I was fortunate enough to see the 617 which our local mega dealer has on the floor. I am in NE Ohio. This machine certainly has eye catching appeal, and I don't get why no big box retailer dedicates floor space or stocks locally. Without seeing, touching, comparing, few buyers will purchase sight unseen. IMO the 70 series was feature laden with specialty cycles and stain treat options and a fantastic 3 slot custom memory. I get the impression Lux chucked the otherwise difficult to navigate interface of the 70 series, simplfied popular options, and gave it an overhaul chic appeal! It appears to be a very well built machine and drum looks to be identical to the 70 series. I am not so much sold on the detergent pre-mixing tank, especially if your a powered detergent or pod user. My concern is does the machine fill through the tank and effectively flush between uses, or is there a potential to have crud residue, and stench built up? Its difficult to differentiate between detergent and water in the sump, and sprayed on the load during fill as many machines do. The only advantage I see to the Lux system is perhaps a more complete mixing of detergent and water applied to the load uniformly. You could always bypass it and add product directly to the drum. My only other peeve is the display is not back lit and difficult to see, but not a deal breaker by any means. My overhaul impression is this machine is a winner and will have no problem compeating, that is providing the retailers allocate floorspace. It offers top tier features and P172 certificaton, at a price point (899.00) that is several hundred dollars less than the competion. I will look forward to actual usage reports.

Miele is farming some service out to local servicers. I spoke with thr professional sales reps and he said it is extremely hard to retain good servicemen. We had our dishwasher repaired under warranty once. It is a Miele Crystal. The mainboard failed. we had about 4000 hours on it in a couple years. The guy who fixed it was able to tear it down and called miele who walked him through the diagnostic steps. They then sent a main board. Tech came back two weeks later and installed. The delay was more the local shops fault. They only come to our area once a week. We could have had Miele come from chicago, but they charge mileage if uour more than 50 miles from their service center. we are 120 miles away. I wouldnt be too hung up about getting official Miele service. They have always taken care of us one way or another.

@Sharon Baker I have a compact stackable, high efficiency, washer dryer. GE. Perfect for a small house, which I also have. If I wanted to wash something super bulky (which wouldn't be often), I'd go to a laundromat. Really, if you live in a small house, things like large washer/dryers are low on the priority list, because there are more important things like closet space to fit in, room for the vacuum cleaner, place for laundry soap, etc. And your kitchen is a key priority for you. I fold in the air BTW after dumping clean stuff on the bed. Easy to come and go to each room in a small house, and I can't easily forget about it or get lazy.

Thank you all again for the helpful suggestions! After I read the first half of the comments and saw some of the possibilities, I started to get more excited about the room. Do we know what we want? Not really, this is a very low budget fix. More cosmetic than anything. Jan - I don’t know why things turned sideways so fast, but your first response was SO helpful in me seeing how more colour would help. I went and re-read my own posts and yes, I came across a little wah-wah poor me, but I asked for help in making lemonade out of what I thought were lemons. We are not pros. It took us 12 years to change anything other than taking down the purple floral wallpaper and the frosted glass sliding bathtub doors that were there when we bought the house. We both decided and had a (very) tiny bit of money squirreled away to make some changes. (Was it an unwise decision to buy a house when we couldn’t afford to make changes? I don’t think so.) I think we are not unlike most in Middle America who try to make do with what they have and make little changes along the way because they can’t afford full bathroom renos . We are doing all of the work ourselves so will we make mistakes along the way? Yes. Thank you to all of the commenters who have helped me see the light at the end of the tunnel. It is so different from what it was (see the attached photo (apparently it was different from what I thought we had, lol! White tile and ) and so I had a moment of buyer’s remorse. I think my husband has done a great - no, FANTASTIC job, I was just beating myself up because of the colour and wasn’t able to see how it might all work in the end so I came here for advice. The tile is a deep teal. The cabinet will most likely be stained a light or golden oak. I included some photos that I found in the big box store’s website showing the tile in other people’s bathrooms. Thank you again, everyone!