crazylady - i recommend victorionox knives. they are relatively cheap to buy (compared to wustof, scanpan etc), they are easy to sharpen and will last you a long time. i'm a chef and use these knives every day. i find they are very user-friendly, allowing for precision cuts (eg fine dice, slice). some other knives eg mundial, wustof etc, are very chunky and make thin slices hard to do.

the metal they use is not as hard as the wostof german steel, meaning they will require sharpening more regularly, however they are easier to sharpen due to the design, and faster to sharpen because the metal is softer. you wont need to sharpen them too often, using them at home. you can take them to your local butcher, kitchen shop (e.g. chef king, king of knives), or keycutting/locksmith place, and pay them to sharpen it for you. probably about $5-$10 to get done.

a chef knife will cost you about $60 depending on the size that you want. you might be able to get it cheaper in the half yearly sales. the paring knives are about $8.

i've used heaps of differnt knives over the years and find these to be the best.

HTH!