When we were in Wickenburg earlier this month, Damsel ordered all of the appliances for the new house. There is an appliance store in town where our contractor recommended we order the new equipment.
The kitchen appliances will all be stainless steel. Damsel ordered a 23 cubic foot stainless side-by-side freezer and fridge. The microwave sits over the five burner stainless range and oven which is a one-piece built in unit, as is the dishwasher. We will have a stainless two-tub sink under the kitchen window.
I went on to Lowe’s virtual room designer and built the kitchen seen here. Our actual kitchen will not be quite as wide as this model but the appliances will be placed roughly as shown. Our cabinets will probably look a bit different than those pictured here since we went with a rustic southwestern finish.
Click on the image to enlarge.
Looking good!
Last time I was wandering around that part of Lowe’s, I saw one their customer service reps running some similar software to help somebody design their Kitchen. I thought it was neat because they had all the “icons” or “objects” for their entire stock of appliances, cabinets, and other things.
It reminded me of Visio on steroids.
As a appliance service person, a couple of well meant suggestions for you both:
1) Refrigerators. Freezers on the bottom can be an issue. Bending down, and digging for frozen items, is cumbersome at best, and keeps the cold air escaping, eventually building ice by the evaporator. Try a stand alone Freezer / Fridge assembly. A separate stand-up fridge and freezer units. It gives you the room and the storage space. Ask yourself, do I really need the space, and do I entertain enough to need the space. How fast does food move in the house?
Measure the space needed by opening all the fridge doors, then seeing if it interferes with other counter space.
2) Stainless Steel, it does stain, and it is a finger print magnet. Special cleaners are needed and expensive. Depending on how the manufacture produced the steel, the stainless could rust. Appliances are not made under consistent standards and quality controls. Manufactures of appliances assume you’ll toss them for the latest and greatest.
3) Dish Washers, would not recommend them. Unless you have built-in dishwashers, like children, then washing dishes can be therapeutic. Dishwashers also attract cockroaches. However, if you get one, make sure you have a good local exterminator handy. Make the electrical wiring, hoses, and cabinet cavity, serviceable. Use long flex tubing for water and plenty of Romex to pull the thing out for servicing.
4) Use Gas for cooking. Propane, Natural, whatever. Electric is problematic. Expensive, and subject to Cap and Tax. Self clean is a joke. Cooking gets dirty, it splatters, and it drips. Self-cleaning ovens tend to raise your electrical costs when used for cleaning, and it tends to burn out the electric controls. I never use them. Although, in Hawai’i, we use donkey dung for making Laulau’s…just kidding.
We have a dual oven stove with five stove top burners. It tends to be more than we need, except during Thanksgiving and Christmas.
5) Home electronics: Get a least a Three Year Extended Warranty. Manufactures are market driven and will produce a product that can be thrown away every 3 to 5 years. There is no incentive for manufacturers to build products to last 10 to 20 years.
Manufacturers will assemble their products using the cheapest components available. Namely, China, which doesn’t have a great quality control reputation.
Lastly, Consumer Reports; tends not to know what they are talking about, anymore.
I’ve found on-line reviews make the best research.
Good luck, and I hope I didn’t intrude on your dream too much.
Kini
Kini,
Thanks for the expert advice. Sounds like you have seen it all.
The refrigerator is a side by side. The virtual kitchen designer popped that one up and I didn’t bother to find the right one:
We’re not too worried about the stainless. Wickenburg has year-round low humidity except for monsoons in late summer so rust is not likely to be much of a problem.
We put a dishwasher in the California kitchen about 12 years ago and maybe we used it once. We’re including another one just to make the kitchen complete.
I agree about gas cooking. We ordered gas oven/range and dryer.
Finally, we did the research and only ordered US built products. We understand about all the Chinese crap.
Thanks for your thoughts, and if we ever make Laulaus, we’ll keep the ingredients in mind . . . 😉
DrJim – Visio on steroids LOL.