The fridge The ovens

Appliances

We looked around at the various retailers and home improvement centers for the best price or sale for our appliances, and ended up buying them from Home Depot. Their price and selection was good, and they offered fast delivery.

We looked at black and stainless appliances. Both were nice, however, we liked how the stainless contrasted against the other colors in the kitchen, although we were a bit concerned with the fingerprints that the stainless steel would pick up from our children. Eventually, we decided to go with stainless.

The cooktop sits in our island, the double oven just across from it in the wall, and the microwave and fridge behind it in the other wall. The dishwasher naturally sits next to the sink.

Initially, we planned to buy all of our appliances from a single manufacturer so that they would match. However, we found that within the product groups the manufacturers offered, some of the appliances were good, but we were not satisfied with the others. So, we picked the appliances we liked the best regardless of the manufacturer; they all seem to match well since they are all stainless. We ended up with a mix from GE (ovens & microwave), LG (fridge & dishwasher), and Jenn-Aire (cooktop).

One thing we learned was that you pay a *huge* premium to have your cooktop and ovens as separate units. By the time we learned this, the cabinet design had locked us into the separate unit layout, so it was too late to change. But, for the price of a moderate cooktop & separate double oven unit, you can buy a top-of-the-line, commercial grade oven / cooktop combo (that actually has two ovens, too) from Wolf. If I had to do it over again, I would probably go with the single unit.

The Home Depot truck arrived to deliver our appliances, and decided that since there was a little snow on our driveway (seriously - like a quarter inch), he would be unable to deliver and install the appliances. Unfortunately, no one mentioned that this could be a problem - had I known, I would have had the driveway cleared off. But I was amazed with the light dusting of snow he would not do the delivery. Since we were in a real crunch for time, I told him to leave the appliances in the street and raced home from work. My wife and I then loaded them in the garage. With the help of a few others the next day, I got the appliances into the house.

This, of course, left me in the position of installing the appliances myself - although not a big deal, it took me the better part of a day to get everything set up and working.

We love the appliances, particularly LG's fridge and dishwasher. They are so quiet you can't even tell they are running. In our last house, our dishwasher sounded like a semi truck - the new one is a fresh change.

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