DIY Network

Building a Kitchen: Appliances From "Be Your Own Contractor" episode DBYC-110

In this segment of DIY's Be Your Own Contractor, the do-it-yourselfers talk about the selection and installation of kitchen appliances.

The marble-look countertops, seen right, provide an elegant appearance in Skip Weahunt's kitchen.

advertisement

	Figure A
	Figure B

• The right appliances are a key component to any kitchen. This is one area where prices can range quite dramatically, so planning and budgeting for this aspect is critical. As do-it-yourself contractor Skip Weahunt puts it, when it comes to individual appliances there are typically "standard choices that you can buy for a few hundred dollars, but you can quickly jump up to where it's quite expensive." Stainless steel appliances (figure A), for example, have become a popular choice but are often more expensive.

• Though he saved money by installing his kitchen wiring and some of the plumbing himself, Michael Buchtel felt that the kitchen appliances were not an area to skimp on costs (figure B). For instance, he installed a double-oven.

• Al and Sharon Sain also installed a double oven, but Sharon offers this caveat to homebuilders: think twice about adding top-notch or special appliances before spending the extra money. She found she seldom has use for the second of the two ovens.
  
• For the kitchen in her Caribbean-plantation style home (figure C), Jody Siegel decided to install two dishwashers. Only after the kitchen was completed did she realize that this arrangement had drawbacks. For example, if more than one person is loading the dirty dishes, each dishwasher may end up half full rather than one being filled. At that point half of the dishes would need to be transferred to the other dishwasher in order to wash dishes, or both would have to be run with a less-than-full load. Moreover, the placement of the dishwashers makes it difficult for the doors on both two be open at once (figure D).

  Figure C

  Figure D

  
  
• For her refrigerator, Jody wanted a fully-wrapped, stainless high-end refrigerator with tubular handle. Unfortunately the model she had picked out several months earlier was no longer available at the price she was willing to pay once her kitchen was completed. To stay true to her budget, she purchased a less expensive model that was prepped for a door. She finished the outside of the doors using ordinary garden-lattice purchased from a home center (figures E and F).

Figure E

Figure F