I think the three kitchens are pretty equivalent in equipment. I'm assuming that out of sight in the first one is a full sized (30") Miele oven? It depends on what you want. Which has a bigger fridge, or if you like the freezer drawers in kitchen #1, whether the grille bothers you in kitchen #3, whether you'd rather have a separate cooktop and wall oven or a range. Which has more storage. Whether you like an open kitchen or a galley, etc. (Galleys are great to cook in, but don't have the social element that open kitchens do.) Which color you like best. Viking isn't in such good odor currently, but if it's there and it works it should be fine. The design is nice. The third apartment looks older and lived in, and not so well designed. More homestyle than architectural. I wouldn't throw over the third apartment just because it wasn't brand new, if the price, location, amenities and view were right, but the pot filler sitting like a navel in the middle of sheet stainless? Not pretty. Hm... Looking again, maybe it is a new kitchen. If so, it's a bit, um, yellow-beige. It might look a lot better in person. Also, in my opinion, a built in espresso maker is an attractive toy. If you have continental breakfast with cappuccino every morning, it's useful. If you only make espresso for twee little dinner parties, not so much. But considering the sizes of these kitchens, it doesn't waste enough space to get really mad about it. Keeping all the stainless in kitchen #2 spotless and smudge free, and the same for the gloss white in kitchen #1, might be a big problem if you don't have daily help. Especially in kitchen #2 if you allow people to sit at the island and their shoes hit the stainless. From that point of view, the bland kitchen #3 would be the easiest upkeep. In terms of quality, I think they're all in the range you're looking for, so the thing I'd really really check out, like bring a ventilation expert with you when you go see, is the hoods. Make sure they really vent to the exterior. See how much they really draw, find out where the exhaust exits and what your responsibility, vs. the board/association/freeholder or whatever, is for keeping it clear of nests and other maintenance is, and find out if the hood isn't adequate for you what you are or are not allowed to do to improve it. For instance, are you allowed inline blowers? (Is that a stupid question for an NY apartment? I've only been in NY for four days in my life and was baffled the whole time.) Oh. I guess that's an assumption, that you'll be able to see before buying? I know some people buy from abroad. Consider we're talking apartment in New York with big kitchen, however, my guess is this really is the equivalent to a house in Beverly Hills. In BH, people tweak their new spaces to suit themselves. This is why I think the ventilation is the most important thing. You're not likely going to be able to change the ductwork or anything like that, and it's probably not worth the money and hassel even if you could. The rest can be altered slightly. For instance, I agree with Rococogurl that putting in a Wolf rangetop would compromise the design of kitchen #1, but it would still look fine, and might be just the thing to make it less clinical. (And the Miele should be fine to cook on and keep the architecture intact.) As for the rest, I'd think those other things, like location, parking (if you have a car), amenities, rooms, bathrooms, location, storage, view, location, square footage, outdoor space/access and location, are more important than the specifics of the kitchen.

Thank you so much lavender! You beat me to it! I've been spending all morning trying to figure this out and I added them to my photobucket account, rotated them and was returning to do a test run. I so appreciate your help! As a new iPad user, I had no idea that pictures would appear in any other form other than how they display on the preview when drafting a post! I appreciate it being pointed out, otherwise I would have no knowledge of the bad etiquette apparently being posed on people here to help. I try to be patient with people when they are trying new things, especially here, we know humans are just that and sometimes need a little patience, guidance, and yes, help, in a lot of instances! Thanks again lavenderlass. Seems like the consensus is to move the freezer, although in this lengthy DIY project I hesitate to add more work but DH is willing, and I would rather get it right than have regrets. After all, we are never doing this again! Thanks for all your input! If anyone has any more suggestions, I'm certainly open to any and all!

Update - so it's been a few months and a lot of work but some changes have been made. Two of the three trees down the left/driveway side have been moved to the rear. I opted to leave the third since the city-supplied Acer on the left is not doing well and will be removed shortly. The Nootka cypress near the front door has been replaced with a weeping "Viradis" Japanese maple. The bed around the front porch has been expanded to wrap around the porch and includes a purple fountain weeping beech, as well as more rhodos, hydrangeas, pennisetum, liatris and phlox sublata. I'm still working on filling in this space with more of the same. I took Yardvaark's suggestion and incorporated the Acer on the right into the bed close to it. I also added some festuca glauca and campanula carpatica to the bed. The Nootka cypresses in this bed are also stressed after a very hot summer (most of which was while the irrigation system was being put in) so I'm not sure if they will make it. Any replacement suggestions? I did get rid of one of the "mouse ears" by adding it to the corner bed. I still intend to change the other side but that may be next year's project since the landscaping budget is scraping the bottom of the barrel for now.

Is that 1600 supposed to be just flat base labor for just your active work time... and not including like transportation of equipment, materials used like polish, items needed like painting materials, sink, lightswitch cover, and so on? Is it just you, and you are moving all that machinery by yourself? Or do you have an assistant? If you have help, you need to add that labor and so on into the estimate as well. Are you sure you can fully complete the project along with after-inspection and so on with the owner within the 40 hours? What if the owner isn't happy and wants you to come back for whatever- that goes outside the 40 hours?