When my husband and I renovated our kitchen we knew that we wanted to get our counter top microwave off the countertop. We knew that building a space under our cabinetry and having a built in microwave oven would be the best utilization of space. And, as we were replacing all of our existing kitchen appliances we knew that we'd be shopping for a new microwave oven so we'd be able to take advantage of a sleeker lower profile microwave oven with lots of power for cooking.

Cooking energy, or wattage is a very important consideration when choosing a microwave oven. We wanted a microwave oven that I would be able to actually cook in, not just reheat food in. This mean I needed a larger microwave oven with high wattage, especially if I wanted to be able to brown food. This means a microwave with at least 800 watts. Most larger microwaves are between 800 watts and 1650 watts.

We also wanted to make sure we weren't buying more microwave than we needed. Today's appliances come with a wide variety of "bells and whistles" that most homeowners find they never really use. Buying the latest and greatest isn't always the best use of money. We wanted a well built and reputable microwave oven, one that had very good ratings from Consumer Reports. We had Kenmore appliances in our kitchen, which had been put in by the prior homeowner. We were actually looking to do a bit of an upgrade, but not go overboard.

As we were purchasing a wall oven, a cook top, a refrigerator, dishwasher and the microwave we had lot of looking to do. Some of the brands we looked at were Panasonic, Frigidaire, GE, Whirlpool, LG and Amana. We read about the over-the-counter microwave from Whirlpool Gold that has received top reviews.

As mentioned we looked at Consumer Reports reviews and Good Housekeeping reviews. We found out that the Sharp R-426HS was rated as the most stylish by GH, and the Kenmore Elite Speedcook 64282 as the best microwave oven/convection oven combination. It's generally easy to do an online search and get some ideas of microwave ratings.

Consumer Reports rated the GE Profile JES2251SJ a best buy among large countertop model microwaves, and at $220 a great buy. For over-the-range microwaves, which include exhaust fans they rated the Kitchen Aid KHHC2090S tops.

After having reviewed information on kitchen appliances we decided to go with GE. Our kitchen remodel is almost done, and we're excited that we're finally going to have the kitchen of our dreams, and even happier that we feel confident we've made the right decision about all our kitchen appliances, including the microwave oven.