Appliances! There are just so many choices and options.

Cabinets as they'll stay - I didn't care about appliances as they generally only last 10 years or so. (2nd choice would be countertops) After those two choices, everything else got easier, well, except the floor... I only wanted vinyl and couldn't decide till I decided we weren't leaving HD till I picked... luckily we found a cheap, precut one that was ok... it was only supposed to be temporary, but I kinda like it (color slightly off) so it stays.

I thought it was faucets till I got to the backsplash. Worse than shopping for a bathing suit!

Cabinet finish. Our final choice was a compromise between what DH wanted (lighter) and what I wanted (darker). It was hard b/c I was convinced the finish I wanted would look nicer. I still look back and wish we'd gotten the darker finish.

raynag: "Worse than shopping for a bathing suit!" Nothing can be as bad as shopping for a bathing suit. :-P

backsplash-b/c I don't want it to interfer with the granite! but want it to be more then white tile!

Backsplash for sure! Just got my range section in but I still haven't committed to the rest of my backsplash.

Knobs/pulls were also tough. The store was filled with floor to ceiling knobs in every size, shape, price and finish.

Knob/pulls. Still can't decide, granite goes in Friday, things are generally wrapping up...and still no decision. KD thinks I'm crazy.

Of course, I'm waiting until everything is in to decide on backsplash, so it could be a close one.

That's easy ... mini-pendants for our peninsula.

When you're looking at lighting that cost between $200-$500 each and you need three of them plus installation and the restock charge if you don't like them once you get them home is 35%, you think long and hard about your decision!

We looked at thousands of pendants over the course of about two months. We mostly looked at red toned ones thinking that would go nicely with our "Cherry" cabinets.

Our cabinets and counter tops went in and we still were no farther along in our decision. It turned out to be a very good thing because as it turned out it was our finished kitchen that spoke to us. Once we saw that our cabinets and granite installed, they told us to go back to the store and buy the Dark Amber beaded lights I fell in love with five years ago. And the kitchen was right!

We're still waiting for the kitchen to tell us what color to paint the walls. :-)

{{!gwi}}

Jodi-

Backsplash was easy - we had only that and then we designed the kitchen for it. For us, lighting was the killer. We wanted vintage and there were way too many to choose from.

Backsplash, cabinets, appliances, flooring, all easy. I'm not finished, yet. Nothing but the fridge is installed, yet. But I think paint color and my pendant lights are gunna be the hardest.

It took 4 years to find the perfect backsplash, but it's been 5+ years now & I still haven't decided on a cornice. So I guess the cornice gets my vote.

In our functional kitchen, I'd say it was the flooring. Originally thought I wanted cork, then was thinking perhaps slate, then decided to do the whole upstairs with the same flooring, so that meant something that would go with a variety of wood furniture-can't tell you how many van loads of wood samples I brought home (still have 5 planks of Pecan stashed somewhere to return), but eventually the Tigerwood spoke to us, as Jodi's pendants did (those took awhile too!:>). But, as we're technically not finished, I'd have to say it's the backsplash, luckily I foresaw the difficulty and gave the drywall several coats of a good paint!

I need the BS fairy to come and visit me one night and bestow a decision upon my sleeping TKO'd brain, so I can wake up one morning and head to the tile store and have er done!

Heck I'm not even done but "Finding a dog gawned tile guy!" is entirely mine. Everything else was a breeze!

I was going to say the granite countertops, but after seeing the other posts, I realized my mind had blocked out our lengthy attempts to agree on lighting. I completely forgot about that traumatic experience (do you have ANY idea how many different lighting fixture sites and pendants there are? Sensory overload). DH and and I narrowed it down to about 6, then made our designer limit us to a couple, then picked from the final 2.

For me, it was the granite. I just needed so much and I love the granite that has lots of movement, but didn't want to overwhelm my kitchen with too much. Then it was how to cut the 3 slabs we had and in the end, the agony and decision making didn't make a difference because they cut it wrong!

I am just starting a review of my kitchen on my blog, if anyone is interested.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Blog

Barstools!!! Yikes!!!! It took me a year and a half to make a decision. Much longer than my renovations. Thank Goodness for Gardenweb..

Countertop--I looked at 100's of granites (had 2 boxes of samples to get rid of when we were done) and finally chose...Richlite! I decided if I couldn't find a granite I wanted after looking at that many slabs, then maybe I wasn't a kitchen granite person. Chose my granite in 2 bathrooms with no problem at all--go figure.

Backsplash was the hardest. Runner-up was the vent hood - Ohmigosh, to choose among hood brand names, then cfm's, then shape, width, height, noise levels, find out the diameter of my exhaust duct, compare prices, read the Appliances Forum endlessly (everyone there seems to have very strong opinions on exhaust), etc. etc.

My hardest choice by far was the cabinets. It wasn't hard at all deciding which style was my favorite but when I heard the final tally on the cost, I just about lost it. I had to leave the store, I was so angry. Just walked out. I had to think about whether or not I liked those cabinets THAT much. I was still agonizing over it all the next day. My 2nd favorite cabinet would've been considerably less, so I went back and forth, back and forth, my favorite or my 2nd favorite? What to do, what to do, the budget's so tight, but how many times do you remodel a kitchen? I just couldn't make up my mind. Because there's a side of me that's very frugal and practical, but then there's another side of me that wants what she wants. How could I deviate from what I'd been visualizing for so long? But how could I spend that much on these far-from-top-of-the-line cabinets? Finally, I asked DH what should I do? He said, "Get what you like best." So I did. I went back to the store and cut out all the upgrades I could accept. Even so, they were STILL quite a bit more than my 2nd favorite. And I still think I paid more than they were really worth. But, I still love them! And I'm glad I got them!!

boy oh boy... this is a hard one to answer as I really do have several. Picking the cabinet doors style was easy, and although I really had my heart tugging for cream cabinets, I made a decision quickly and went with Cherry. So, with that - I think maybe the paint color... not the lights... ummm no, I think the knobs or the granite. Oh I give up - it's been all hard!

paint color for me - I don't even want to add up what I spent getting custom mixes done after I couldn't decide on a pre-set color - I did sample boards and painted the drywall above the tile - I think at one point I had 12 different shades of a similar color. Then I dragged any willing participant in here to "help" me choose and, after getting a majority consensus, I ditched all their comments and chose the one everyone said was "too dark". But, I love it and now I keep getting requests for my paint name - go figure!

For me it's definitely been the sink! My perfect sink (Ticor SS508) is out of stock and I can't find another one I like...it's the perfect blend of cost, size, looks and added accessories. I probably spend and hour+ every night looking for something else I like as much.

I discovered GW after I had ordered my cabinets. Had it been before, I would have seen things that would have tugged at my initial choice - not to mention my budget! I would have struggled with glass, or no glass, to the ceiling - or not..etc..

I have to say it was my faucet. My farmhouse sink area is a focal point in my kitchen, so looks mattered to me. My kitchen is a hard working kitchen, though, so function and ease of use were important too. Plus, I was trying to stay with a classic cottage feel (cause it's in a lake cottage..)

People say you can change out faucets and sprays later, but once you drill those holes in your soapstone....Well, it's not as easy as patching a nail hole in a sheetrock wall if you want to replace them with a different configuration.

Yup, it was hard for me to pull the trigger on the faucet decision.

Backsplash, hands down. We've been mostly-done since mid-September, and pretty much completely done since mid-December, except for the backsplash. At this point I've decided to move on to the adjacent powder room, start and finish that, and then come back to the backsplash. One bonus of starting on the powder room is that now that the plumbing for that room is done I was able to extend it and hook up the icemaker on the fridge.

Refrigerator. By far the hardest for us. I still can't figure out why built-ins cost so much...

As it turned out, we found ours as a heavily discounted floor model in a nondescript appliance showroom... worked out great.

My appliances! Even though I knew they won't be lasting forever, I had to balance their cost, their looks, their features AND their dependability before making my final choices. We found out the hard way, how expensive it is to get an appliance repaired these days once the warranty is up (with our GE Profile Harmony W&D). Making wise decisions about all my appliances was very important ~ and stressful~ for me.

Jodi, I love your pendants.

For us? Cabinet hardware. Too many darn choices! I don't think I can round up all the "maybes" I brought home!

Close second? Paint color. If I never see another chip it will be too soon! Hope I like the colors long term . . .

pendant lights got the best of me!

Range hood, without a doubt. I agonized over range hoods for months. Poured over specs online; measured re-measured talked to REALLY not-very-bright-sales people. I learned more than I Ever wanted to know about blowers, updrafts, down drafts, up-and-down drafts, false vents and the size of vents! Oh my word! It's all coming back again! I thought I had put it behind me!

Backsplash! Backsplash! Backsplash! ...and granite!

Cabinets, because they were the most expensive. And also because my existing cabinets weren't horrible. Replacing them was a tough decision. It seemed rather extravagant. But on the other hand, putting new granite, new flooring, new appliances, new backsplash, etc., around those old cabinets seemed like throwing good money after bad.

BTW, jodi in so calif, I love your pendants - and I love your backsplash even more!

I picked out the cabinets in abut six minutes, the granite in ten, and have been agonizing over the backsplash for three months. It finally got installed this week. I will post pictures soon. The paint color was also difficult.

pupwhipped here...the OP of this thread. Wow, it is ALL really hard to choose isn't it?!? But, ya know, I feel a bit like a fool sometimes to be complaining about being saddled with this burden. Once when I was whining to a friend about how overwhelming it was to me to be remodeling the kitchen in my recently purchased lake home built in 1952, my friend replied, "Kathy, this should be such FUN. I would love and enjoy to the max this project you perceive as torture.....if only I could afford it." That kinda put it all in perspective. She will never get this chance, and here I am complaining about it all and not enjoying the process. But, you guys know it really is such a stress because you don't want to make a bad decision....and all this kitchen sh*t IS soooooooo expensive! Ohhhhhhhhhhh, woe is me. I do pontificate, but I will still say backsplash is going to be the end of me.

Thanks for all the responses. I do think it helps to share our angst. I haven't done a tally yet, but maybe I will do that eventually to see which kitchen decision is the most difficult from our GW group perspective. But, as I mentioned before, let's all just be grateful that we are blessed to have these difficult decisions to make.

Good kitchen remodel luck to us all.....and let us all be thankful for the opportunity.

For those of you who are finished, what was the hardest ONE choice you had to make and why?

Probably because I had to wait so long, I didn't have ONE!
With that said, I am glad. Sorry if I depressed someone.