I re-did my kitchen top to bottom last spring, and there were a couple of things that I really wanted but in retrospect ended up being pains in the butts and expensive.

First and foremost is the cook top. I REALLY wanted a flat cooktop and a built in oven. I had a big, old, ugly slide in and felt those cooktops and built in ovens looked oh-so-lovely. Okay, so they DO look lovely, but the ceramic is a b*tch to keep clean. I had to buy a scraper and a special cleaning solution and it's just a lot of work. The built in oven's nice, but because my kitchen's small I could only put it right below the cooktop, it's so low to the floor that I literally have to kneel down to do anything with it (put things in/out, look in on it). Next time, I hope I can have gas so I'll just get a slide-in gas stove (we're only allowed electric in the condo).

Another thing I'm not terribly keen, and I've been told, is the stainless appliances. That also looks nice out of the box, but not very practical (especially if you have kids. I don't and it's still hard to keep clean).

I went for the quartz countertop, and while I love it, I'm not sure if the colour was the best (I got a speckled white-ish/grey-ish pattern - it's Caesarstone's "Atlantic Salt"). It's beautiful, but I can't see any dirt on it. So, depending on your style of cleanliness, it's either good or bad. I'd hate to think how dirty the countertop really is, I just don't see it so I don't clean it nearly as often as I should.

One thing I regret not putting in is the floor heating. I did in the bathroom and it's probably the single thing I just absolutely love. The bathroom's the best place to be this time of year. So, in retrospect, I wish I had shelled out a bit of cash to heat the kitchen, too. Though my logic was I wear slippers so I wouldn't have needed it heated, but it lets off quite a bit of heat so it would've been cozy.

Another feature that I absolutely love and am so grateful that I did was my kitchen sink. I got it from Costco. It's a double sink, but the divider is only about half the regular height so I can put big pans without the handle sticking out. And I love the faucet where you take out the nozzle. I don't like that it drips water onto the countertop from my hands, but that's a small thing I can live with.

I went with Ikea cupboards and I love them. I got the high-gloss, and it's a great feature in that it's a total breeze to clean.

All in all I'm happy, but I still see a lot of flaws that the contractor didn't do very well (like laying the tiles not flush so you sometimes trip over the lip of the tile).