You may go a week or more without sitting in your living room (it stays so much cleaner that way), but you'll be in and out of the kitchen many times during one day -- preparing meals, washing dishes, helping the kids do homework, grabbing a snack or just hanging out.

The kitchen is the focal point of the home.

"It's where you start," says Dave DePaulo, president of Bella Homebuilders Inc. "It's where everybody gathers."

And, while the kitchen is generally the most expensive part of the home, it is also the most used part, so it has to be functional.

When DePaulo is building a kitchen, he said he likes to know where his clients drink their coffee each morning.

"I'll build a kitchen around the way they live," he says.

So, what's the latest in kitchen design? Eco-friendly products and energy efficiency, kitchen bars for entertaining, interesting stove hoods and backsplashes.

Here are some cool kitchens we spotted on the 2010 Showcase of Homes put on by the Saratoga Builders Association.

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