Kitchen remodels

[NbyNW]

A bit late to the party, but here's some feedback on our recent kitchen remodel:

1. What do you wish you'd put in and didn't for whatever reason
NanaWall Folding doors that would open out onto our deck. It's a beautiful bi-fold system that would have also given us a nice smooth threshold. Would have essentially turned that entire wall into a window. But prohibitively expensive. We went with traditional wood-framed french doors instead.

2. What did you put in that seemed like a good idea at the time, but you don't love for whatever reason
An additional 3" depth to a built-in bench at our dining area. Makes for a tight squeeze between our dining table and island.

3. Countertops - what do you have, do you love it/hate it/too much maintenance etc
Cambria quarts. Love it.

4. biggest waste of $$
We are actually very pleased with how everything turned out. I think this goes back to communication between DH and me about what we wanted, our designer and contractor doing a great job of setting expectations, and also feeling like they were looking out for us in terms of costs and materials every step of the way. Our contractor and his subs found some good deals for us on finish details, also made recommendations of what they have found to be good value on other projects when it came to some of the electrical and plumbing decisions.

5. best $$ spent
Hiring an interior designer. We hired a colleague of mine that I know through an association that we both volunteer for ... so I knew that she was like-minded to me as far as design philosophy went. The most expensive aspect of our project was new plumbing and electrical, since we ended up changing the layout of our kitchen extensively. The end result, though, is far better than anything we could have imagined on our own.

A few specific points that added some nice touches:
- heated tile floors
- tiled backsplash with glass accent tile is beautiful!
- used epoxy grout -- it's much more durable than regular grout and cleans up much more easily
- special drain traps to catch larger solids before they go into the garbage disposal -- we have an older house and our drain pipes are skinnier than in new construction, so we try not to put too much stuff in the In-Sinkerators.
-storage for cookbooks
- nice mix of accent lighting and task lighting
- 4-plug power strips instead of traditional 2-outlet panels ... the power strips are installed where countertop meets backsplash or under counter, so they don't interfere with tile design
- I'm short, so our designer lowered the cabinet clearance to 14" (18" is standard). This means I can reach the second shelf up in the cabinets! Woohoo!
- soft-close drawers