My wife and I have renovated our kitchen five years ago, and have just finished a more major renovation on our second floor. I also recently completed photographing (my profession) a book on kitchens for a major publisher. I can give you a few additional pointers to Kennyt's good advice:
If you start to consider the kitchen jewelry category: avoid Viking (consumer reports will reflect this as well, for the same reason). Though our Viking stove works great, We've had it for five years and had a repair person our twice already (warranty, but not encouraging). My folks also have Viking and have had numerous repairs, and in my recent kitchen shoot (19 kitchens), I heard nothing but similar reports about Viking (and there were many). One woman had to return her huge Viking fridge, not once, but twice, for problems that could not be repaired. This is on a brand new $5k+ fridge!
One item I'd be delighted to recommend is a Bosch diswasher. Quiet as a churchmouse and does a great job. Not a single problem in five years. On the job recently completed, the majority of dishwashers were either Bosch or Fisher Paykel (two drawers), which most folks were delighted with as well. Both are expensive though.
Other than that, I'd agree, check CR for more moderate and sensible choices. epinions has real-world reviews on many appliances (take those with a healthy dose of salt, as you would anything on the Internet).
Marco
If you start to consider the kitchen jewelry category: avoid Viking (consumer reports will reflect this as well, for the same reason). Though our Viking stove works great, We've had it for five years and had a repair person our twice already (warranty, but not encouraging). My folks also have Viking and have had numerous repairs, and in my recent kitchen shoot (19 kitchens), I heard nothing but similar reports about Viking (and there were many). One woman had to return her huge Viking fridge, not once, but twice, for problems that could not be repaired. This is on a brand new $5k+ fridge!
One item I'd be delighted to recommend is a Bosch diswasher. Quiet as a churchmouse and does a great job. Not a single problem in five years. On the job recently completed, the majority of dishwashers were either Bosch or Fisher Paykel (two drawers), which most folks were delighted with as well. Both are expensive though.
Other than that, I'd agree, check CR for more moderate and sensible choices. epinions has real-world reviews on many appliances (take those with a healthy dose of salt, as you would anything on the Internet).
Marco