Kitchen regrets - do you have any?

[MiaN]

If you have remodeled your kitchen in the last 5 -7 years, do you have any regrets?

Yes... due to budget. We went with pressed foiled units/doors as couldn't stretch to solid wood....would have added at least another 60‰ on to the overall budget and we simply didn't have it.

We didn't go for the lowest cheapie option, however 5 years later we are constantly having to stick down peeling edges etc

But at the time it needed done and we were in as good a financial position as we thought we would ever be in.. ..we were wrong, things did improve but it was another several years, so on hindsight, did the best we could with the info available.

Its frustrating but we just have to make the best of it.... It's perfectly functional.

Hoping we've picked the right things as we have ordered our kitchen - not being fitted until late august so time will tell! I think these are smart decisions (some already mentioned)

• having a large sink rather than a 1.5 bowl, we usually use a washing up bowl so don't need to have a separate little bowl if we're washing up and need the sink

• we've ordered a boiling water tap

• we have gone for the tall bank of units, but our kitchen is a U shape and not narrow. Doing that means we have no wall cupboards on 2 walls, leaving nice clear worktops (apart from sink and hob)

• we went with the best design layout from our quotes, and chose our favourite cupboards. We unpicked the quote, so we are getting the units and appliances from them, but had a better choice and price of worktops from a local firm that does quartz worktops. We bought the door handles online and saved hundreds! Wren handles were £15 each, ours are a similar style and £2 each.

• I went through the plan and worked out what we'd put in each drawer or cupboard (this led to me switching over one cupboard for more drawers when I worked out I needed them)

• I'm ignoring sentimentality and well meaning advice, we are getting rid of the Aga! It is lovely and comforting, but our gas bill is horrendous! And although dinners are easy, baking is a hit and miss affair.

@TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams

Inherited a kitchen with one of those American style mechanised garbage disposal things in the sink. Horribly noisy , takes some things but not others, blocks the drainage.

Changed the sink and took the opportunity to get rid. DH loved it but conceded it was shit when the drains backed up massively on Christmas Eve.

He wants one of those Quooker hot taps things but they always seemed to be out of order at work at vast expense to fix. I'd be interested in whether they last better in a domestic environment and whether or not you really need to watch the kids around them?

Our Quooker has been a game-changer. It has never broken down and the kids completely ignore it, besides which it has a child-proof mechanism to turn it on.

@depressedor

Anyone regretted having a breakfast cupboard with bifold doors or regretted not having one?

I regret not having one.

we are getting one. Do they call them pantry press too? Or is this different?

@TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams
I have a quooker tap in a tenanted flat snd it's never gone wrong and I really can't see how a small child could reach it or operate the boiling water bit as you have to pump then twist the middle. I mean they'll see you do it but you warn them just like the hob.