A few people have commented on having had problems with their contractors. That is too often the case and gives the entire industry a bad name. So let me start by saying that I work for a general contractor who specializes in high end remodeling. We, and certainly most of our real competitors, will bend over backwards to be sure the homeowner gets what he/she expected. Homeowners who go with the cheapest estimate they get, but expect to have a project worthy of House Beautiful or Architectural Digest, are setting themselves up for disappointment. While not impossible it’s probably not likely either. Talk to several contractors about your project, and spend a lot of time evaluating what one will offer over and above the lowest estimate. Budget concerns may drive you to lower priced components, fixtures but you should understand what you are giving up when you buy the $99 toilet (or insert any appliance). You might have to flush several times, but you saved $200 . Think about your trade-offs. Talk to your friends, and their friends, about their remodeling experiences, and get recommendations for a contractor. A more reputable contractor should be able to give you references and take you to see some finished projects.

1. What I wish I had in my current kitchen - a functional exhaust fan. This house came with a non-vented fan that is useless. And better quality cabinets. 30 yr old particle board disintegrates.

2. What I hate the most about my kitchen: stove is right next to the wall. If I am stirring a pot on the right side burners, either the spoon, or my elbow hits the wall constantly, and spills the contents of the spoon. You need at least 10-12" of countertop on either side of your stove.

3. What seems like a good idea - ceramic tile on the floor? It's hard on your feet/legs if you are cooking a lot, and EVERYTHING you drop breaks. Everything. Or worse, cracks a tile. Sure, it's easy to clean, but the grout gets icky, and well, everything breaks. You can drop a glass on a wood or vinyl floor and it might not break. I have tile right now, and would never ever have it again. My summer house has a hardwood floor, which is great. Heated tile might be nice, but you still have the hardness factor, and the breakage. I don't think heat makes up for those (to me anyway) drawbacks, but it’s great in a bathroom!

4. Countertops - I have laminate, it's over 30 yrs old and really needs to be replaced. My next kitchen will have soapstone countertops. We have granite at work - it looks nice when it's been cleaned and not full of lunch dishes and stuff, but it's cold, hard, and if you knock over a glass, oh well. It's broken. We put in laminate at the summer house due to budget concerns. It's very forgiving. Corian and many other new surfaces costs just as much as granite. There are a lot of interesting countertop surfaces out now, and it's one place you can have fun. There are some websites where you can play with your kitchen, change the floor, cabinets, countertops, and appliances to see how they all look together.

5. Biggest waste of $? Hmm, I'll probably incur a lot of wrath by saying granite but I really don't like to break things. However if you bake and need a place to roll out dough for bread, pies, cookies, think about including a baking center with a granite top. I don’t like appliance garages, but if you have a big and heavy Kitchen Aid mixer or a heavy food processor for example, be sure you plan for where you are going to put it.

6. Best $ spent - a quiet dishwasher. I replaced a 30 yr old noisy D/W with a new Bosch. You can barely tell that it's on. We bought a Fridgidaire for the summer house that's even better – it has great racks for wine glasses and bowls of any size. My Bosch does not fit my wine glasses, nor my soup or cereal bowls well at all. Task and undercabinet lighting. I wish I had that now. I am always chopping things in my own shadow. We did it right at the summer house. And the slow/self closing drawers are wonderful. We also got some pretty slick swing-out corner cabinets that let you really use that buried space at inside corners, much better than the lazy susan style.

If you are changing the layout, I'd want to be sure to have some counter top on both sides of the sink and stove and even on the fridge if you can so you have room to put things down. Our summer kitchen is not very big, but we have a great peninsula where the cabinets open on both sides, so no climbing into the cabinet to get the big pots out from the back, or the bottom. Just walk around to the other side to fetch them. We can have 4 or 5 people actually cooking or prepping at the same time. Many people forget to plan for a place to put the trash, and a place to put the brooms and mops and stuff, so keep that in mind. The electric code will dictate the minimum number of outlets - you can always add more, and that's probably a good idea.

The trend is for open floor plans, with eating areas in the kitchen. Quite frankly I hate that! When I have people over for dinner, I don't really want them to see the pots and pans awaiting washing. I also want to try to contain cooking odors, and we want to sit in the dining room and not have anyone at the table thinking about the kitchen or dishes, pots and pans awaiting washing. Then there were the 2 women who wanted me to teach them how to make a béarnaise sauce. They were aghast when I put in an entire stick of butter and however many egg yolks were required. Their looks were priceless but they ate it all. While it’s nice to have company and help in the kitchen, there is a lot of merit in Julia Child’s wisdom when she said, “Remember, “nobody can see you in the kitchen.”