Appliances: The BIG Splurge

When we renovated our Oakton home we had at 48" Subzero refrigerator/freezer installed. Our New York apartment has a regular residential-grade refrigerator, and we really miss our "beast." I am throwing away more food now than I did when we had the Subzero. Isn't it funny? When you upgrade something, it's hard to go backwards. I remember when intermittent wipers were first introduced. I thought they were the bee's knees! Then I got a company car without them, and whined about it a lot.

We both decided we wanted a professional-grade refrigerator. Our builder steered us to Thermador because service is available if anything goes wrong. So we were introduced to Thermador refrigeration columns. Just devine. We'll take three -- refrigerator, freezer, and, of course, a wine chiller!

Thermador refrigeration and freezer columns; courtesy Thermador

Natural gas is not available where we are building so we had to go with an electric cooktop and ovens, which are GE Profile appliances. The dishwasher is made by Bosh.

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