If for everyday/occasional use... go with whatever fits your budget!?! NEVER thought I'd shell out $200-ish for a mixer until SIL MADE me take her's home on T-Day... with strict orders to return it the following weekend. Standard, tily-head model. When I cranked out cookie dough for 4-5 different types with butter that wasn't really soft... I was sold. A few years ago, found a "vintage" (faded yellow) KA stand mixer (crank up/down) at Good Will. Had paddle, dough hook and whisk and ran just fine. Was marked $39.99... since I already HAD a KA, was ready to pass. BUT it was half price and just couldn't leave without it. I cleaned it up really well (wasn't cruddy or anythiing to begin with), taped everything off, and sprayed it out flat black with left-over out-door gas grill paint. It's a work horse! Then found a spare BOWL for a few $.

We've hired two. Each cost $125.00 per hour. In our case essentially both were a waste of money. The first one was well known, had kitchen's featured in magazines, won contests from Subzero and similar companies. She actually had great ideas but was constantly screwing up. She mis-measured on several occassions and I was never confident it was right. She would produce drawings that were impossible to visualize (the peninsula ended up overlapping a window in one drawing). I had requested over and over a prep sink in the island. The drawings came back without it and when I called her on it she said she didn't think it was needed but would request it be added. She had the drawings redone, and subsequently billed me the time to redo them. She called one day in the beginning and told me she stopped at the flooring store to look at floor choices (this was before we even had a design) and I was billed for the time! Keep in mind this was NOT something she asked me about in advance. We ended up parting ways after she became ill and couldn't continue with the project, which kept me from having to fire her. I knew she was capable of some beautiful work and I wanted it to work with her so badly that initially I kept making excuses for her . In the end, I spent about 2k and basically had nothing to show for it (except some ideas) Her plans had the beautiful elements & materials I wanted but not the additional space. The next one was a very nice lady with good ideas but they always exceeded our budget. We spend about 1600.00 with her. She made up a plan that had "some" of the space we wanted but in the end the budget would not allow us to add on the space and keep the materials we wanted. I could accept that, however knowing it in the beginning would have saved us a lot of $$-- Both designers knew out of the gate that our main objective was to add space and that if we were going to invest in construction of an addition, I needed the kitchen to have the elements and materials I really wanted. I truly believe the 2nd designer thought she was working within the budget and didn't purposely decieve us, where I believe the first one was milking us for any time she could but wanted to give us a knock your socks off kitchen in the small space we already had. The nice thing about independent designers was that they aren't married to a specific brand. The first designer worked a lot with a local custom cabinetmaker and for about 12K we were getting painted white cabinetry that looked beautiful! I later went to Home Depot for a "free" design, (which by the way was not free unless we paid for an in home measurement, at least in my area)and the KD there used our construction design to quote cabinets for us and a medium quality was about 25k!) So I think you end up paying for the designer one way or another~ We never ended up doing our kitchen since our wants exceeded our means. We've decided to move all together and while we can't "design" the kitchen we can possibly make some modifications and i am already stressing about the whole process all over again.

Hi emaldrich! I did go with the ekectrolux. I just couldn’t get past the plastic look of the frigidaire. I’m so happy I did. I would have hated to spend a little less money only to regret it. I think the kitchen aid handles look good with the Electrolux. Just for an added plug of the side by side, it makes cleaning out the frig so much easier because all the food is visible. I see the old leftovers, I toss it! We love it with my family if 5. I have kids, so there are handprints (and footprints....heaven only knows why) but I don’t worry about that because, hey, we LIVE here. :) I’m glad we chose the apliances we bought. I’ll try to snap some pics. If they come out wonky, I’m sorry.

I suggest you check with your Wolf appliance dealer. They should know the better contractors in the area and be able to make a recommendation.