch has smaller interior space, and tins very close, and it lacks the solid food disposal. Perhaps these were very low end? Then we spoke of replacing the old frig and range. I was drawn to the LGs. I bake a lot, so salesman suggested convection oven. My g/f said she didn’t find it so easy to learn to convert degrees and time. I was surprised the Samsung stainless steel still shows fingerprints. The LG is more of a mat finish.</p>
<p>I’m curious what others chose.</p>
<p>Bookworm, my bosch has the food disposal so possibly you looked at lower end model. Are you planning on buying them with your contractors discount? It made a big difference in the price we paid for appliances when we did our kitchen remodel.</p>
<p>I chose KitchenAid DW, double ovens and refrigerator. I love the diswasher, but the double ovens take (IMO) too long to preheat, and after they are turned off they run a fan – which is fairly noisy – for around 45 minutes. The ovens are noisier than the DW, which I find odd.</p>
<p>Bosch now do not have the food grinder. They have a little screen filter that you empty and rinse out as needed. If you are in the habit of putting solid food in your dishwasher, get something besides the Bosch. We scrape our plates and have rinsed the screen filter out once time…to be honest, there was nothing in it.</p>
<p>The Bosch I have is not the bottom of the line. Maybe their $1000 model has a grinder…but when I asked, I was told NO to the grinder and to heated drying with the Bosch.</p>
<p>I should add…I love my Bosch. Supposedly it has a smaller interior than my old Maytag, but I can fit more dishes in it…and they all come out cleaner.</p>
<p>Our second choice was a Kitchenaid which has both grinder and heated drying.</p>
<p>^ If mine doesn’t it hasn’t made a difference. I never scrap anything before putting in the dw.</p>
<p>^^^Yes, I bought the top of the line Bosch recently - no food disposal. But it takes seconds to clean the filter and there’s never been anything on mine anyway, since I scrape and do a light rinse. If you don’t scrape at all, you are supposed to check the filter every month. If you scrape or scrape and rinse, you supposedly only need to do it once or twice a year. </p>
<p>Kitchenaid top of the line does have a food disposal if that is important to you. I think it’s also a little larger. A note though, if you have or want inset cabinets, the European models will fit flush, unlike the American models. </p>
<p>Many of the newer ovens, including mine, do have a long preheat time. The larger the oven, the longer it takes to preheat. Also, a hidden or built in heating element takes longer to heat than an oven with an exposed element. The difference is probably not as much as you think, though - my old oven probably took much longer to stabilize temperature all the way to the center than it did to “preheat.”</p>
<p>Using the convection feature couldn’t be easier on mine. Turn on convection feature. Take any recipe and either subtract 25 degrees or subtract 10% of the cooking time. That’s it!</p>
<p>My new range has that hidden lower oven element. Makes wiping things up very easy!</p>
<p>l am listening. When you bought the Bosch, did you buy one with controls hidden or in front? Did you buy stainless steel or white? Does anyone buy bisque anymore? That would go nicely with wood cabinets.</p>
<p>The salesman spent time explaining the value of the hidden oven elements. I replaced the element in my OLD oven a few months ago, after it burned up. Fortunately, my s/o arrived just in time to use the fire extinguisher. The stove is so old I clean it by hand, and clearly did not get all the drippings off the element.</p>
<p>I barely use my double oven now, so not sure it is worthwhile. </p>
<p>No contractor; I was just going to replace d/w, but everything is 20+ years old.</p>
<p>Controls are hidden - there is a panel that matches the cabinets so that the DW looks integrated. However, in your case I’d go for stainless over white, unless everything else in the kitchen were white. I use Signature stainless polish on my range and wall ovens - it cleans streak free and seems to really minimize the smudge factor.</p>
<p>My controls are hidden. There is a beam of light that shines on the floor that lets me know the dishwasher is running. It is very quiet.</p>
<p>I got white. We have bisque in one of our bathrooms and I really hate it. It looks like a dingy white. I think the Bosch I got came in white, black or stainless…no bisque.</p>
<p>Our Bosch has food disposal as well. Try to look at additional models - I love our Bosch dishwasher. I also love to bake and suggest Thermador oven with convection. Mine has worked extremely well.</p>
<p>According to a Google search…since November 2009, Bosch has not had a hard food grinder/disposer in its dishwashers. Perhaps those who have this have models made before November 2009. When I was dishwasher shopping this past November, I thought the sales folks said that none of the current Bosch dishwashers have the grinder/disposer.</p>
<p>Any experience with painting cabinets? We’re thinking of bumping a wall, changing the layout and enlarging the kitchen slightly. Since the existing cabinets are in good shape, can we just have them painted?</p>
<p>" ut it takes seconds to clean the filter and there’s never been anything on mine anyway, since I scrape and do a light rinse." - This is why I’ve repaired (2x) our adored 1993 Whirlpool DW over the years - $120 each time. </p>
<p>We scrape the big stuff off dishesm, but we rarely rinse. Even a yukky 9x13 lasagna dish will come out clean. It would kill me to splurge for a new high end unit and then need to fuss with rinsing and/or cleaning the filter. The new units probably do use less water (a good thing these days), but net savings is less after you include rinsing water.</p>
<p>We had our cabinets painted once. Worked great. The guy who was remodeling had a spary paint or lacquer(?) paint. He took the cabinets somewhere to paint. Whatever he did, it was a great job, no brush marks and paint adhered to the surface well.</p>
<p>“According to a Google search…since November 2009, Bosch has not had a hard food grinder/disposer in its dishwashers.”</p>
<p>Ahh…we remodeled in 2007 so that must be it. </p>
<p>I also love my bosch range. It has convection, too, but I’ve never used it.</p>
<p>I have a range w/ the lower element hidden for easy clean up. My complaint with it is that it seems to take a LOT longer to preheat that my old range with the exposed element.</p>