I recommend Barry's in Bridgewater NJ. Good prices and this family owned business services the appliances they sell. The sales people do not work on commission so they can truly help you evaluate the appliances. If you go, tell them I sent you. Anyone can help you there. They are all well trained. I can recommend Ryan and Jason. FYI they have an electrolux induction on display - a rare thing. They allowed me to test drive it by baking cookies. They will be setting up a capital that customers can also cook on. As an interior designer, I look for stores that service their customers. Barry's has its on fleet of service people and usually you will have service within three days. They prioritize - a customer without refrigeration would get service before someone with a broken dishwasher. Most often, I believe service is even quicker.

Haddonfield, NJ, a small Revolutionary War bedroom community about twenty minutes from Philly. We live in a very sweet, smaller 1890 late Victorian smack in the middle of the historic district. We've been in the house six years. Last year we put a new roof on and had a complete historical restoration paint job on the exterior. They removed every bit of paint from the house. It was a long six month extravaganza and thank heaven we liked the guys because they were in very nook and cranny of this place! They did a fabulous, loving job and our long neglected house is now the showpiece of the street. Well worth the time and money We also added a beautiful slate patio which looks lovely in our shady yard. Now we are embarking on a kitchen renovation and planning to add a powder room and renovate a full bathroom as well. We love our home and spend lots of time entertaining friends and family. Everyone is at home here - and that makes us happy!

I like the budget idea, as well as location. I'd definitely separate a "facelift' from a remodel. So, for under $10,000 facelifts and remodels really should be separate, because in THEORY one can do a full remodel for that. I also think a DIY section would be really helpful - for people who did at least 75% of the work themselves (as I am planning to do). Perhaps countertop install, electric and plumbing can be common exceptions. As far as breakdowns, this actually seems to be a common problem - I've seen a few people tell me that they really cannot say the cost of the kitchen because one contractor did the entire house remodel, including kitchen, for one fixed cost. Location: VERY useful! For example I live on Long Island, NY - here and in NYC a "budget" remodel apparently costs $40,000! "Average" is $75,000 plus (and MANY of those look like crap). I'm planning DIY, and PRAYING I don't go over $10,000. This, unfortunately, will exclude plumbing and electric (new space - must be hired out), and my vintage Chambers Stove. I'm also not including the new flooring because the new floors were installed by us and the $3,000 in wood covers both the kitchen/ family room and master bedroom. Also, we need new windows in the kitchen, and there is no way those will fit into the $10,000 limit. Basically, my KITCHEN budget will cover cabinets, counters and appliances. I am planning to take my cabinet specs to a few local cabinet places to get actual quotes (even HD is WAY over $20,000), then I am 99% likely to go out of state for whatever I don't build myself. NY is just WAY more expensive for EVERYTHING compared to other parts of the country. I'm doing this just to prove to my mother (who guessed that CUSTOM solid wood cabs would cost $5,000) that I AM doing this whole kitchen for CHEAP! I think good categories are: Under $10,000 Facelift Under $10,000 Remodel $10,000 - $20,000 $20,000 - $30,000 $30,000 - $50,000 $50,000 - $100,000 Over $100,000 I think most people will fall into the $20,000-$30,000 and $30,000-$50,000 categories, but having them separate is very important for people on a real budget, because lots of people just CANNOT afford more than $30,000 even if $40,000 is a common budget. I'm sure I'll end up in the $10,000-$20,000 category, and if I include the cost of my stove I'll end up in the $20,000-$30,000 range. Now I am very upset :_( Reality Bites!

Ppbenn, the wallpaper is "peonies" from tempaper. It is not standard wallpaper. Its a self-adhesive wallpaper, aka a giant sticker. I don't know how it would take water color bc of the finish. But, Tempaper sells a product that is plain that you can decorate. So maybe? Tempaper has a website with faqs, and they would likely answer questions too. It's a sm company/neat story. Good luck! I am sure my kids will paint ours soon. I've already wiped up pen and pencil. Marker and paint are likely not far behind. Fwiw: hanging this is just slightly different than regular paper. The back is very sticky. That is great if your flat walls meet crisp edges of the even/level ceiling. With my old wavy plaster walls and old wavy plaster ceiling, covered in tons of paint, a standard wallpaper likely would have been easier to hang because it would have been more forgiving to stretch, move and slide. But, this paper was worth the effort. And removal will be so much easier, though I have no plans to do it anytime soon. Fori! I remember you asked questions about the smeg. I hoped you would pull the trigger before me! I will try to remember to post a more thorough review after we use the speed oven more. I want to try to bake, heat a frozen pizza, and grill fish or meat. Then I'll post again. In the meantime, as I mentioned above, we have abused the oven feature on the smeg everyday for more than a month: reheat french toast, warm left overs, cook chicken fingers, spring rolls, eggplant parm, roast veggies and chicken, make nacho chips and cheese. It just gets hot so much faster than my 30" Berta gas range, which isn't particularly slow to get hot. And I think/hope it has to be more efficient to use the small electric oven than the larger gas oven. (?) And the mw is in use everyday, reheating my coffee, cooking frozen broccoli etc. The mw performs well, as I would expect. We have not baked, used the grill function, or done any speed/combo cooking. But to be honest, the combo features were secondary. I am not very good at following directions and I usually never use the pre-set options on anything! If and when I bake, it's usually in batches; I imagine I would usually use the range to bake and the smeg to cook dinner. I will use the grill function; hope it works well. We decided to take the leap, or be the guinea pigs, bc we only had so many spots to put a mw. The best spot was prime real estate, below the counter. To give up cabinet drawers, I wanted an appliance that would do more than mw. I cook, a lot, everyday and on holidays. A second oven was really attractive. Obviously I didn't have space for a wall oven. I don't even have space for a countertop convection or toaster oven. So we looked at combos. Since I only have 24" my choices were limited. The reviews on the Miele were really good. But it didn't sound like $$$$ better for how I would use the appliance. And I didn't have that extra $$$$ to just get the Miele bc it's the Miele. Really, my biggest concern: yes, my kids play with the knobs. But i can't blame them. It is cute.