Kitchen remodels

[Norse]

We love everything about our kitchen remodel, which took place over 6 years ago. I love to cook and we had a tiny, L-shaped galley style kitchen, and now we have a big kitchen with a large bean-shaped island that opens to the living room. When you are cooking, everyone wants to chat with you and they could not do that in our tiny galley before. This works so much better. They can sit at the island and I can be actively engaged while cooking. Things I love:
- the openess
- 6-burner cooktop set into the island
- double ovens
- quiet dishwasher
- big sink next to a small one
- fridge with freezer on the bottom
- love, love, love our granite counter-tops (overdue for a re-seal, but they seem fine)
- the overall European/French countryside "look" we were able to achieve.

We have hardwood floors in the kitchen, as that continues with the rest of the house. For appliances, we went GE Profile and have no complaints. We had a great contractor. Finding one involved a lot of research, we then picked three to meet with. The company we went with was the middle-range bidder, a family-owned local business that's been around for decades and, in the end, just felt right.

For help with ideas, in the beginning of the process we picked up several kitchen remodel publications at Home Depot, and a few magazines that focused on kitchen projects. We also did what you're doing - ask people! A kitchen remodel IS a painful process, but so worth it in the end. Good luck!

[ny biker]

- fridge with freezer on the bottom

I have read that models with the freezer on the bottom are most energy efficient (due to the whole hot-air-rises thing). Unfortunately I read that just *after* I had bought a new freezer-on-top refrigerator to replace the old one that had died out on me.