Who Would've Thought Picking Appliance Were THIS Hard (Kitchen Remodel Part Duex)

Disclaimer: Some of the pictures that I used are not my own, and if they aren't my own, I put the link to the source that I found them at below the picture.
     GAH! So sorry yall. I got swamped at my 9-to-5 job, which means I fell behind on my duties of posting here (starting off 2019 right *sarcasm*), but the upside is that I'll post twice in one week to make up for my slacking (please don't leave me). Anyway... Once we had our layout picked and locked in, next was to move on to appliances and picking those, and man, let me tell you, picking appliances is a pain in the ass. Pardon the language, but it's necessary in this instance.

     Do you know how many styles of refrigerators there are?

     How many decibels you should have in a dishwasher?

     There's so many styles of ranges, they're not just gas or electric anymore.

     Ugh.

     Before I overwhelm you (the way I did myself when I started this journey), let's break this post into appliance categories:

• Refrigerator
• Dishwasher
• Range
• Sink

     ... That should help.

     Let's start with the good ole refrigerator, because everyone loves food:

REFRIGERATOR

     The most common styles of a refrigerator are: top freezer, side-by-side, bottom freezer, french door, and mini refrigerator.

     Obviously the mini refrigerator isn't an option for us, because we're no longer in a dorm.

     I think the first step people should consider - before even diving into the different types of refrigerators - is to consider if you want your refrigerator to be counter-depth or standard-depth:

Picture Source

Counter-depth VS Standard Depth: counter-depth refrigerators are around 23 to 27 inches in depth and tend to be taller, while a standard-depth refrigerator is 30 to 34 inches and tend to have more storage space. The reason people tend to opt for counter-depth is because the refrigerator is more flush with the cabinetry.

     We knew we wanted counter-depth so that it wouldn't stick out further than our base cabinets, so at least that decision gave us a jumping point... Next was the style. The most common choice is french door, and to be honest, we always knew we wanted a french-door refrigerator, because, come on, everyone loves opening both the doors at the same time, and basking in the light of the fridge while you decide on your food choice.

     However, for sake of fairness, here are the descriptions of each style (and their names are pretty obvious as to what they look like):

• Top Freezer: These aren't the best at being energy-efficient usually, but they tend to be on the cheaper side of refrigerator buying.
• Side-by-Side: These are also not great at being energy-efficient, but they're still a go-to model because of their affordable price tags, and the fact that they don't require a lot of "swing space" for the doors, so they're great for smaller spaces.
• Bottom Freezer: These are great at being energy-efficient, and the price tags are reasonably priced.
• French Door: It's the perfect hybrid of the bottom freezer's energy-efficiency, and the convenience of the side-by-side.
• Mini: ... Wait... No... Stop that! We're not doing a mini fridge review, because we aren't in a dorm, remember?

     After picking our style that best suited our needs, then it was picking out the nit-picky things that were important for us to have - and honestly, being specific about our nit-picky details, helped us narrow down in our vast search:

• Energy-star certified
• Water dispenser (internal or external)
• Ice machine
• Panel-ready or stainless steel (preferable fingerprint resistant)
• Air purifier inside
• Spill-proof interior shelving
• Slide-in/Fold-up/Removable interior shelving
• At least 20+ cubic feet capacity (preferably around 24 cubic feet)

     Now you might be thinking "how did you come up with these requirements?"

     Research my dear friends. Lots and lots of research.

     Now some of these are pretty obvious wants (energy-star certified, ice machine, etc.), but some of the other things took some serious research, and some talking with professionals to understand:

• We ended up going with an internal water dispenser, because I was told that the number one thing that breaks on refrigerators - no matter the brand - is an external water/ice dispenser, mainly due to the ice dispenser feature - so why spend all this money to risk it breaking, when it could just be avoided by getting it internally?
• We wanted the slide-in/fold-up/removable interior shelving because Nick loves to make a giant pitcher of kool-aid, and it's quite tall - and I love a good bottle of champagne, if we're being honest here
• We figured the cubic feet capacity, because the rule-of-thumb is that you roughly want 4-6 cubic feet per adult in the house, so a family of four is probably wanting nothing smaller than 20 cubic square feet (source)

DISHWASHER

     Sweet. Baby. Jesus! Dishwashers are complicated - and I thought they would be the easier of the appliances to choose between...

     There's freestanding, built-in, counter-top, slimline. It's a lot is what it is. Instead of getting down in the details of everything, just know this:

• There's the traditional dishwasher, which tend to be either freestanding or built-in (moving or affixed), and they can be panel-ready (it looks like another base cabinet in the kitchen) or it can be a traditional outside
• There's slim-lines, which are great at saving space
• Counter-top dishwasher are pretty self-explanatory (they sit on your counter-top)

     However, the ones I would like to shine a little light on to are drawer or "compact" dishwashers. There's been a "new wave" for the drawer - or "compact" dishwashers, and to be honest, my mother has them and loves them. Now while Nick and I didn't go the route of a drawer dishwasher, I think they're so amazing because they're especially great for small families, or single households, or for people with disabilities, which is why I wanted to give them a special shout out during this rundown on appliances... Anyway, I'm a traditional kind of gal, and prefer my dishwasher to be a full one. Plus, I'll admit it, I'm terrible at pre-washing my plates before putting them in the dishwasher, thus the need for a hard food disposal internally, if possible.

     So here was our requirement list:

• Energy-star certified (noticing a pattern with this one?)
• Panel-ready or stainless steel (noticing a pattern with this one too?)
• Stainless steel tub and arms
• 14-piece place setting
• Under 45 decibels
• Hard food disposal, is possible
• Under-counter mounted
• Adjustable racks, with a 3rd rack, if possible
• Safety-float switch

While the obvious ones are still there, the less obvious ones we came about through the following research:

• We wanted a stainless steel tub and arms, because they're less likely to hold smells and stains
• We choose under 45 decibels, based on the fact that our original dishwasher was so loud that we needed something much quieter
• A hard-food disposal was a huge plus because, again, I'm terribly at pre-washing our dishes, but we found that some company's don't market a "hard-food disposal" but instead offer that their water heats up to a point that it breaks the food down into such tiny particles, that they're small enough to pass without issues
• The 3rd rack is more because I would rather have the options of more racks than less, with the ability to move and/or adjust the racks

Picture Source

RANGE

     The crown jewel of them all.

     When it came to deciding on a range, it was a big deal for Nick and myself, because we both agreed that we didn't want a wall oven (let alone a double-wall oven), but we knew we wanted needed two ovens, so that immediately made us have to look into professional ranges that had an oven and a half.

     So here was our requirement list:

• 48" double oven
• Dual-fuel
• 6 burners with 1 griddle
• Stainless steel
• Sabbath Mode, or a warming mode
• Full-extension racks
• Self-cleaning button
• Flame-failure feature
• 4 cubic feet, at a minimum, in the main oven

Here's the information found during my research:

• Dual-fuel is where the oven part of the range is convection, while the stove-top part is gas, which I loved because I love cooking with gas, but baking with convection
• The griddle was a must for Nick and his bacon habit
• I really wanted a warming drawer, but every time I tried to make it fit into our layout, I couldn't, and then you add in the cost of a warming drawer, and it just wasn't worth it. Then I found "Sabbath Mode" kept popping up on all the ranges, and after some research, it actually can acting a "warming function"
• Full-extension racks were a must, because turkeys can get heavy
• Flame-failure is so that gas doesn't accidentally leak into my house

SINK

     Okay, remember when I told you I was shocked out how complicated picking a dishwasher was, man, so is picking a sink. First and foremost: one basin or two? And everyone has different opinions on which is correct. And then, if you decide you want to do two-basin, there's so many options from there as well.

     ... And guess which one we choose to do?
     Ugh.

     There is a wonderful Facebook group called "Decorating Love" that is all about people from all over coming together to help each other make decisions around their homes. It's amazing to say the least. Anyway, when I was trying to figure out between a single basin or a double, I knew I could poll a lot of homeowners for their personal opinions, and here's what I got after 109 comments:

Single Basin Pros

• Can fit large items easily, like laying pans down flat
• Easier to fill pots
• Adorable baby bath time photo opts

Double Basin

• Being able to have a side open, while one side soaks dishes
• Better for handwashing
• Not always large enough for bigger items (like pans, etc.)

     The other big factors that I found with looking for sinks was that 10 inches is the ideal depth (way too many jokes to count with that statement), and the placement of a disposal on a double-basin is an interesting debate: Most people put the disposal on the small side (probably do to using it for food prep with fruits and veggies), but I found that when Nick and I were soaking dishes in the bigger side (spoiler alert on what sink we choose), all the food bits are in the bigger side, so wouldn't it make more sense for the disposal to be on the bigger side? I wish I had realized that before, because now if we wanted to change it, we would have to change all our plumbing, which isn't worth it. Luckily, our sink came with a food catcher for the big sink, so it's really not that big of a deal.

INCENTIVES

     When you start looking for appliances, you'll notice that company's will give incentives that if you purchase multiple items from their company, they'll give you a percentage off or throw in another item for free. Like GE Monogram does an incentive of buying a range, get a free hood, or KitchenAid gives a $500 visa gift card with the purchase of three appliances, or Bosch will do a 15% mail-in rebate when you purchase three or more qualifying Benchmark appliances.

     Get those incentives!

     I mean, don't be blinded by the incentives, but definitely make them work in your favor. Like the fact that we knew we were buying a professional range, but that gave us the option of the incentive of getting a free hood with our range, so why wouldn't we take the free hood, which saves us around $1,200? My point it, when you do your research correctly, you can get more bang for your buck. However, don't fall into a trap where you compromise what you want due to an incentive.

     We ended up mixing and matching, while making the range incentive work for us. So what did we end up going with?

Photo Source

Refrigerator:  GE Cafe (CWE23SSHSS)

• We also opted for GE because they're a well-known company so if anything (Heaven forbid) goes wrong with it, it can easily be fixed
• We opted for the Cafe series, because while I was pretty hooked on the idea of doing the Monogram series especially with getting that extra incentive that came with making the whole kitchen GE Monogram, but because I opted for a different incentive, I could no longer justify buying the Monogram series, when the Cafe is basically the exact same thing. I'm not joking. I actually don't know what the differences are between the two, except the price tag.
• Things that we wanted, and got:
• Counter-depth
• Internal water dispenser
• French door
• Spill-proof shelving
• Energy-star certified
• Ice machine
• Air purifier inside
• Slide-in/Fold-up/Removable interior shelving
• At least 20+ cubic feet capacity 
• Things that we wanted, but didn't get with this appliance:
• Fingerprint resistant stainless steel

Photo Source

Dishwasher:  Bosch (SHVM98W73N)

• Bosch is the boss with dishwasher, and have a reputation to back that claim to fame. So of course they were always in the running for us, and I will say *spoiler alert* it's my second favorite appliance in our kitchen. Seriously. It's a thing of beauty.
• I always wanted a panel-ready dishwasher, while Nick likes his appliances to standout, so I looked into the cost for us to do a panel-ready dishwasher, with the expectation that what I would want was more expensive, but it actually ended up being about $100 cheaper to do a panel-ready, so that's why we went that route.
• Things that we wanted, and got:
• Energy-star certified
• Panel-ready
• Stainless steel tub and arms
• 16-piece place setting
• 40 decibels
• Under-counter mounted
• Adjustable racks, with a 3rd rack
• Safety-float switch
• Things that we wanted, but didn't get with this appliance:
• Bosch does not offer a hard-food disposal, but rather, they heat the particles up enough during the cycle that they breakdown into smaller bits that are much easier for the dishwasher to process

Photo Source

Range:  Fulgor Milano (F6PDF486GS1)

• We were debating between the GE Monogram range and this Fulgor, after a suggestion from a sales representative, and once I realized that both GE Monogram and Fulgor were offering a free hood incentive, I started to weigh the price tags, and Fulgor just made the most sense for our wallet
• We get to customize a name plate on the Fulgor, which is silly, but also, awesome
• Things that we wanted, and got:
• 48" double oven
• Dual-fuel
• 6 burners with 1 griddle
• Stainless steel
• Sabbath Mode, or a warming mode
• Full-extension racks
• Self-cleaning button
• Flame-failure feature
• 4 cubic feet, at a minimum, in the main oven
• Things that we wanted, but didn't get with this appliance:
• Fingerprint resistant stainless steel

Photo Source

Sink:  Ruvati (RVH7419)

• We decided that a two-basin sink was the route we wanted to go, once we realized that there's such a thing as a 60/40 split sink. Basically, one side of the sink is bigger than the other, which seemed to give us the best of both worlds.
• Initially I was going to go with a gray sink, but then Nick suggested a stainless steel sink, and it just made the most sense, and that's what we went with.
• Things that we wanted, and got:
• 10 inches in depth
• Things that we wanted, but didn't get with this appliance:
• Nothing, because it's the perfect sink for us *boomshockalocka*
• Disposal:  InSinkErator (Evolution Series Excel)
• My big thing for a disposal was I wanted it to be quiet, so after a lot of research, that's how I landed on this one

Photo Source

Incentives:

• Range Hood:  Zephyr (AK9246AS)
• Through AJ Madison, they gave us a free hood with the purchase of our range, which saved us almost $1,500!! Enough said.
• The big thing for us was that we only had 8 inches of duct space, so we needed to find a 48 inch hood that had 8 inches of duct space needed, which we thought we did, but apparently it at 10 inches with this hood, unfortunately. However, enter Vinny, who can fix anything, and he converted the duct space to work for us and this hood

Photo Source

     We ordered our appliances through #AJMadison on Monday, November 12th, 2018, and we received them on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2019, so that's just a little over a 7 week wait time for appliances, which was obnoxious since we were told that delivery time was between 4 to 6 weeks, so we thought we planned it right to have them in before - or even right after - Christmas, but instead, they came after New Years. Cest la vie.


     So I hope might breakdown of everything, plus what we actually went with, helps everyone out in their future buying process. After about six months to a year of living with my appliances, I'll give another review of how they're holding up, and what we still love, and what we're not a fan of.

Sarah

#MeAndVinny