sonny, by 'oven', do you mean an electric wall oven? or a range that includes cook top burners and an oven below? Electric or gas, or gas on top and electric in the oven (dual fuel).. Or perhaps you mean a wall oven, and you will have a separate rangetop or cooktop. There are new magnetic cooktops (called "induction")that are pretty neat. Toaster ovens are just small counter-top ovens. They generally don't work great for toast, I think most folks have better luck with just a regular toaster. But if you are getting a toaster/oven, get one that isn't very tall- this keeps the electric elements closer to the toast. The big toaster ovens just dry out the bread. Might start a separate topic just on this, but tell us what you're looking for it to do for you. As far as indoor/ outdoor cooking, it would help to know what part of the country you'll be living in. I can only help with gas cooking ranges. If you're thinking about Viking, I can recommend 5 other better brands. (my favorite is Bluestar).. As far as refrigerators go, I think Sub-zeros are well respected, but there are others depending on the size, and whether it will be built-in, etc. Thermador and Liebhorr are a couple brands people seem to like.

You've mentioned alot of appliances that you want to get and what are the "best" ones. You'll find differing opinions on that on the appliance forum. However, you are also asking about weather or not you should get some much less used appliances like a deep fryer, warming drawer, and meat slicer: the question is, Do you fry alot? Would you love to slice meat alot? Do you tend to prepare meals ahead of time before a party and would need a warming drawer? YOU need to answer these questions in order to determine weather you want to build in these less used appliance. For me, I wouldn't use any of them enough to warrant them being "built in". Are you just looking to just put in the most/best appliances in the kitchen just for resale value or "star power", or is it really something you use a lot or would use if you had it (like a Smoker, meat slicer). Just some things to think about. There is a thread on toaster ovens... I love my Cuisinart Convection toaster oven from costco!

Here is the first rule of appliance selection. Don't buy a suite of everything from one manufacturer. No one does everything well. Many of the appliance salesmen will try to steer you into one brand. Why? It's easy or they get an incentive. Next, organize you thoughts and select what is the best fit for you and your family. You may want to splurge on one item and economize on another. Do a lot of research on the appliance thread. Gardenweb is the best resource out there. Plan on spending some time here. Then go out and shop, armed with an idea of what you need, what you want and what you can afford. You have given us a budget, ~$20,000. Don't forget you will need ventilation. Everyone always forgets it and it's not cheap. I like Vent-a-Hood. I hate downdraft ventilation. Everyone has a preference. Those are mine. Rethink convection in your ovens. If you are buying double ovens, consider making one of them convection. If you have never had convection, you may not know what you are missing. But, you don't have to spend extra for double convection. If you have double ovens, you probably don't need a warming drawer. Plan on never running the self clean function on your ovens and you will be a happier customer. You only have to fry the mother board once to learn this lesson. This goes for all manufacturers. Dishwashers: Bosch, Miele, Asko for quiet. Bosch makes a wide variety of price points. I've had success with them on a number of homes. But, Miele and Asko are highly regarded. Cooktops/rangetops: You want gas. You have to decide whether you want sealed burner versus open burner. The difference is the amount of BTU that the burner can deliver. Open delivers more, closed delivers less. Some people believe that closed is easier to clean if you have an over spill. I don't agree, but let some other posters offer an opinion. I can only say I am replacing my closed burner Thermador for an open burner Bluestar rangetop. Refrigeration: You won't go wrong with Subzero, but your wallet will ache. There is nothing sexier than a set of Subzero full refrigerator and freezer. Liebherr is a competitor. I suggest that you take a look at your kitchen plans. You may be able to surround a full depth refrigerator with cabinets to create a built-in look. You will pay a lot more for counter depth and get less storage. Rather than a 48", think about a 36" full depth and supplement with an additional garage refrigerator or freezer. It's a cost effective way to get capacity. Instead of Subzero, I ended up buying the Kitchenaid Architect II 36" French door. I used the money I saved elsewhere. Educate yourself on one item at a time and it will all come together. I think the dishwasher is the easiest place to start. Good Luck.

I'm in the early stages of a full gut job, so I only have a few things to say. My GC is really good about telling me what he needs and when, but I did run into a little time crunch with the flooring because it needs to sit for at least a week to acclimate and I couldn't make up my mind. He is great about answering my questions and helping me decide things if I'm confused - like we just went over light switches and there was a discussion on whether the under cabinet lighting should be on one switch or two. I would say the GC should definitely help with how much floor to order. I didn't have a KD, so I'm doing that. For me that's the biggest stressor - making all the decisions and stressing about them. So from that perspective, I would say get your stuff picked out and/or ordered early so you don't add to your stress about choosing and getting it on time. Also, that way you won't find that a light you like takes 2 months to be delivered. It's funny because I read here about other people saying something similar and I thought - eh, I won't pick something that will take that long to deliver, I'm not that fussy, I don't have that big of a budget, etc. And then I found that there is no rhyme or reason to how long things take to get. I picked a $50 light that had a fairly common look, but it was a little cheaper than the others, and the delivery estimate was 2 months, so I had to get one of the $70 ones that looked similar. Not a huge deal, but just an example. I don't know how much we are over budget right now. Originally I was hoping for a $30k remodel, but I had to expand that to $50k, and I think we may go over that by a little. Things like extra outlets and switches are going to add up. He did a great job putting up plastic to keep the dust out. Unfortunately it made it so we pretty much could only use half of our house - kitchen, dining room and downstairs bathroom is behind the plastic. The main problem we have there is that we have a dog and his dog door was in the kitchen, but we are dealing. We have baby gate up on the one side and we just have to walk him more. Our dining room is the 'staging area' where we have our new fridge (which we are using), and all the other stuff that I have bought and they haven't put in yet - other appliances, sink, faucet, flooring, etc. We have a little temporary kitchen set up in the office. I have a pretty small house, so it is tight, and it wasn't possible to put the fridge in there with everything else. We are using a toaster oven, crock pot, microwave and sous vide. We are only finishing up week 2, but so far it hasn't been too bad. I make one big meal in the crock pot - stew, casserole type one pot meal - and eat that every day for lunch and two dinners. Then we make something else one night - last week it was london broil in the sous vide, this week it's meatloaf in the toaster oven. Then we go to family every Friday anyway. We go out once or twice and so far have gone to friends or family another day. Ok I guess I had a lot to say after all.. Here are some pictures just for fun. because I'm dying to share with someone but didn't have a good reason to start a thread about it. Before: kitchen - yes it's horrible, just horrible. I see some of these before pictures and I think, man wait until you see mine! We painted the cabinets red when we moved in because they were a really dark stained wood and the stain wasn't even in the best condition. I thought the red would be fun and funky since we were planning to renovate anyway.... then it waited 10 years. I was going for a french bistro kinda look. dining room looking into kitchen now: kitchen - they found that the electric was so bad they decided to take down all the plaster, then they found that there were no studs or insulation, so they are adding that. (one of the things that is going to push us over the revised budget) As of this afternoon or tomorrow there will be no back wall there because we are taking out that window and door and putting in french doors. - that's one of the things that made the original budget get revised. in the dining room looking into the kitchen - taking that load bearing wall with all it's duct work and electric is another thing that made the original estimate go up. (the board in the middle hanging down there is literally just holding the light switch.) Oh also, I think the work phase of ours is going to be about 6 weeks. I've been planning for 3 months. My GC is on site almost every day. I let the guys use our downstairs half bath. We have just pretty much not been using it. The floor is dirty, but other than that they seem to be being pretty good about respecting our stuff, but it's really only my GC and one other guy, and my GC is I would say pretty invested in making me happy. I swear he must get half of his business from my mother-in-law. He's always like, 'oh I saw your mother-in-law last week when I was working on so and so's house' and my husband's uncle called us to ask the GC to give his spare key back. So our relationship is different than just any GC. He also worked the rough supplies into the estimate. I was responsible for picking out appliances, counters, cabinets, tile, etc. In the end he got the cabinets for me because he got a better price wholesale, so he WOULD do that stuff, but I like to comparison shop.