Hi Lainey, I am finishing a kitchen remodel in which we tried to save money by using Green Demolitions cabs. I am just north of Detroit. I got the cabs for $3500, then spent $2000 on a Budget rental truck, a plane ticket, and $500 for an unemployed friend of a friend to fly out to Hartford Connecticut, get my rental truck and drive the kitchen home. My kitchen is 16 x 18 and we got rid of the table and chairs and filled the space with the kitchen's island. My contractor put new oak veneer on the sides and fronts of a few cabs and we are sanding, staining, and polyurethaning the drawer fronts and doors ourselves. So if there is anyone to help your mom out with any refinishing that might be needed, a used kitchen could get her a lot more than buying all new cabinets. You could get this kitchen: with this nifty pantry for maybe $1200. Then somebody has to go get it (don't even think about hiring a moving company unless you know them personally and they give you a great deal). The cabinets may need sanding and staining like mine did, but they are a good combination of usable cabinets: Your mom would not have to use the island. It is just a sink cabinet with a dishwasher on one side and a trash compactor on the other, with a back on it. The sink cabinet could go anywhere you like. She could use a regular range/oven and use the wall oven cabinet like I did, to raise my dishwasher up for my aching back. With the low cost of these cabinets, she could hire someone to install them and make laminate countertops, and still have some $ left if she wants a new sink and faucet. This kitchen does come with the cast iron sink, the faucet, the counters (which you can just tell them to keep if you are not setting up the cabinets exactly like you see them in the pictures), the dishwasher, the stovetop and downdraft vent(which may be yucky since they are used), and wall oven. Here is a link that might be useful: scroll down to

Based on this "Definitely a decent amount of stir-frying for all the Chinese dishes." I would consider a BlueStar rangetop. This is a little outside what you are considering but has -high BTUs 22K-25K depending on the model. -star shaped, uncapped burners, allowing the flame to go straight up on high heat rather than more flared like a capped burner. This is better for cooking with a wok because the heat is more to the middle of the pan. Consider 30" vs 36" A rangetop will give you more room front to back. Also consider a Capital rangetop that has high BTUs but three ring uncapped burners. BS has different sized burners. Capital, they are all the same except one small pot burner. If you get a rangetop, you can pick a wall oven separately. You can save money on the oven if you don't use it that much or splurge. Put your money where you cook. Most on this forum would mix and match brands to pick the best appliance for the job for them. A few will stay with one brand either because they want to take advantage of a package deal or they want to have things match. Everyone of my appliances is a different brand. I picked my refrigerator based on layout and placement of the ice maker. I wanted it to be able to accommodate 9x13 pans front to back and had to have 48" width because I could not move a wall. It is KA but not sure if I would buy again. Fit and finish not that great and has required several service calls. I do like the layout though. Dishwasher bought on layout and Bosch gets pretty good reviews. It cleans well and has worked well. Many have the tray at the top giving you an extra shelf. I'm not a "place each piece of silverware in a slot " person but more throw it in a basket type though. Others like Miele. Ovens -this can be a more difficult choice but really depends on what is important. Do you use your broiler? How? I use it to brown half sheets of appetizers so need the wider coverage of an electric broiler. If you broil steaks, you might want an infrared broiler(hot but smaller) in a higher end gas oven so you might choose a range vs rangetop and wall oven. If you bake, you might want an electric oven but if you mostly roast meat and veggies, you might want gas. Electric ovens can have more complex modes that allow you to direct heat from as many as three elements and convection fans but require computer boards to do that. It requires learning how to use them. Gas is simple and the convection is on and off. My range a Wolf DF has been a big disappointment. I bought it for the oven and "settled" for the burners at the time. I ended up really liking the burners because of the great simmer which I use all the time, and even though it does not have as high of BTUs as BS, it has been ok for me, but I don't stir fry that much. I also use wide pans so the flare of a single ring burner is not a bad thing for me. The oven worked great but the blue enamel chipped off and it can't really be fixed so can only be used with covered dishes. KA has also had this issue of chipping with blue enamel. This is why I would get the oven and burners separate.

Thank you, everyone, for your comments. Part of me wants to have everything in one range to keep all the hot stuff in the kitchen in one place. The idea of splitting off the ovens and doing a double wall unit with a steam oven is awesome, because who likes bending down to the oven anyway? I can see how this will start to blow the budget. I like Lacanche but really prefer a larger than 12 inch flat top so I have room to get a little messy, and multi-task on the griddle. I've had friends with 12 in griddles and it's a little bit clumsy of a size when you start trying to get in with spatulas and tools. I've also been looking at BlueStar and it looks like I can get pretty much everything I want in that and be in the $15,000 range. I have no idea about how reliable these brands are. I really do appreciate all the comments good, bad, etc. I wish I could go with commercial brands like restaurants but I'm not ok with having the house heat up and pilot lights lit all the time. The search continues.

I see a huge benefit in having more than one oven. If that's in the budget, absolutely go for it. I also strongly recommend a CSO and I feel less clear on the microwave. So, I'd pick one of the following three options, depending on money and available space: Combination steam oven only. It's the most frugal option, and it actually works for most cooking needs. Combination steam oven plus a wall-oven or range. Many people find that they don't need a microwave. Some people legitimately have a need for one every so often. If so, get a counter-top microwave and either place it in a cabinet or in the pantry. Combination steam oven and SpeedOven. This combination saves space, but costs significantly more. It also leaves you without a full-size oven, but that might not be as important as you'd think. It gives you two ovens, and it provides access to a microwave, if that's important to you. Combination steam oven, range, and SpeedOven. This is what we ended up doing, as the kids insisted on a micro-wave, we didn't have another good space, it didn't make a huge difference in the overall budget, and we already had a range that we were re-using (yeah, for three ovens! No need for a dedicated warmer drawer!). As you can see, we picked the "get everything" option. I am happy with our decision. But if it hadn't been for the kids, we would have completely skipped the microwave and picked just a wall-oven or range and a CSO.