Still more appliances: dishin' on dishwashers

Few things can make your life as uncomplicated as a good dishwasher. Conversely, a bad one will ruin whatever semblance of peace an order you house has. The dishwashers I'm showing here are from KitchenAid, who couldn't make a bad dishwasher if they wanted to. Mercifully, they don't want to. KitchenAid is not the best brand out there but they do make a pretty great appliance. At the lower end of its price range, it will out perform anything else you'll see for the same money. At the top of their line, they hold up pretty well to Bosch. In realm of thousand dollar dishwashers, KitchenAid and Bosch are neck and neck. Beyond the thousand dollar threshold, it's Bosch all the way.

Anyhow, let me run through some dishwasher basics before I start testifying.

In the mid-seventies, my mother got her first dishwasher. It was a portable model as were most of them back then. We wheeled it over to the sink and hooked it up to the kitchen faucet. When it was done, we wheeled it back. Believe it or not, you can still buy a portable dishwasher. I cannot imagine who would want one, but there are still a few of them out there.

In 2008 though, most dishwashers are built in. They are usually the only built-in appliance in most American homes. You can spend anywhere from a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars on one. The more more money you spend, the better the appliance, obviously. At the low end they are noisy and inefficient. At they high end, they are so quiet you cannot tell whether or not they're turned on. It's counter-intuitive, but a modern dishwasher uses less water and electricity to wash dishes than handwashing does.

Aesthetically, dishwashers start at the low end of the market with the controls on the front door of the appliance, like this first one. In a model such as this one, they are sold in white (do people still buy white appliances?), black, an off-white the industry calls "biscuit," and stainless steel. Some of these controls-on-the-front models will accept a wooden panel, but most won't. Most of the models you'll find in a home center are in this style. If you do some searching around and if you see enough high-end models, the controls on the front start to look dowdy and old-fashioned.

A newer and cleaner version of this old design is an integrated door. An integrated door has the controls hidden on the top rim of the door. When the door is closed, you can't see any controls, just a sleek door and handle. They will be available in the same basic colors as the lower end models, but you will be hard pressed to see one in a showroom in anything but stainless steel. Some integrated models are designed to accept a wooden panel and cannot function without one in place. An integrated panel in the door style of the surrounding cabinetry will make a dishwasher disappear effectively.

In the photo below and to the left, there is an integrated dishwasher to the right of the sink. What it's hiding is a $1400 Bosch dishwasher that's so quiet it shines a light on the floor to let you know that it's running. Sweet! Be warned though, a coordinated cabinetry panel for a dishwasher will add a couple of hundred dollars to the price of an already-spendy appliance. I've seen them disguised as full-height doors as is this one, and I've seen them masquerading as door/drawer combos and sometimes as banks of drawers.

A couple of years ago, a New Zealand-based appliance manufacturer called Fisher-Paykel (Paykel rhymes with "Michael," so be sure you sound like you know what you're talking about if you ask a dealer about them) introduced a new concept in dishwashers called a drawer dishwasher. (http://www.fisherpaykel.com/) Fisher-Paykel drawer dishwashers are slick and the idea of a drawer dishwasher makes a lot of sense when you look at how people actually live. They come as either two stacked drawers, or as separate drawers that can be placed in different areas in a kitchen.

For single people, having the option to do a half load of dishes is a more efficient and sanitary practice than letting dishes sit until you've accumulated a whole load. For households of more than one or two, you can split the functions of the two drawers. Pots in pot scrubber mode in one drawer and glassware in the glassware mode in the other drawer.

Fisher-Paykel had the drawer dishwasher idea to themselves for a couple of years until four years ago, when KitchenAid came out with a knock-off.

The KitchenAid is not as good an appliance, but that's as much a function of this being a new product for them as much as anything. The double KitchenAid in stainless steel is to the left and the Fisher-Paykel with integrated panels is to the right. Both manufacturers offer single drawer options as well. The single drawer dishwashers are great to use in a bar or in some other part of the house. I've also used them singly in kitchens for small families or single people with one drawer to the right of the sink and the other drawer on an island.

Fisher-Paykel makes some really great stuff and they are going after the American market like gangbusters. I'll get into some of their offerings when I get into honors-track appliances later. But at KBIS (our big indistry show) in Las Vegas last spring, they rolled out a gas cooktop they call the Luna that I still can't believe I saw with my own eyes. The Luna is a glass cooktop and when you turn it on, lit gas burners rise from the surface of it. I can't describe it very well, but their website goes into it in some detail. Go to their press release, http://www.fisherpaykel.com/press/pressreleases/luna.html and read about it for yourself. Amazing, absolutely amazing.

More appliances: home, home with a range

In the world of kitchen appliances, the second one in importance and price to the refrigerator is the range. Most people refer to them as either a stove or an oven, but in appliance land a stove is something that burns wood and heats a cabin and an oven is the compartment where you bake or roast things. The whole appliance is called a range. Ranges come in two primary styles, a free-standing and a slide-in.

A free-standing range has finished sides and functions independently from the counters and cabinetry to either side of it. The easiest way to identify one is that it always has a riser on the back of it, and the appliance's controls are located on that riser for the most part. Free-standing ranges are the traditional design of an American range, it's what most people grew up with and already own. There are gas and electric versions of every model sold by the major manufacturers and they stick to the free-standing and slide-in general styles.

The primary benefit to them is that they cost less than their more contemporary brethren, the slide-in ranges. The downside to them is that they have a riser on the back of them. If you're renovating a kitchen and you want to feature an interesting mosaic backsplash behind your range, a free-standing range shoots you in the foot because it covers such a large part of that space. The cooktop on a free standing range sits at or just above the counter tops to either side of it and they leave a gap between the appliance and the counter.

So far as I know, all electric models sold in the US these days have a ceramic cooktop. The old "eyeball" burners have all but disappeared. As an aside, those cooktops everyone refers to as glass as a ceramic product called Ceran and Ceran is made by one company in the world. Never let someone try to tell you that brand A has a better quality cooktop than brand B because both brands bought their Ceran from the same place.

The newer alternative to a free-standing range is called a slide-in range. A slide-in appears to be smaller than a free-standing range when you see them side by side. To an extent that is correct. However, the oven compartments in both appliances are the same size, the cooktops hold the same number of burners and with no riser the control knobs get shifted to the face of the appliance. So far as function is concerned, both appliances are the same size.

A slide-in doesn't have finished sides and is designed to "slide in" to a gap in the cabinetry and counters. The height of the appliance keeps the cooktop at the same level as the counters and there is no gap between the cooktop and the counter. This makes for a neater appliance. The counter extends underneath the cooktop itself by around a half an inch on both side and on the back. This means that the appliance is not the full depth of the counter and that counter top material extends behind the cooktop.

As a practical matter, replacing a free-standing range with a slide-in in an existing kitchen set up will require that you get new counters at the same time. Fitting one of these things can be tricky, even in a new kitchen. They have zero tolerances for the variation in counter heights. The old rule of thumb in kitchen design was that the top of a kitchen counter stood 36" above the floor. Back in the day, this was a nominal dimension. All homes have uneven floors and there was always some flexibility regarding that 36" height rule. Not since the dawn of the slide-in though. They HAVE to be at least 36" off the floor or they don't fit. Talk about a heartbreak. Imagine spending $40,000 on a kitchen renovation and on the last day, when the appliances are going in you find out that your $2000 slide-in range doesn't fit and that you can't fix it. Oy, that's the stuff that keeps me awake at night.

Every consumer-grade manufacturer out there that I know of makes four versions of the same range: free-standing electric, slide-in electric, free-standing gas and slide-in gas. Most differences between slide-in and free-standing ranges are aesthetic. Free-standing ranges look better because they appear to be smaller, they don't dominate the back splash area and they are more contemporary.

Just as you have to select a refrigerator, so to you'll have to pick a range. If it's up to me, you'd get a bottom-mount, single-door, 36" refrigerator and now a slide-in range. Next up is dishwashers and microwave ovens. Woo-hoo!

Again, both of the appliances shown above are from KitchenAid http://www.kitchenaid.com/

An introduction to appliances: refrigerators

A lot of times, people call me in the very early stages of planning a kitchen renovation. Most people have an idea, even if it's a vague one, of the way they want their new kitchen to look. For most renovation jobs, the largest expenditure will be for the cabinetry that ends up in their kitchen. The second largest they're going to write is to the place where they buy their appliances.

Kitchen appliances aren't really so daunting and learning about them is pretty easy. Most folks end up with the four primary, basic appliances that go into a kitchen. A refrigerator, a range, a dishwasher and a microwave oven. So for kitchen appliances 101, I'm going to concentrate on those four things. And tonight's going to be a run-through on home refrigeration.

Home refrigerators are sold in three primary sizes. And those sizes are their nominal widths. By that I mean, that they aren't really as wide as their sizes suggest. The manufacturers round up the dimension to the nearest size. The sizes are 30 inches, 33 inches and 36 inches. A 30 is the size that would normally end up in an apartment. They are too small for a family to use and unless your home is tiny, it's best to avoid them. 33s aren't very common, though there are a few manufacturers who still make them. I think that the 33 is an endangered species frankly, and they won't be around for much longer.

The 36 is the size where you'll find the largest selection of models and the widest assortment of features. Even if you don't buy a 36 at the time of your renovation, leave room for one and float a smaller-sized fridge in the space for a 36. That will allow you to upgrade later without destroying your cabinetry.

The side-by-side model is probably the most popular one sold in the US. Most of them come with an in-the-door water and ice dispenser. I see a problem with this design though. The freezer side is too narrow to fit something wide. Even though most people don't stockpile a lot of food in the freezer any more. But on at least one occasion a year, you'll buy a great big turkey only to find that it won't fit in the freezer. Ugh. It's sad, but true. The freezer side is too narrow to handle stuff like that. A lot of people who have these realize that keeping an auxiliary fridge with a wider freezer in the garage is a life saver on holidays and other occasions.

The side-by-side pretty much took over the place that top mounted freezers once held. Back in the day, all refrigerators had top mounted freezers, or so it seems to me. Then they went away to be replaced by the side-by-side. So in response to the skinny freezer problem, wider ones are back. But with a twist. Now the freezer is on the bottom. Freezer on the bottom designs makes more sense when you think about it.

Cold air sinks for starters, so it would take less energy to keep colder air low rather than forcing it to an upper compartment. Most people spend more time in the fridge than in the freezer anyway, so it makes sense to keep chilled things at eye level. The bottom mounted freezer is always a drawer, so when you pull it out, you look down at the contents of the freezer rather than having to dig through a compartment as in the days of old.

The newest innovation is what everyone calls a French door fridge. They look good for now but I don't see them adding any real function that will make them last. Most of them have a moveable gasket that locks the doors into the closed position and I always worry about moving parts on something that's going to get used a lot. They are new to the point where no one really knows how long that seal will hold up, but they do look good if only because they're new.

In later installments, I go through the basics of ranges, dishwashers and microwaves. Whether we get into the honors track stuff that covers built-in appliances, drawer freezers, ice makers and the rest of them remains to be seen. I love interesting appliances, I need to find a way to make them interesting though. Hmmmm.

Oh, the refrigerators ion this page came to us from our friends at Kitchenaid. Spend some time on their site, http://www.kitchenaid.com/, they make beautiful and long-lasting appliances.

Budget jobs

Everybody has a budget for a project. It may be $20,000 or it may be $150,000, but in the end there is a limit to how much someone wants to spend. Believe it or not, fitting into a high-budget budget can involve more squeezing than fitting into a lower-priced job. Folks at the higher end of the market tend to have higher expectations and much longer wish lists.

I'm thinking about budgets because I have a meeting tomorrow morning with a very nice couple and their builder. The Very Nice Couple are in their mid-thirties and they have four kids, and I think the oldest is about 12.

These fine folks aren't wealthy, but they seem to be doing on the better side of OK. They seem pretty typical of most of the people who populate the endless suburbs. They are truly interesting and their children are their number one priority. Mom and Dad's vanity is not why we're having this meeting tomorrow morning. Rather, they live in a typical Florida block ranch house with its also typical tiny kitchen. They are out of room and they need to do something.

My job is to give this pretty cool young family a kitchen and a pantry that will make their lives easier, look great and not prevent the kiddies from going to college in a few years. Also typical for them and the house they live in, there are a bunch of mid-80s "innovations" that need to be undone, hence the presence of a contractor at tomorrow morning's meeting. They are buying their cabinetry and counters through me and I can control those costs somewhat, but I have to go easy on the construction demands I put on the contractor. I would love to remove the popcorn ceilings in the whole damn house, but that's just not in the cards. So we're going to move a doorway and remove a soffit that's hanging from the ceiling in the existing kitchen. We can't remove a bunch of interior walls, but we can get rid of one of them. Tearing down non-bearing walls in a ranch house can transform them.

It seems that back in the day, builders jammed a bunch of tiny rooms into these 1800 square foot wonders to make them appear to be larger. All those tiny rooms have the exact opposite effect though. So by breaking through one of two of the 20 I'd love to get rid of, we can give them the appearance of a bit more room.

The contractor will come in somewhere between nine and ten thousand dollars, I know that. He's going to cover the construction, painting, flooring, cabinetry installation and lighting. That's going to leave me with about the same amount for counters, cabinetry, a range and a fridge. Oh yeah, I have to get a microwave oven in here too. That is a tall order, but I'm remaining optimistic about it. We're just going to have to get creative and the homeowners are going to have to roll up their sleeves and take on some of the labor.

I've already started weed-whacking my cabinetry designs and I've taken out the obvious budget-busters like glass inserts in doors and cutlery dividers. Gone too are the ornate moldings that first brought them to me last June. We're using a builder-grade cabinet called Silverline from Medallion Cabinetry (www.medallioncabinetry.com). Another thing they won't budge on is their insistence on granite counters. Granite counters aren't the outrageously expensive luxury item they once were. But still, they will need a couple thousand dollars worth of granite for their job. The trade off for granite on the counters is cabinetry made from maple instead of the cherry we started with. Maple is a fine hardwood, but it costs more for a reason --it just looks better than maple does. Oh well. But there are some things I just can't get rid of. Four kids generate huge amounts of stuff and I have to find places to hide all of that stuff when it's not in use.

So after seven months of reevaluating needs and wants, we're just about where we need to be to actually start. Mercifully, The Nice Couple has stuck this out. They understood pretty early on that I was there to help them transform their home. I have been upfront with them all along about prices and comparative values, and they get it. I love working with people like this for a couple of months. I love it when we can get our interactions down to the point where they trust me enough to say, "Paul, we want to spend less than $2000 on a 36"-wide stainless steel refrigerator. Is that even possible?" I care about this job genuinely and when we say goodbye for the last time in a couple of months, they will be happy our paths crossed.

I'm looking forward to this job. A lot of times, I'm party to the construction of ego trips rendered in wood and drywall. So much of what I do seems like it doesn't matter very much in the long run. I talk about improving people's lives, but I wonder how much improving I do sometimes. In a case like this though, I have no doubt that the four kids who will be fed from this kitchen will be fed by a far less frustrated set of parents.

I'm not a sentimental man, especially when it comes to children. But the idea of those four kids doing homework on counter tops of my design warms my cold, cold heart.

Competitive bids

I sent out a proposal to someone who was referred to me a week ago. I did a proposal for a Cadillac-version of a kitchen renovation for them. They wouldn't tell me what their budget was, they wanted a lot of vague, nice touches and so that's what I gave them. I explained to them in a cover letter that what I had provided them was a proposal and that it was the beginning of a conversation. The perspective drawings I sent them showed what we'd talked about, and the price information I sent them was how much a kitchen containing the features I used would cost.

I received an e-mail back that they appreciated all of my hard work, but that they were getting two more "competitive bids" and they would get back to me.

A lot of people subscribe to the belief that they need to get three competitive bids before getting any work done on their homes and then they should go with the lowest bid. That sounds like a recipe for heartache to me.

Here's why: for starters, bids can only be competitive if your three bidders are pricing identical things. They can only price identical things if you write them a spec sheet and say; "Here, price this." If you don't know how to write specs for something you want to have done on your home you can either learn how or you can try a new tack.

Try this next time. Interview a bunch of bidders and go with the one who makes you comfortable. Or go with the one whom you trust. Or go with the one who has a track record he or she can prove to you through references. Construction stuff of similar quality costs about the same regardless who's providing them.

If the folks I wrote about at the beginning of this are getting bids and that's their prerogative. Had I known that all along I would not have invested the time in their proposal that I did, that's for sure. Had I known that from the start, I would have outlined the specifications I was planning to follow (since they didn't have a clue) and I would written that down and given it to them to use for their other bids. If I'm going to have to compete for something, I am going to do everything in my power to level the field, believe me. So now these fine folks have my proposal that they think is a bid. If they go to two other bottom feeders, they will get bids from them that are half the price of my proposal and I will look like I over charge. I don't over charge though. I sell a better product than what you'd find at a home center or a buyer's club.

It's as if you went to a BMW dealer and said, "I want a car, how much for a car?" The dealer will come back with a bunch of questions and through those questions will figure out what you want. Then he'll look you in the eye and tell you that what you want costs $55,000.

Armed with that information, you drive down the road and go to a KIA dealer and go through the same thing. The KIA guy comes up with a price of $18,000.

Finally, you go to a Dodge Dealer and he's having a special on Neons and he can put you in a Neon for $14,000.

So now you have three prices, three competitive bids in a very warped sense of the term. They tell you nothing about the comparative value of those three kinds of cars. They are three prices for three very different things.

So with that off my chest, I have this to say: go get your bids if that will give you a sense of control. But tell the people you're getting them from what you're doing. Be sure you are pricing identical things if you're comparing prices. But be warned, when you're contemplating something as complicated as a renovation or a construction project, direct comparisons are nearly impossible. So find someone you trust, it will cost you less in the long run.