Major Renovation - Appliance Recommendations

last year

I'm preparing to do a major home renovation: knocking down walls, creating an open concept, gutting and renovating a 50+-year-old kitchen, adding on a room and bathroom, etc.

I am NOT a detail-oriented person when it comes to my home. I want it to be comfortable and simply furnished. I am also not interested in high-end, but I don't want bargain basement either.

I need insight on appliances for my kitchen. I need a refrigerator (preferably the French door style), cooktop, oven, dishwasher, and microwave. Initially, I was thinking of a microwave drawer, but, for the cost, I'm not sure it's worth it.

My contractor has suggested a local Howard's appliance, and the salesperson there is recommending GE or KitchenAid appliances.

I'm intrigued with the Monogram (which I recognize is their top-of-the-line brand) vs. Cafe vs. Profile.

Does anyone have any thoughts to help a girl out? I'm overwhelmed to say the least.

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Comments (5)

boba1
last year
last modified: last year
My suggestion is NOT select the same brand for everything. I currently have a KitchenAid induction range and I won't be slecting another Whirlpool product for cooking. It will be something from the GE stable of brands. GE dishwashers are not rated as well as KitchnAid which isn't rated as high as Bosch, which I have. I"m needing to replace my 17 y/o bottom freezer fridge. (Kenmore Elite made by LG). I"m giong to go with either a WP, KitchenAid, or GE French Door evebntually. Insinkerator Evolution garbage disposer. Vent-A-Hood.
HU-227031627
last year
last modified: last year
What matters most to you about your appliances? How well they cook, how good they look, what special features they have, name brand?

My $100 Oster toaster oven and my $100 Toshiba microwave handle a lot of the cooking in my house. I have an old electric cooktop that I use for the rest. I rarely ever use my full-size oven.

We can all live with bare bones basic appliances. But we don't have to and for various personal reasons we don't. So you need to figure out what matters the most to you.

You say that you don't want high-end but you don't want bargain basement either. You say that you prefer to have your house simply furnished. Yet, you say that you like Monogram. Why do you like Monogram? Because it is the top of the line GE brand or because of its looks or features? Embrace what matters to you. When you figure out what is your driving force, I think you will be able to eliminate much of the playing field pretty easy.

I'm beginning a kitchen remodel and I am going with high-end appliances with cool features that I like. Is that dumb? From a cost standpoint, absolutely. I could easily get along with my $100 Toshiba microwave that I love because I can turn the ring sound off rather than an over-priced Gaggenau combi-microwave. But I want to build a cool showpiece kitchen with no handles, a dishwasher that opens when you knock twice on it, and an induction cooktop with no "burner" lines.

I must have opened and "rattled" the insider drawers of a hundred refrigerators because I can't stand refrigerators with thin, cheap plastic drawers. Does that feature impact the refrigerator's cooling ability or expected years of service? No, but it was what mattered to me.

Of course I have certain expectations of service life, performance, and warranty. But the world has changed since I was born and things are not built to last like they did sadly.
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You want to include the entire dining room wall as part of the closet. Nothing looks weirder than a funky bump out. With two standard 48" bifold doors--something you can do because you don't actually need to attach a bifold door to a vertical stud on the right side (when looking at the closet), so you can place the opening flush against the exterior wall--you will have an impressive and VERY functional eight feet of clear laundry room space with the doors open! You will need to make the right side of the wall narrower than the standard 2x4 because otherwise you only have 95.5". The 2x2 (with one strategic 2x4 turned flat) gets you a happy 97.2", giving you a whopping inch and a half to spare. (Standard doors are much cheaper than special order. Plus big closets are good.) Needless to say, you can't put a door casing on this closet. It will need to be finished sheet rock. That is a normal finishing technique for bifold doors, though. But wait! You say. What about the air return? Never thought you would ask, my friend! The air return gets removed from where it is and a little bit of extra duct is added to redirect it to the side wall of the new closet. Which is a thousand time better of a place for it! The duct gets boxed in and painted. Be a princess and make them use 1/2" plywood, which they can mud over and paint. It will look just like if they drywalled it, but it will mean that you will only lose 2.5" of the lower left corner of the closet (if the return is a standard 4" in depth, which is should be sine you can make it as wide across the side wall as you need to) instead of 4" This is because the front corner of the closet is the 2x4 turned sideways. Then the 2" of the depth of the 2x4 plus the inner drywall plus 2" more of your actual closet space is taken up by the duct. Then there is the half inch of plywood. Only one inch will even stick out into the clear area of the eight foot door. If all that is confusing...it'll look good. Lol. Anyway, you will want to put the dryer on the right, on the exterior wall, and vent it straight out. You can't put it all the way against the wall with no because the bifold door would block it slightly. You will have to leave about two and a half inches to get it in (and out for service). The washer should go to the immediate left of the dryer. Then you will have a hair more than thirty inches to the right of the washing machine.
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stiley
last year
last modified: last year
For our recent remodel, we sprang for a Subzero fridge but have mid-range for other things--GE Cafe range, Bosch DW, Panasonic microwave. I definitely agree with the advice to not use one brand for everything. We had a KitchenAid fridge that started having problems a year in; different brands are strong in different appliances. We had a Whirlpool wall oven/microwave and dishwasher in our old kitchen that were close to 30 years old and still going strong. In your kitchen, what would you like to be the star of the space? A cool range or hood? Beautiful countertops? The design might influence your appliance choices.
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Cavimum
last year
last modified: last year
We remodeled our kitchen 11 years ago and every major appliance is a different brand, chosen for what we considered best in category at that time. We since then had to replace the by-then 17 y/o refrigerator four years ago. Replaced it with a Whirlpool since it fit our floorplan. I would suggest you avoid Whirlpool. This Whirlpool fridge is four years old and the water dispenser now randomly drips. Local honest reputable appliance repair folks quoted us $600 for parts and labor to fix the darned thing, on top of the $150 trip charge. Hubby and I are not happy campers. We paid the trip charge, put a cup under the dispenser, and called it a day.
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delray33483
last year
induction range/cooktop . All the advantage of gas but so easy to clean .

MW drawer is better than an over the range MW . If that is too expensive then fit a small MW into a shelf in the cabnetry .

gert a real exhaust hood over the cooktop - which is wht you should avaoid an OTR MW

Fridgedaire is really a builders level appliance. Bosch would be a good mid level choice .
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Major Renovation - Appliance Recommendations

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boba1

HU-227031627

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stiley

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