hermajasty.. I have seen 2 black and 1 dark blue sinks and the "spotting" on them would drive me crazy... (hope this makes you feel better)

regret?? That we didn't have enough money in the budget to hire a painter do paint the kitchen stools, 16 windows, all the crown and base molding, door and window trim, doors, and stairwell and 4 rooms. I don't think I'll ever get it all done!

But as far as kitchen goes - 6 months out, I LOVE IT!! ;-)

Ahh.. too many to list here: :(

Let's see.. Spending an additional $3500 to have the granite I wanted in the entire kitchen (not just on island)
Listening to my dear mother and not putting in a desk- making a pantry instead-
Double wall oven vs. single wall oven with trim kit and micr. above it.
Not finding a better placement for my oven (REALLY wish I had put it in the corner vs on other side of island so I could have appropriate seating at island.

Oh Well- I do love my kitchen- Just little things I wish I wasn't so stubborn about in the beginning... NEXT kitchen (as DH says FAT CHANCE we just built this house, no kitchen remodel in our future!).

My kitchen is still in the honeymoon stage, and we are very happy with all of it. We are not planning on moving or doing this again so every single item was heavily researched and chosen because we loved it!

The one thing I sort of wish had been possible is having somewhere for all 5 of us to sit in the kitchen...I would have loved something like shanghaimom or drjoann, but with 5 doorways in my kitchen (all necessary, believe it or not) and no desire to knock down 137 year old walls, it was not in the cards...just means we use our dining room more!

Like rhome, I wish I'd considered a window bump-out. Also wish my kitchen had space for double wall ovens, but nothing I could do about that.

My biggest regret is buying the Electrolux slide-in induction range. The ovens haven't ever worked right, and I'm now awaiting my 4th service visit. I can't replace it because the counters were cut to fit the range, the granite was damaged during one of the service visits, and a different range won't fit and cover the damaged granite.

In my last kitchen my floors and cabs were the same color. I really regretted that. I much prefer some contrast.

My regrets echo rhome410's. I wish I had known to put my window at counter height(It's a garden window, so already bumped out) Having the extra room behind the faucet would be nice.

I wish I had done drawers in the penninsula, not doors. We were slashing things for budgetary concerns. In hindsight the $600 we saved was such a tiny drop in the bucket.

Usually if I remodel and don't end up with all or most of my original dreams I end up disappointed. After the entire DIY is done I often think why didn't I just do this or that while I was at it. Strangely, this has not happened in my new kitchen which is only slightly more than half of what I wanted it to be originally. In my beginning plan I had two of the nooks 8' windows shortened to counter height up with cabinets underneath, I had planned to take the third window out completely and had an elaborate range hood and a separate area for a built in microwave and the list went on and on. Yes I'm sure I would have been happy with the arrangement and the GW ultimate kitchen but I would also be sweating bullets on spending all that money with so much to do around here on endless other overhauls. So far I have no regrets because all I really needed was to get rid of the cheap falling to pieces builder grade cabinets, I desperately needed more counter work space and better utilized storage within. I needed better lighting and new countertops. I got all of that. Although I have peninsula seating I'm so glad I didn't get rid of the little nook with the high top table. My husband and I have had many an enjoyable evening with our grown sons and their friends and on other occasions, our friends. The peninsula is angled and facing toward the nook which is great for conversation and casual meals, snacks or drinks. I will have a nearby wet bar/ hutch/ extra storage thingy in the future so I guess I'm not completely done. However, so far I have no regrets.

I'm only in the begining stages of our kitchen remodel, and parts of my original vision have already gone by the wayside due to various considerations. Most of these I think (I hope!) will not bother me or be "regrets" once we have our much improved, finished kitchen, except for one: we will not be able to have a chimeney-style hood due to various structural issues and this was the ONE and ONLY feature of the remodel that DH really, really wanted and felt strongly about. He has been wonderful throught this process, giving thoughtful input or opinion (but only when I ask for it!) and otherwise being very supportive of my constant, obsessive research and all of my choices, as well as my second-guessing and triple-guessing thereof! He has also been much more patient than I with the mess and chaos of having no kitchen or dining room. So my big regret is that my very cool and sweet hubby won't get his one and only real kitchen desire! I have so many needs and wants that if I don't get some of them (as long as I get the must-haves), I'll still have a 1000% better kitchen and will be happy.

I'm happy with my reno.

What I regret
"should have"
"next time I'll"
is

1./ Use bound notepad books to track things. Several books.

Ideas, promises, agreements. Where to buy, what it's called, what size drill bit to use for this or that hole needed when at a later date. Hours worked. What I did buy, where I stored it. I spent time searching for things already bought, mostly supplies and the little parts not the big showy ones. I joked with my handyman that if he gave me a few weeks I would have all the parts he needed for a perfect job, but that they were already on site, somewhere here. (An example: fittings for plumbing lines). I bought some things twice. I have to return it, or sell it. One hardware store has promised me they'll take everything i can bring in one visit, no matter when it was bought.

2./ Add one more stage in the appliance buying process.

After learning a lot, I went out and negotiated with all the people I was current with, and made agreements, to buy and have delivered all the appliances I wanted. Before finalizing anything, I should have waited until the renovation process was almost complete. (Or at least, waited until the expected completion date was upon us.) It's gratifying to buy after a long learning process. But it's unwise. Definitely not have it delivered. It sits for months unused, while it could have been stored for free over at the store's distribution warehouse, and the warranty would not be clicking. Tick tock every week it sits in the living room is a source of personal embarrassment, once your initial "completion date" has come and gone. Meanwhile, things change. Your requirements change, and the market changes. New features become standard, included. You end up installing an appliance that is not the latest and not the best deal for your money. That adds to your embarrassment. Coupons and special deals come back every six months or sooner. Even if you can get a great deal for a bulk buy, this too can be delayed.

Both points above mean I bought items too soon in the process. I hate trying to sell little things that I didn't want.

3./ I would have even more overhang on my counter. I already got more than the average person has. Full extension drawers don't mind being one more inch covered at the back

hth

I would have loved a second sink, but that was not possible without raising the entire house - and that was not going to happen.

But the only real regret I have is that I let DH talk me into staining the kitchen cabinets when I wanted painted. I spent a lot of time staining and applying finish to get a nice hand rubbed look, and in the end I hated it and cried about not having my white cabinets.

So now I get to paint them - I knew what I wanted and I should never have caved, thinking I could get use to them. The bad part is I really don't want to do the work again . . .

I agree that we bought some things too soon. Yet, we were not sure if the stuff would have been available at that price later on. Ironically, in this economy it turns out that many prices have planed off, something we weren't sure would happen when we began more than a year ago. Agree with Davidro1 that it's not wise to buy if your warranty expires before you install the custom sized window and find out its frame is made wrong. Bulk discounts mean less if they just push you to buy at the wrong time.

In some ways my biggest mistake has been to continue buying mags, reading GW, etc. etc. after the original plan was made. After it became clear how long the DIY project was going to take, I made redefinitions over and over. The room I'm looking at now is very nice, but the one I dreamed up back then would have been good also, but would look very different. Am grateful that DH is so mellow.

A different kind of regret deals with not nailing down some very simple things before cabs were made. A half inch here and there or a "wait a minute, will this work like this or like that" query would have made some of the cabs much more functional.

The kitchen has been finished (all but the cleanup sink backsplash) for a year. It is functioning beautifully. I wouldn't change a thing in the layout or the finishes. That is saying a lot because I was the rearranging queen in our old kitchen. DH would never help; he didn't know where anything was. I had the luxury of waiting to build until I had the layout and function I loved. With the cost of the kitchen, and knowing it was the only remodel I would ever be able to do, it was the right choice for me.

My greatest regret is changing my mind at the last minute and switching from Miele double ovens to GE Monogram double ovens. The ovens were half the price on sale and praised to the heavens by the store chef. He must have gotten a bonus for selling them. DH, who is very tolerant of my complaining, agrees they are awful.

i should start now making a list of all the things I could donate to ReStore, give to family, resell or use to pay someone with. Things I'll never use, like "All the hardware for a pocket door and frame". All told it added about $5000 to this project. That is 20% of all I spent including the time of professionals and the handyman. It's a complete kitchen, with new layout, plumbing, electricity, lights, walls, soffit, floor, ceiling, mirrors, sink, oven, induction, two fridges, IHW, water filter, custom exhaust hood, you name it... The overbuying is probably a symptom of my wanting to know it all and see it all first hand.

hth

We bought some things too early too. And I almost missed the return deadline for sending back the handles that I bought *intentionally* to test and return once we chose which ones we wanted! Still waiting to see if ithey get back to the company in time (and hoping they're understanding seeing as how I just placed the full hardware order with them...) I have a blog on our house, and am planning to have a "spring cleaning" sale in the spring to (hopefully) get rid of the big stuff we bought and then couldn't use, like the Tapmaster (DH wants to save that for our bathroom remodel, but I'm not convinced we will ever remodel the bathroom, which really doesn't need it, so I foresee it sitting in our basement till we move in that scenario!) Happily I think our overbuys were only in the $500 range, but it's still a little bittersweet to go through them.

One BIG mistake I made was not putting in our basement and garage shelving before the remodel. Thought it made more sense to wait until afterwards to go through the garage/basement (which haven't been organized ever, and thus have three years of junk in them). If I were doing this again, that would be the very first thing I'd do, so that when we added the kitchen contents to the chaos, we'd be able to find the not-kitchen things (like, you know, the tools we need to do the kitchen, and definitely own, but had to check out from the tool library instead when we couldn't find them...) It's our first 2011 project instead.

My current "will this be a regret?" dilemma is whether to modify one of our cabinets. The cabinetmaker can take it back to the shop and modify it to make it the way I want it, or he can bring us new drawers for it and make it the way DH wants it. In the latter case, we know exactly what it will look like and it will be done next week. In the former, it won't be done til 2011 and it's still unclear if it will function the way I want it to. I'm really at a loss on that one! I can foresee either path being a potential regret---or a potential "best decision."

Like dlfenton I wish I had looked at some other granites. I too see stones on here that are so drool-worthy, and I get a little twinge of "I wish." I really like our granite but I'll admit to lusting after some of the more exotic stones. We had already grown our project so much, though, that we didn't go too far past our allowances. Looking back, I'd at least ask "how much more for that one?"...

I wish I had seen GW before our reno. Then I would have asked for a niche behind my cooktop (love those!). I also would have been open to mixing appliance brands rather than sticking with all one brand. (Although I do like that all the handles match, so maybe that wouldn't have changed much.)

Luckily I knew enough to do drawers in the kitchen. But if I could change something, I'd put a smaller sink and sink cabinet in our mudroom and add a stack of drawers there.

Oh, and do pullouts in my big pantry cabinet.

But overall... my kitchen really works! We had 80+ here for a party last Saturday and the flow was great. Holiday dinners range from about 12 to about 25, and it functions very well for those as well as just our family of 4. So the regrets are minor, thankfully!

I did shelves in my pantry, and I regret the uppers don't have pull-outs. I'm thinking one day it won't be so easy for me to drag a chair across the room, never mind getting up on it, just to get a 5 year old box of jello that's been hiding at the back of the top shelf! That's an easy fix, though, and I'm hoping my DH will put them in over the holidays. That would be a nice Christmas present for me.

I regret I didn't really, really think about the storage I have, because it's just not enough. I went for double ovens and a cooktop, and that takes a lot of space in a not very big kitchen. OTOH, I often have both ovens going at the same time. I regret that I didn't push the KD to find me that one extra drawer that I could easily use.

Also, the cargo bins take up a good bit of space, but they're so darn practical, so while I don't regret having them, I do regret the space they consume.

My backsplash is shiny marble, and I often wonder if it wouldn't be better if it was matte. But if it WAS matte, I'd be wondering if it shouldn't be polished! lol.

Thank goodness, nothing major!

Interesting topic!

I have very, very few regrets. Basically nothing about the cabinets. I had a twinge when a friend asked why we didn't go to the ceiling on my massive pantry, but then the contractor reminded me that was a budget decision. I chose a granite that is definitely unusual and I can't say I have the orgasmic reaction to it that some folks here do about their countertops :). However it is a lovely stone, and I constantly appreciate seeing how it looks against my cabinetry. I didn't change the layout much but did gain enormous amounts of additional storage as well as desperately needed counter space. Got a dishwasher which has indeed changed my life. Did incorporate all drawers on my lower runs and without a doubt that is the best design tip I ever got from GW. Love them.

My only real regrets both are appliance-related. I spent a LOT of money to get a fully integrated, paneled refrigerator. It was the single most important design element for me to help alleviate the visual tightness of a galley kitchen by not having a hulking fridge sticking out. And after much wavering I saved $1000 by going with Jennair instead of Subzero. I now regret that; the Jennair has given my contractor fits trying to get it flush, and there is still a major problem with the venting for the motor area. The thousand bucks was a big deal but overall since the refrigerator was by far my biggest splurge...I should have gone all the way and just gotten the SZ.

Other regret is more of a who-knew. Never having had a smoothtop black cooktop I had no idea how #*$&^ hard it is to keep clean!! I'm a bit OCD about appearances and the constant need to haul out the cream cleanser and rubrubrub then buffbuffbuff is quite annoying.

However on the whole I am in love with my new kitchen and really extremely happy with how it turned out.

Warmfridge wrote: "I can't replace it because the counters were cut to fit the range, the granite was damaged during one of the service visits, and a different range won't fit and cover the damaged granite."

Wait wait wait!!! The repairman damaged your counter, and you're eating the loss?! That should be on them. I would assume it's covered by whatever liability insurance they have, and if not, well, it's still on them. Have you had a countertop/granite person out to look and see if there's a way to fix it short of replacing the entire counter, and how much that would cost?

I let the GC talk me out of a wood burning pizza oven in the kitchen. He didn't like to step outside his comfort zone. I wish I had convinced him otherwise.

Idea,

This is SO not about money.

My granite fabricator has already said he can't repair the granite. There aren't any more slabs available from the same lot. So any resolution (not even including the stove) would involve moving everything out of the kitchen, removing all the granite, removing the backsplash, replacing the granite, restalling the sink and faucet and DW, replacing the backsplash, cleaning, and moving everything back in again.

I LOVE my marble backsplash. The backsplash is grouted to the granite and there are NO more of these marble tiles available anywhere. If I have to rip out the lower tiles, I will likely have to replace the whole thing with something different.

There is no good solution to this problem no matter who pays for it. I don't want to redo my brand new kitchen again, particularly with a lesser backsplash, and particularly since I am disabled and the first renovation was very difficult for me. I can replace the stove and live with scrapes and chips down both sides of the adjacent granite, which would really irritate me after all the time and money I spent on this new kitchen. Or Electrolux could just fix their @#$%! ovens...at least the trim pieces on this range are covering most of the damage. I have a 4th service visit scheduled for next week.

Now you can see why I regret buying this range. Regardless of how this is resolved now, I'll still have to deal with it whenever I eventually have to replace the range. I could just cry.

I could almost cry for you Warmfridge! Hang in there!

well we haven't even got the drywall up yet and I'm already worrying if I should have gone for the kohler Karbon instead of the dornbracht tara with separate hand spray. My architect and KD both started looking rather green when I showed them the karbon.....and since the sink/pass thru/eatin counter looks right out into the livingroom I thought I would regret choosing such an odd looking fixture. I find the hardest choices in the kitchen for me are the ones involving function over design.

I did end up with the capital culinarian - though - despite preferring the looks of the bluestar. But then lucky for me you can't really see the range from the living room!

My biggest regret...

Is telling anyone a guestimated date/timeframe our DIY renovation would be complete. We're now a month past our expected and still have at least a month to go. It gets embarrassing when someone says "wow, you're STILL not done?" LOL
~ D ~

This is a very helpful thread. Due to DH's job we moved 6 times in 13 years. We've always found a new home at the framing stage so that we could at least make some choices. The kitchens have never functioned the way I wanted them to and I've always grown tired of the finishes by the time we've moved, usually less than 3 years.

We are now trying to sell our current home and build our dream home. This time because we want to and not because we have to. I'm so afraid of making the wrong decisions and this time having to live with them forever that it's really difficult for me to make any decisions at all!!

Oh Quap!

Obviously the IV Java Drip isn't set on 'fast'.

Sorry for the misplaced post!
I'll copy it to where it belongs.
In the meantime, who do I call to get the above post removed?

*heads for coffee pot shaking head*

I wish both of my dishwashers were in my island flanking my main sink.
I do have another full size sink with on the exterior wall with a dishwasher there, but it seems I use that sink more for handwashing big pans because it is a farmhouse sink.
Another regret is the GE Monogram Advantium oven. It was expensive and I don't think it is that great. I wish I would have just done a built in microwave shelf that any standard size microwave would have fit into.

My kitchen is now over five years old and I have to say I have no regrets. I spent a lot of time pondering decisions and did work with a great KD which I think helped me end up with something I still love. I did go into it with the idea that I'm only doing this once in my life and I want to do it right. So I expanded my budget a bit to do that and I'm glad I did.

My biggest regret was hiring the cabinet shop and using their contractor for the project. They took a stressful remodel and doubled the stress with their constant mistakes and carelessness. The only reason my kitchen turned out well is because I stuck to my guns and made them fix the mistakes I found. Unfortunately there were some that I didn't see until it was too late.

My only kitchen regret is that I couldn't fit both a farm house sink and still have the under the sink pullout garbage. I didn't have any extra cabinet space to put a separate pullout for garbage and hated the separate can across the room. I love how my kitchen turned out and I love the inset cabinets, but still get a twinge of jealousy when I see a kitchen with a farm sink.

My kitchen is three years old and I still love it.

I do have some regrets, well not regrets really, but things I may have done differently in hindsight.

1. I would have changed the location of one of the DW's to make it more accessible from the prep area instead of having them both in the clean up area.

2. I would NOT have paid an obscene amount for FOUR pendant lights when I only need three and in addition don't get the attention I thought they would as statement pieces.

3. I would NOT put in the same halogen recessed lights as they don't give enough light

4. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my granite but I'm sure I could have found one I love just as much but in a light color. This black granite just sucks the light out the kitchen.

5. Should have left off the tilt out in front of the clean up sink and moved the sink closer to the front of the counter. That extra 1.5" would have made installing the faucet SOOOOO much easier.

And finally, if we'd done the remodel just 6 months later, I may have ended up with the side opening Gaggenau DO. Instead I have the Miele ovens which I am VERY happy with but it would have been nice to have the side opening model.

On the flip side, I am amazingly blessed to have the kitchen of my dreams. It functions as expected and looks like I thought it would. And best of all, my marriage survived the remodel :)

Biggest regret--paying what I did for a Northstar microwave because it had the "look" I wanted for the kitchen. Due to a lot of changes, the microwave ended up in the pantry so that look was not as important and now after less than a year it has stopped working (for the 2nd time). I'm now looking for an appliance repair person in our area to see if he can fix (not many work on microwaves since for the most part it's cheaper to buy a new one than to fix).

I thought having the cooktop and sink 'bump-out' was purely form and could not work with my layout. Well, as it turns-out, it is very funcational too...would have killed to have an extra 3" or 4" depth at the sink for the faucet and at the cooktop for extra space. My faucet handle is slightly twisted to allow it to fully work without hitting the backsplash area behind it :( Obviously, I should have changed my cabinetry layout to make it work.

Also, if I had a 'do-over' I'd make more of the base cabinets large drawers. I never thought about using dividers and turning bakeware on its side to store it.

Things I love: my large single level island, my pantry pull-outs and my large super single silgranit sink :)

I regret not checking with our tile guy to make sure he had the correct blade to cut glass tile for the backsplash. He didn't and the cuts came out jagged. We had the place I bought the tile from redo the one area that is on a straight wall. The other two areas are in corners and aren't as bad, plus I have the blender and another accessory in the corners so you don't see them. My biggest plus was finding this website so I researched every decision and have no regrets. :)

Now that I've actually used my new kitchen for a few days, I can play.

I took the advice found throughout this forum about full extension drawers in lower cabinets for a few of my lower cabinets. I now wish I had replaced all lower doors with drawers. In one location, I have double doors that reveal two shallow pull out shelves. Really silly. I know I can change this in the future, but I just spent my wad.

Because I have inset doors, the usable space inside my 12'' upper cabinets is a bit limiting. I will not be able to store larger dishes in the uppers. And, the spice rack in one of my uppers is nice, but the shallow shelves really would have taken advantage of just one extra inch.

Since my parents moved in with us, we've had to have a water purifier of some sort for some of my Dad's medications.

This was a little over five years ago and when I did some quick research, it seemed like the PUR attached-to-faucet was the best solution for our needs.

When the kitchen re-do was thrust upon us, and I was scrambling to find a decent kitchen faucet because the original faucet was way too small, I knew I couldn't get a a faucet with a really nice pull down sprayer at the end of the faucet spout because I had to attach that dern PUR filter to the spout.

A couple weeks after the sink/faucet was installed, our local news had a segment on water filters.

Turns out PUR is the worst filter.....not that it doesn't filter the water (4-stage) but because they break every couple months. Bad engineering and nobody at PUR has thought of a better way to make the filter so that it's not spraying water all over your backsplash.

I went to Amazon dot com to read up on PUR and sure enough, our local news was so right!

While at Amazon, a couple of those "You might like these" ads popped up at the bottom of the PUR listing and wow....all this time I thought an under-counter/inside cabinet water purifier would cost $300 and up.

No such thing!
There are purifiers that are less than $90 for the same 4-stage that we need to have and they are conveniently placed under the sink, inside the cabinet!

All that time looking for that acceptable faucet that would take that ugly PUR water filter attached to it....I didn't need to do.....if only I wasn't rushed, if only I wasn't in kitchen redo overload.... *sigh*.

I could have had a wonderful sprayer at the end of a nice-looking kitchen faucet. Every day that I curse that PUR, I get more and more angry with myself for not taking the time to really research my options about water purifiers.

There, I've vented. I've kept this bottled up for a month.
I feel better. Thank you! :)

My regret is too many recessed lights! They were laid out by the architect and I did not push back because I was nervous about not having enough light. Once all of the lights were installed in the kitchen and the attached small family room, PLUS the speakers, PLUS the fire alarm - the ceiling looks to me like cottage cheese central. sigh.

On the bright side, there are two I can have taken out that will help a lot (and are on a separate switch and are never turned on any way) but I am just not quite ready to write the check for the electrician, drywall, and painting...

Michellemarie, I think you're the only one I've seen on here express disappointment in the Advantium. I too, am not impressed with the Monogram Advantium. I have the 120. As a microwave, at 900 watts, it sticks. I've made potatoes using the speed cook, and while quick, tasted like microwaved potatoes.

My one regret is taking my husband with me to pick out the soapstone slab, I ended up with slab that I don't love. And to boot my fabricator did make the overhang nearly long enough.

All in all though, I'm thrilled with the new space

Thank you all for your responses. It's nice to know that most of you are VERY happy with your kitchens, but I appreciate you sharing the things you would change.

Maybe now, we should have another question, a bit more positive :)

I would have told the cabinet guy to pull the side panels on the fridge out a bit more to cover it more. I would have used the bigger cans in the ceiling so I got more light from above. Now I am scrambling to try and find a light fixture that works in the center of the raised space. Otherwise, no I'm very happy with my space.

Now if we're talking master bath, that's a different story and there my only regret is that I should have made the shower a bit smaller so I would have room for some towel hooks by the shower. :)

I got a separate faucet and sprayer. I was told they didn't make my faucet with a pulldown sprayer. They did. The spray feature sucks. Pardon my English.

Although it's just been installed last week, the griddle on the cooktop was probably a mistake. It's just not very practical and is hard to clean. I should have just settled on the 2 more burners.

With regard to the GE Advantium 120V model, there were people posting on this site warning not to get that model but get the 240 model. It is under powered...

Forgot to add this one earlier, I regret that I bought a range with a black cooktop. I knew better, I knew that black would show every speck of dust and be difficult to keep looking clean. Stainless cooktops are so much easier.

Same along the lines of Blfenton and Chicagoan: I was talked into gialllo ornamental. The granite guys, "You have a white kitchen, EVERYTHING goes with white"! (Not so) My husband, "Yes we need CONTRAST"!( Our giallo is very brown and it wound up clashing with the white of the cabinets.) After months of anguish and searching, I took the advise of one tile shop and did my backsplash in Crema from Grazi Rixi. It tied things together, but if I would have 1.Known about this forum 2. Developed a vsion first before going to the kitchen showroom and granite yard and 3. Going to both these places with a clearer idea of what I wanted my kitchen to look like I would have had less grief and would have been even happier with my kitchen.

We just finished our kitchen remodel a few months ago. My biggest regret is my refrigerator. We bought a 36 french door with freezer on bottom. It looks great, but should have gone with a larger refrigerator...it doesn't seem to fit everything we have. I think we should have gone with a much larger one...maybe a 42 inch.
We have two small children and I am envisioning the days when all of their friends come over and just eat, eat, eat....my refrigerator will be empty within an hour!

lavender_lass, I thank you for this thread. It's nice to know that most are VERY happy with their kitchens.

You asked for some other question, a bit more positive, and it seems to be that people have started asking the other participants here for help in defining and describing the articles that they bought and have to send to Craigslist. About three weeks ago I mentioned that I hated the hassle of selling all those little things that I bought and have to get out of my personal inventory now.

Since I did not use a bound notepad or booklet to track things, I am having a hard time listing my stuff. It's technical things that might only appeal to specialists: Aqua iPex fittings, Kerdi membrane (an entire 500' roll), a Franke undercounter water filter unit, a Wedi shower pan, a pocket door frame, etc). I also have an array of unusual faucets that I ultimately don't want to install. Two of them are knockoffs of the Kohler Karbon.

Looks like it's all part of the learning curve. I'm not looking forward to the time and hassle from real buyers (who can be weird and mistrustful and worse than that) and from others, who claim to be "out of the country" but will arrange for "a cashiers check."

HtH

It's great now that my kitchen is 99.9% finished to look back and not really truly have any regrets.

The one thing I don't like is my hutch, but regret is too strong of word. It arrived the totally wrong size - too tall. It was the very last element to join the kitchen (other than backsplash) and it had been "re-done" by the cabinetmaker twice already for mistakes with him eating the cost. I knew he wouldn't eat it a third time because he'd already lost money on it and it was ambiguous if the mistake was mine or theirs. I was just burnt out on spending money and the process. I accepted it, knowing it would be tolerable, and that's what it is. It's not really a regret if you know the outcome and still choose it.

My advice - Save your compromises till the end. Kitchen renovation comes in layers, each building upon the former. If you start regretting in the beginning or middle, stop and fix it, even if it means a rip out and re-do. The foundational pieces are important.

I saved up my compromises till the very end so that the things that matter most are perfect, which means I have no regrets.

I regret my Bosch dishwasher. Would have preferred a heating element.

davidro, maybe you should just donate those odd-ball pieces to Habitat For Humanity's Re-Store and just write off the donation. You don't get your money back, but maybe you'll get a decent deduction on your taxes. Usually craigslist items are sold at a loss (sometimes big) anyway. Just a thought.

grohe faucet - their CS has been useless and my time to return has run out. The bridgeford won't stay 'seated', it slightly pops out time to time and dangles. We're not in a position to replace but as soon as we are, I'm going back to none-high end stuff. I also wish I got one that the sprayer would stay on.