Outdoor Kitchens can be as simple or as elaborate as your desire and budget can accommodate. With a granite countertop, a couple of side burners, and a quality grill, you can cook. If you want to serve drinks, you'll need to add a refrigerator, an icemaker, and probably a good blender to your list. But that's just the beginning. Imagine what your outdoor kitchen would look like with a dishwasher, a trash compactor, and a flatscreen television with Dolby Surround Sound. Or built-in water features that feed into an infinity pool with a floating bartending station. Or an espresso machine, coffee grinder, and rack of flavored syrups. The possibilities are endless, and the right outdoor kitchen company can help you put together almost anything you can imagine. But if your budget -- or space -- are limited, it helps to think first of what you use most in your indoor kitchen, and how to minimize trips inside. In general, for example, you're going to keep your dishes inside anyway, so an outdoor dishwasher won't actually save you any trips. On the other hand, you probably won't want to run inside every time you need a little water, so an outdoor sink is an excellent thing to plan for in almost every outdoor kitchen. In general, the most basic outdoor kitchen that sees regular use is going to need a grill with some side burners, a sink, a mini-fridge, some counter space, a spice rack, and some cooking utensils. The cost of such a kitchen will vary widely depending on the materials you choose to use, but in general you want to plan on about $1000 per square foot of countertop. It's a rough estimate, but that will generally leave you with plenty left over after the cupboards and counters are designed to get appropriate appliances to fill it out with. If you plan on going crazy with the gadgets and entertainment, double that. The process for selecting individual appliances should be centered on three things, in this order of importance: how well they'll survive being outside all year round, how much you enjoy using them, and how much they cost. Getting a $50 blender instead of a $200 blender is going to cost you in the long run if you have to replace the blender every Spring because it doesn't survive the winter. Invest in your outdoor kitchens up front, and they'll do you well for many years to come.