I'll bite!

I am really glad that I stayed firm on wanting our DW to be raised up 10". It is so comfortable and easy to look in and access the space as I am loading and unloading it now.

Hang in there!

I really like how my Electrolux convection, oven shelves glide so easily. Plus it has a nice blue interior as opposed to the usual gray!

Not sure exactly what you're looking for, so ignore me if I'm on the wrong track. ;)

If you have the room, you can recess your wall a bit so that you can fit a standard-depth fridge in without having to buy a counter-depth and lose the square footage.

Wear_your_ baby, I'll take what I can get ;-) - and I like the recess the wall idea! (BTW, used baby slings with both kids and loved it.)

Emilynewhome - Yay, for oven glides! We're assuming they work in the real world, too - I can't wait to try them.

Earth_pal - thanks for the encouragement! I just love hearing about people sticking firm on what they really want and loving every minute of it. The raised DW sounds fabulous, btw. We ordered dish drawers this time around, but I keep filing all these idea away for next time ;-)

Great thread! I had a really dysfunctional kitchen before so I'm easily amazed:

(1) My freezer has a light in it! I can find ice cream pops in the middle of the night without turning on the kitchen light or opening the fridge door (so it sheds its light into the freezer). Note that this is not necessarily a good thing. ;-)

(2) OTR microwave has a LIGHT under it to illuminate the stove. Crazy.

(3) OTR microwave also has a pretty cool timer that's independent of actually using the microwave. No more little magnetic battery-operated timers stuck to the fridge door.

(4) Okay, this isn't an appliance, but I have the coolest faucet in the world. It SWIVELS!!! (My old one was stuck in one place.) Also, it has a pullout and a sprayer. I can blast any corner of the sink with water!

(5) Always have to mention my dishwasher. It never ceases to amaze me. No more dirty dishes piled up in the sink - now they pile up in the dishwasher, and it takes very little effort on my part to get them clean again.

My microwave (Dacor) actually has an LED menu. You touch a category, it lists some recipes, when you touch that title, the recipe shows, and when you touch enter, assuming you have prepared all the ingredients, your recipe is cooked at the precise time needed.

Also the microwave has a little LED Chef guy that flashes a presumably finished dish and "Enjoy" appears above his chef hat. LOL. Instead of a beep, I get a little jingle that repeats every minute or so until you open the door, which comes in handy for my DH who has been known to forget he put something in the microwave.

It has different lights, and even the night light can be put on a timer. This is very different than the little box I had before, so I am quite amused by it. I am still discovering some of the features.

LOL Shelayne...that's the MW I was originally planning for our kitchen! It's just like my old Sharp counter MW that was my absolute favorite MW! (Since Sharp makes the Dacro MWs, that's no real surprise!)

We ended up w/a MW drawer, though, when the kitchen had to be redesigned for a variety of reasons. I like my MW drawer, but I still occasionally pine for that Dacor MW!

Have you found the change chime feature (or whatever it's called)? I changed it to the "musical chime" instead of the beep...

earth pal - we need pics of that dw up 10"!!!

thx!

Although I feel I am commanding the Starship Enterprise with my new Samsung induction vs. the old electric coiltop range, I love how fast it cooks. And, no, so far I have not burned anything.

Our blue Big Chill fridge is on order! That makes me smile for sure.

1) I love my convection! Three perfect trays of cookies at a time! And everything else cooks faster/better too!

2) time-delay on the oven. Throw a casserole or some chicken in before heading out and come back to perfectly cooked dinner (I don't set the delay more than an hour or so because I am worried about food safety, but I love it on weekends when we are running around all day)

3) sensor cook on my Sharp MW

4) EVERYTHING about my Samsung FD CD fridge! I make and freeze a lot of meals ahead, so the powerfreeze is great!

bibliomom - thanks for the fun thread! I hope it is keeping you motivated!

Buehl, I think I changed it to the beep very briefly, but changed it back as I sorta kinda like the little sing-songy chime--reminiscent of "Shave and a haircut, two bits." (I'm humming this, as I type it. Heh heh) Besides, I have too many "beepy" things in the house already. ;^)

Hey Bibliomom --
We're sorta in the same boat (i.e. the boat that doesn't have more than one appliance in it, that is). We replaced the old OTR microwave when the deconstruction started a couple of weeks ago, so that we'd have something to make popcorn in during the reno. We got the Kenmore Pizza Maker/Microwave. It's so cool! There is a little drawer below the microwave that holds a frozen pizza perfectly! One or two buttons pushed and 15 mins later there's a perfectly done pizza! They say it also does biscuits, brownies, etc. but we've only used the oven part for pizzas so far. The microwave does a great job on popcorn, too. It was actually the highest consumer-rated microwave I could find. And one of the few that will fit perfectly on the shelf designed for the microwave in the new kitchen. It wasn't much more expensive than other mid-range MWs either -- around $200.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pizza Maker/Microwave

Heat lamps in range hood with stainless steel shelf underneath. We warm everything there...plates, sides...and we hang our most-used utensils from the shelf.

Okay, I'm loving these answers! And yes, JReuter, it is helping to keep me motivated ;-) The thought of being able to bake cookies always helps.

GSciencechick - love the Trek analogy! We're pretty geeky and I'm still perpetually amazed at the bells and whistles some of these things have. Like Clergychick's magic pizza oven and Shelayne's singing, dancing microwave, complete with mood light disco ball -amazing! (The Big Chill is awesome looking, btw.)

Charlikin, what kind of faucet do you have that swivels? That sounds so cool. And of course now I need to go to the appliance store and see if the freezer DH wants lights up ...

Mmmm - so much fun stuff! Now, back to the our late night electrical wire pull-a-thon, already in progress ...

I trust Consumer Reports and my Frigidaire side-opening oven was the only wall oven that scored top marks for baking. I am a big-league baker so I went for it. It is also a convection model and since it adjusts the temp automatically, all I have to do is reduce times by ~1/3. Love that as well. It is a great baking oven. I never have to turn things around as directed in some recipes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Frigidaire wall oven with side-swing door

I have a new new dishwasher that actually cleans and dries dishes both!!! Yippee!! You wouldn't think that was a trick, but I have atypical loads, and won't use rinse aid (makes glasses taste soapy) or detergent that hurts my hands. So to have one that has okay racks, does all that and takes a panel too is happy dance worthy.

Having fridge drawers (Marvel) in my prep area is even better than I thought. They're right in front of where I stand and I can just reach in and get garlic, a lemon or leftover wine or whatever.

The ones that are impressive in themselves are the Miele coolers and Gaggenau "heaters". The Miele fridge and freezer both have "super cool" functions. You set super when you're going to put in something pretty hot, or a whole big load of shopping or whatever, and they get cooler than usual, so that when the box warms up from the new stuff you're adding it warms up to normal. And super turns itself off after a couple of days if you forget to do it. The two bottom drawers of the fridge can be set to different temps by choosing meat, fish, diary, vegetables, fruit, or any combination. It's amazing how well they keep! And they go the full depth of the fridge for platters.

The ovens are Gaggenau. 'Nuf said.

Oh. Regnerate cycle on combi-steam. Totally awesome. Put in table plate with food on it. All the different foods are heated perfectly without drying out or petrifying or anything. Tastes as good as first time. Amazing, amazing, amazing trick!