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Like I said, families are changing and people are working 47-48 hours/week. More and more single parents. People are also eating out more - especially when the economy is good. People on average are spending 27 minutes preparing food.
Yes, but at the same time things like the paleo diet are growing in popularity and, I speak from experience here, if you want to be paleo you are going to be doing a lot of cooking at home. So, I don't think you can really read into the future either way. I don't spend much more than 27 minutes preparing food, but I use my oven daily (I don't count the oven being on and me being in another room doing something else to be time spent preparing food though).
In any event, it's obviously your decision. If you go with a toaster oven I'd be sure you have the space for a regular oven marked out and have the hookups in place if you ever plan to sell your home. Like everyone else, I'd expect a huge price break if a house didn't have an oven. It could also be an issue for financing depending on where a potential buyer is trying to get their loan.
Why stop at the oven? ixnay on the range/cooktop as well. I'm sure you could get away with heating your tin of pork n beans over a macgyver stove, like the hobo who lives down by the river:
I'm a foodie, and the kitchen is a huge part of a home's appeal. I've caught myself thinking "I could use a double-oven for putting on Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner".
Basically, I would tell you -$5,000 discount on your asking price, because your ultra-efficiency all electric kitchen is not my cup o tea.
Bad idea. For one thing, you'll need an oven for resale. For another, things change. I wasn't much of a cook in my 20's. I've practiced and learned along they way. 15 years later, I use an oven all the time.
I live in a family of four: two adults and two teen boys. We have take out only 1 time per month and make everything else, frequently from scratch. We haven't had a "real" oven in years. We have a largish convection/toaster oven on the counter and it does wonderfully for it. It's just big enough to roast an average size chicken to give you an idea of the size and takes up a heck of a lot less room in the kitchen.
Like I said, families are changing and people are working 47-48 hours/week. More and more single parents. People are also eating out more - especially when the economy is good. People on average are spending 27 minutes preparing food.
That doesn't mean they don't want ovens in their houses. Someone has to cook the Thanksgiving turkey, right?
What would be the purpose of not having an oven? If you were going to add one later for resale, why not just put one in now?
In order for me to consider buying a house without an oven, the rest of the house would have to be perfect. I would not be keen on altering the kitchen to add one. Something would inevitably go wrong. It wouldn't fit, or the cabinets wouldn't look right, or the electrical needed wouldn't be there or whatever. I'd probably just find a different house to buy.
I've never used a $100 toaster- oven that kept temp correctly, wasn't a pita to clean..........and that would last much longer than a year.
While I can understand your reluctance to purchase a wall oven to go with your 4 burner cooktop..........others have raised very good points about the missing oven.
You can buy a single 24 or 27 inch oven. It doesn't have to be fancy-schmancy.... doesn't have to be stainless steel..........but it is a rule of thumb when one has a cooktop, there is a wall oven to go along with it. It's like not having a sink in the bathroom. Why pay for an extra sink when there's one in the kitchen?
I use my oven frequently during the week. When it isn't being used, it's extra storage for my over-sized mixing bowls which don't fit anywhere else. I also hide bags of chips in there so the cats can't get at them.
The small oven can also be built in or put on a shelf so it doesn't take up counter space. It will likely use less power, be easier to clean, heat up faster and be cheaper to buy.
Do you have any idea what it would cost to have a custom built in made to fit a huge toaster oven? To run the electrical to the cabinet? Custom cabinetry of that size will run you a few hundred extra over stock cabinets. As Maciesmom mentioned it will also have to be insulated to handle the heat, which could be a few thousand to have something built out of steel or maybe $800-1000 to build it with cement board and tile. You're looking at $1,200-5,000 just to build a cabinet to house it. If you just put it on a shelf and snug it tight to your cabinets you'll burn down your house. If it isn't tight to the cabinets you're losing space again.
Besides, it most definitely won't use less power than a dedicated oven. Toaster ovens are cheap because they have no insulation and poor temperature controls.
Actually, your best (and cheapest) option would be to buy a conventional oven and put your toaster oven inside that.
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