Yet another kitchen remodel thread, combining CCs great minds...

Parent Cafe
81

<p>My new kitchen is all done, and I love it! The kitchen was gutted at the end of September, and it took a while to get everything completed (lots of dishes in the laundry tub - and thank heavens for the grill, crock pot, toaster oven, and leftover dorm microwave & fridge). Then it took me a long time to settle on window treatments, because I was also redoing the window treatment on a patio door in a the family room, which is on the same wall as the kitchen windows - I had four blind places out before someone finally showed me something that made sense, wasn’t ridiculously expensive, and that I liked. The final piece was the new kitchen table, which was hard to find - my kitchen is small, and I needed a small table to seat 4. I finally found that, and the room is simply awesome. What a difference it makes in MY outlook! In fact, I am sitting in the kitchen now, with the sun shining (although it’s only 20 degrees) - I’m just in a great mood. Truly, it was money well spent. </p>

<p>Of course, now the rest of the house looks so dated … I’ll have to recover from my tax bite before I can think about new furniture in the living room! :)</p>

82

<p>I got a smaple of walnut with oil finish yesterday. Absolutely gorgeous! Even if I have to reseal it once ina while, I am going with it. </p>

83

<p>I like those microwave drawers, I worry that they might end up being a fad and hard to replace, and right now I’m looking for places to save on my budget not spend more money!</p>

84

<p>The advantage of a microwave drawer is that it can make room for a double oven and you have a lot of flexibility with location. Disadvantages are they don’t allow taller items and hot liquids spill while opening and closing. </p>

85

<p>roshke, I haven’t had those problems with mine. For me, the positive was that I could fit a much larger micro-in-a-drawer than I would have been able to fit a counter-top or built-in micro, in the same space.</p>

86

<p>My kitchen remodel is finally finished, the last appliance was installed yesterday. Well, except for the backsplash, I decided to paint for the time being so I wasn’t rushed into making a decision. My favorite thing in my new kitchen is my microwave drawer. I have not had any problems with liquids spilling and I use it for coffee, tea, soups and sauces all the time.</p>

87

<p>For those who have a microwave drawer, would you get tired to bending down to take things in and out and checking on your food? I am at the age that I don’t want to bend down so much. My microwave now is at eye level and my next remodel I am debating whether I should keep it at eye level on a shelf.</p>

88

<p>My kitchen designer suggested an appliance garage for the microwave. It would sit on the countertop that’s a bit higher than a drawer. A microwave was never important to me. Not enough to waste a drawer space to it. I have a small kitchen.</p>

89

<p>I’ve never understood what’s so great about appliance garages. You just lose counter space. Counter space is even more important to me than drawer space! </p>

90

<p>Thought I would throw in my 2 cents. We built our home 21 years ago. Our original dishwasher was so terrific - including having a china setting (back then, high end at $1000, Swedish ASCO); however installer had looped the hoses (long story, but counter support had to be reworked because cabinet design support did not accommodate the 3 bowl Kohler ceramic sink, and they assumed I would just put in a two bowl sink) - and hoses were never adjusted, so dishwasher pump eventually wore out, and too much repair cost compared to risking other repairs. Replaced with a $800 Bosch which works great, but no china setting - with world water standards, it sanitizes. A lot of pressure was put on me to just put in a 2 bowl sink, but so glad I stuck to my guns, as I LOVE the three bowl sink.</p>

<p>Our GE double oven was built in (cherry cabinets). Well 10 plus years later, the electronic board could not accurately hold the temperature on the top oven which was also the self-cleaning, and no new board replacement available; GE did eventually get us a board schematic (DH is electrical engineer in contract electronics) but only was able to get it moderately working. We did not want to have to rebuild the cabinet, and it took a while, but eventually was able to find and buy a new GE double oven that fit in the spot perfectly (DH even installed!)</p>

<p>Our microwave has been in an open shelf, and the original space was pretty large. We are now 3 microwaves later - the width dimension has limited selection, but height is enough for us to store microwave covers (for food heating) above. It is a bit of a pain to sometimes put my big ceramic covered pot into the microwave (microwave is at eye level in cabinetry maybe 18 inches above counter top), but I cannot think of a better place even now. At time to sell, if one of those hinged cabinet covers is the going thing, we could get cabinet shop to do.</p>

<p>We have a slide out drawer for large kitchen trash can. It drives me crazy to see a new kitchen with a trash can sitting out because nothing was planned for trash.</p>

<p>Our refrigerator space is good (had cabinet above and beside with enough width and height for any refrigerator); however our island should have been a few inches farther from the frig (I will eventually replace current refrigerator which was a replacement from original, but lower refrigerator door cannot swing totally open because of drawer pulls on island - wasn’t a problem with original refrigerator). </p>

<p>Caveat for anyone pulling out refrigerator on wood floor - put down small strips to protect wood floor. We had wood floor re-installed (home water damage), and the trim guys damaged our new wood floor. Steam has helped lift some, but definite marks on floor.</p>

<p>Eventually when we plan to sell, we will upgrade Formica counters to the going material. Island is tile with special trim around cook-top; looks good still. </p>

<p>Good luck with everyone with kitchen projects.</p>

91

<p>mathmom, I don’t know what I’d do with the appliance garage yet. Maybe store a food processor and a toaster? I have a galley kitchen and the appliance garage shortens the 80" long countertop at the end… It looks more put together that way. My microwave is going on an open shelf…</p>

92

<p>My kitchen has an appliance garage. It is currently holding the Cuisinart and all of its bits and pieces, including a rack for various slicing discs and an extra lid, my spice grinder, my hand mixer, my electric juicer, a meat grinder, and my coffee grinder. I used to have a minichop in it also. Unfortunately, the stand mixer won’t fit in it. (Not high enough.) </p>

<p>If I ever get to redo the kitchen, I’ll have one of those cabinets for the stand mixer with a shelf that pops up to counter height, and some of those pull-out shelf drawers to accommodate the rest of the stuff. Might go for a second pop up thing for the Cuisinart. In the meantime, the appliance garage holds a lot of stuff neatly.</p>

93

<p>Cbreeze, with the microwave drawer, you really aren’t bending down like you would if it was a regular microwave that opens in the front.</p>

94

<p>I agree with fishymom. @cbreeze, first of all, I’m only five feet tall, so I don’t have to bend too far for much. Second, however, the drawer is right below the counter, so it’s not as if I have to squat to get things out of the micro-drawer. And because it’s completely open on the top, you can just reach right in and pick up your item. We like it very much.</p>

<p>BTW – when we designed our new kitchen, we included two trash drawers, each with two bins. We have “wet” garbage, recyclables, soda cans (we drink a lot), and “dry” garbage that only gets taken out maybe once a month. We also have a cabinet specifically for newspapers and magazines, so I can tie them up all together and they don’t get thrown in with the general recycling. Lots of space for garbage (as well as a garbage disposal) but it’s working really well for us.</p>

95

<p>My appliance garage is 18" tall. I should be able to fit most appliances. They used to stand on the countertop. I look forward to storing them neatly inside the cabinet. I used to have a pull-out trash can. In the new kitchen, the trash can will go under the sink to save the cabinet space.</p>

<p>What do you put in the big drawers in the bottom cabinet? I used to keep pots and pans. I saw some people keep dishes there. I wonder if I should reorganize.</p>

96

<p>Our over-the-oven microwave pull-up-door cabinet is kind of taking the place of the appliance garage we had at the previous house. Now, we have plenty of wall space but counter space is at a premium (and I HATE counter clutter). I don’t want to go with a built in microwave as I’ve found micro failure rate to be high and replacement measurement specs to be inconsistent. And I will have room for something else in that space. My personal Keurig? The unused toaster? We’ll see.</p>

<p>Most of our lower cabinets already have pull out drawers and we’ll convert the remaining few. Love them. We also have a trash pull out drawer that fits two kitchen-size cans and recycling is in the garage, just outside the kitchen.</p>

<p>Knowing I’m going to need to empty the kitchen for the new cabinets, it’s time to rethink what we really need to keep. The plastic, food storage area needs a good going-through. How many empty margarine tubs does one need? Gizmos we never use? Fodder for a different thread…</p>

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<p>I prefer the look of a double door bottom cabinet to drawers. Where the look matters I have the usual double door cabinets. What do you keep in you drawers?</p>

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<p>If I ever redo, I will put mostly drawers instead of cabinets. The drawers pull out so easily to see what is in the back. You can put ANYTHING in the drawers that you put in cabinets…pots and pans, cereal boxes, dishes, dog/cat food, people food, anything.</p>

<p>I would keep ONE cabinet for my crock pot, toaster, and small food processor. I do NOT like the look of the counter garages…I prefer open counter space.</p>

<p>And I would put a trash pullout in. I could put stuff from a cabinet inn the under sink cabinet. But I would love to open a drawer to toss the trash IN, instead of having to open a door, pull the can out, etc.</p>

99

<p>Iglooo, except for one bank of drawers and the trash pull out, all our bottom cabinets have (or will have when we’re done) double doors with rollout shelves inside. Even the larger ones can hold a surprising amount of weight, just don’t scrimp on the hardware. We have full extension ball-bearing slides. It’s so much easier to keep things organized and have access to the back of the cabinet.</p>

100

<p>My appliance garage is actually a junk garage. When I consulted kitchen designers, I told them that I wanted designs that work for MY family … and my family will never stop leaving c**p on the small counter at the entrance to the kitchen. We have a roll-down that goes from the cabinet to the counter. It is open much of the time, but when people come over, we just roll it down to hide our junk. There is still counter space in case we need to put something on that counter (like wine and wine glasses). :)</p>