Yeah, so are we...Then again we were fairly green during the building process (almost wish this was our SECOND custom build, not our first) and the flooring guy seems like he goes with a set few things and sticks with them. We probably should have pushed harder with the tile or at least tried to pick counter and cabinet first THEN tile. It certainly seems like this tile has put us in a really weird spot as far as the counter goes. We absolutely love quartz, just can't seem to find a price that works for us. Obviously Ikea's $40 price would be absolutely dream come true, but the big boxes like Lowes and Home Depot, even on sale, are coming in around 60 or 70 with theirs, which puts us quite a bit over on cost. We noticed the gold in the photos as well...Though some who have seen it it person like the way the gray piece mixes with the cabinet color and feel it does pick up a little of the floor as well. Hoping maybe the grey might be our winner though I do worry about coordinating backsplash and paint if we go that route. Ugh.

Hi Sheila :) I think we both registered with GW about the same time didn't we? Oh, I just looked. You registered in 2001. I registered in 2002. We've been around for awhile! :) I'm not as active here as I was during our kitchen/office remodel in 02 and the entry/guest room remodel in 04 and then big remodel...more kitchen, LR to DR, Master Bdrm and Master bath in 07. But was just in and out, reading mostly after that till DH's bathroom remodel in 2015. Nice to see your name. Hey, do you remember Claire de Luna? I haven't seen her name in a long time. I used to have her email address but lost it a few years ago in a computer crash. Thanks for the shoutout!

Sketch of new kitchen. Will be getting Executive Cabinetry in a flat slab door in white. Will post the backsplash I picked out. Still deciding about countertops. Doing Caesarstone and was going to do one of the lighter concretes but have read about lots of issues with the honed/matte finishes. Am going to try to get to local showroom this week so I can see slabs vs small samples. Still need to pick sink, faucet and hardware. Ordering new combo oven, cooktop and hood. Excited!!!

So, you are saying, CR only looks at data that they can easily quantify and compare, but it ignores other information. Don't outright dismiss anecdotes. They are quite useful. Every appliance has bad reviews. In fact, they are usually the first thing that I read. If the reviews don't include bad anecdotes, then you probably haven't found a representative sample set just yet. But there are very real differences in both quantity and quality of negative feedback. Of course, that is difficult to put into a chart. And it is even more difficult to compare between two very distinct products. But that doesn't excuse skipping over this information. A recurring pattern on Houzz is that people complain how CR measures things that are irrelevant and uses testing methodologies that skew the results away from real-life needs. E.g. they didn't tell us if they used the correct size pots for these burners. And given that Wolf and LG have very different burner layouts, it's quite possible that identical pots behave very differently on both appliances. It is possible to correct for this problem, but it takes more effort; and I don't see that CR did that. As a consumer, I need to know all these things. I also need to know if my appliance is going to be difficult to use. I need to know if it is difficult to clean. I need to know if it is likely to break at the end of the warranty period. I need to know if customer service is reliable. I need to know if people are generally happy with their appliance years later. I need to know whether it easily lends itself towards the type of cooking that I do. And yes, I also need to know the simple measurements that CR took. But that's only part of the bigger picture.