Appliance Shopping.

BTW – This post is just 1 in a series of Home Design and Build posts. You can find them all right here: Positively Jane's Home Design and Build.

February 10, 2023

I will confess, right up front, that I am an appliance snob. Yup – I said it out loud. Please don't judge me.

When we gutted and renovated a kitchen in one of our previous houses I delayed the project until we had enough money for me to buy those fancy Wolf ranges and Sub Zero refrigerators that I saw in all of the magazines. I wanted the 48″ range, integrated refrigerator with drawers, freezer drawers to match and an ice machine. And, I bought ALL of that.

It turns out that I loved the range but found that bending down to put things in the oven was getting harder. I did love having the 2 ovens. I LOVED the refrigerator and freezer drawers. But, the ice machine made too much noise and we didn't use it all that much.

In my lake house I installed the 36″ Wolf Gas Range top, Wolf double ovens which were the Wolf pro series convection and the Wolf steam oven above. And the Wolf warming drawer.

I fell in love with the Sub Zero 36″ Integrated Refrigerator with freezer drawers below. And a 36″ refrigerator drawer unit in the island (for fruits and veggies).

I loved the range top. Just perfect. I loved the steam oven. Just perfect (reheating does not dry out your food). Personally I don't think that Wolf ovens cook as evenly as they say…in both the range oven and the wall oven. I hardly ever used the warming drawer – so I will nix that this time.

Our shopping trip

So, armed with my likes and dislikes (the beauty of building multiple times) we met Loren at the store. My husband, Willy, went with me. Now, the goal of this trip was to get an idea of what was new and different. And find out the prices.

We started with the easy decisions first – dishwashers. And then moved to ranges/cooktops. Under counter refrigerators were next and last…my main refrigerator (I list all of my decisions in this blog post HERE).

Since we are building an English cottage I decided that my main range will be an ILVE or Lacanche. They are so dreamy. I have been loving the Lacanche for years now but never could fit it in the budget. Hopefully this time I can. I will then put my 2 double ovens in the scullery. Willy needs things to be higher because he can't bend over very well.

I learned something new on this trip.

Sub Zero refrigerators are the only ones that allow a toe kick at the bottom (a toe kick is the space that your toes fit under). The toe kick hides the black piece that runs under most appliances. My cabinet shop can make toe kicks that go under the refrigerators so that they match the room. ALL other manufacturers have a metal grate thing. Not really the look I was going for.

And last…we got the quote and I almost fell over. Appliances are 1.5 times what they were 5 years ago. 

The beauty of shopping ahead of time is that you can get an idea of how much things really cost…not what you think they cost. And then you can put together a realistic budget – cause everyone has a budget.

I know that my final decisions may be different. It's just nice to know that I have a plan…and I am going to work that plan for sure!