What about a Robot for coffee and a stove top steamer for milk? Amazon has a La Pavoni stove top steamer for $110.

https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Steel- ... XQCOHPNUEI

EDIT: It looks like this one may be a knock off, but would something like it work for milk?

I see how to buy the Phoenix now. Thanks, Julia.

You are welcome!

Cafelat Robot with Baratza Sette 270

The baratza is probably too noisy. Jeff mentioned that as a issue. If the budget is increased for the grinder, how about the Niche Zero?

At 3-4 shots per day you'll quickly grow tired of hand grinding with any small hand held grinder (Kinu, Apollo, etc.) for anything but dark roasted (easy to grind) beans; and even then...

I'd encourage you to move up to the Sette or similar and if budget allows the Niche Zero will keep you content for a long time.

I'm not sure how thick my walls are. They seem thick, but I can hear the piano next door quite well. I'd hate to buy something noisy and then get complaints from my neighbor (or wake her up, even if she doesn't complain).

I think I'll get a grinder first, since that will help with my moka pot, and then get the Robot once I've made my kitchen more usable. Its tiny and I need to figure out how to free up counter space and cabinet space.

Grinding doesn't take long so I don't see how people can complain too much about the neighbor's noise.

I hand-ground for about 2 years but mostly because it was the way to make my money go farther - save on the grinder. But with the Robot now, I feel like that is the place you have your tremendous savings. So I'd go with a Niche or something else you like. With a hand grinder it's always a wonder of how long you'll get annoyed and decide to spend more money. The good part of the hand grinder though is it can be your forever travel setup! Not a huge risk.

(Loving my Robot, by the way, and wish I had it instead of the Silvia when I was learning, though I do wonder how much getting good on the Silvia was a good education... a debate for another day).

Look at the bellman steamer for milk. I think you can get lots of pressure and will allow you to make latte art. I have a robot and very happy with it. I intend to pair it with a bellman for milk

I've been using both the Bellman CX25 stove top and the CXe25 electric (500w) and with the addition of the current steam arm & tip for many years now; producing silky micro-foam milk is easy. But the nod goes to the CXe25 for ease of use, no babysitting while on the stove burner and actually even better steam performance.

And sorry I can't credit the person that relayed a 750w version of the CXe is available...labeled the CXe27 IIRC.