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Totem pole cactus are spineless, tall, skinny, heat lovers that could look very nice in your space.
I want to add that you better think through the hood exhaust requirements for a 36” range, especially one with high btus like a Bluestar. Do not shrug at this or think it’s not a big deal - many people do that and live to regret it.
I think a master bath can be more personal and relaxing ..even interesting…using a little color on the walls..
We went with the wall color on all of our ceilings. We used sherwin Williams alabaster for the walls and ceilings and high reflective white for our trim. I’m very happy with the continuity of using the same color on the ceilings. We went with a flat finish. Our wall texture (including ceilings) is a light orange peel texture. I think if I had a smoother wall texture I would’ve opted for either an eggshell or satin finish instead.
We did go with the sherwin Williams version of their bathroom paint in our high humidity areas as well and it’s been great.
With what you have described, I would vote for your plan in a heartbeat! I’d never get rid of a powder room on the main level, but an additional toilet besides the powder room??? Yeah, I’d be all about better function for both the laundry room and a pantry. I also think, that if resale is a concern, that would be a much better resale point than some weird extra bathroom in a house that already has a very comfortable ratio of bathrooms. Most people go Gaga over an ample laundry room and nice walk in pantry. And as someone who raised a decently large family, your plan seems ideal to me in multiple stages of life. (Young children, older children, and now empty nest.)
Is there any room on the first floor that could ever be a bedroom? Would that bathroom with a shower ever be used by a family member with limited mobility who needs to sleep on the first floor and needs a full bathroom too? If you can't imagine any scenario in which that is possible, then I agree with your plan to remove the full first floor bath and keep a powder room.
To Kendrah's point ^^ -- think about future potential need/use. Could the door be moved for the full bath so it doesn't open into the Kitchen? Could you then convert the Half-Bath to the Laundry Room?
Just think about it b/f you decide.
(With no layout provided, it's difficult to tell what is/is not possible.)
It IS very deceiving! Or lazy of them. I dunno. I feel it’s also the fault of many designers as well. Our last house had a Viking range and we didn’t have the back guard... because we didn’t know better. We did at least have concrete backer board because we had a huge wall full of tile... but we just didn’t know. This house I have a bluestar, and while we knew better this time, the sales people had NO clue. We didn’t go with the wall being non combustible, but we did go with the back guard. I’ve gotten used to the look.
Dan - with the backguard I can have 3/4” clearance. Without I need 6”. I’m going to tile the wall regardless. How is this illogical?
I did a backguard....I don't mind how it looks at all. It's supposed to look like a commercial range. Here's my hubby grilling a steak for me. :-)
You can try to save it... and you might get lucky. But it’s highly unlikely. What a bummer! Make sure they get you the exact marble you want for a replacement!
Don't remove anything before you confirm that your pipe cannot be relined please.
I have a 36” Blue Star RNB. Mine is on propane and was designed for it. I don’t bake a ton, I mostly got Blue Star for the stovetop burners because I do a lot of high heat cooking. (I also got their 42” hood and we have make up air, but not heated make up air because we live in a very mild climate.) Anyways, I’ve been very pleased with the oven as well as the rest of the range. It does take a full 30 minutes for the oven to properly preheat though and I flubbed up a few treats in my oven before I discovered that. I do keep an oven thermometer in there now, but once it’s up to temp it holds it really nice and steady. I don’t really use the convection fan, but it does have one. I’ve had better broilers in other ovens... don’t hate me when I say my former Viking oven had the best broiler I ever used. (My last house had a 60” Viking dual fuel range and we were pleased with it for the 5ish years we had it before we sold that home. But I know a lot of people have terrible experience with them, and I chose to go with Blue Star this time around...) I find the broiler to be uneven and I have to shift things around multiple times to get it done properly, but that’s been my harshest criticism of this range.
I know the wait time for our range and hood was pretty long, but we ordered it at the beginning of our house build, which was also in the midst of Covid, so... no idea what the wait times are now.
I adore how easy it is to take everything apart and thoroughly clean the range. Also, cleaning the inside of this oven has been easier than ANY oven I’ve ever owned in my several decades of being an adult who cleans ovens. LOL! I purposefully went with something without a self clean option (I’ve had a couple of horrible experiences with self clean ovens and would never use that function again even if one came with the ability.) But the bottom and sides are just so much easier to wipe in this oven.
We didn’t go with bluestar for any other appliances besides the range and the hood and blowers. We originally wanted subzero for refrigeration, but had to make some cuts in the budget and went with Kitchenaid for our fridge, and dishwasher. (We wanted a dishwasher with a grinder, not a filter.) We’ve always had good experiences with KA over the decades, and their customer service has been great whenever we’ve had issues. Hope that helps!
Oh, I used to have some kitchen aid double ovens and they were great... but that was in a home we had about 15 years ago, and they were electric. My bluestar is the first time we’ve had all gas for a range since the cheapo builder grade gas range we got with our first house purchased back in the 90’s. I don’t even recall what brand that was, but it was crap. LOL!
Jennifer Hogan, did you check the notifications settings on your phone? I have a Sansung Android phone; notifications alarms are separate from phone call alarms. I usually keep phone on & notifications off, so no audible alerts from my oven. But if I turn notifications on, I get dinged all day by email & text spam & all the push notifications too. So turn on notifications to hear your oven when you need it, turn it off when you dont.
My dil loves her new 30 in Cafe all gas range, & she's a fairly demanding cook, experimenting with multi-step recipes but also cranking out quantity for her growing family. Surely the 36 in version isn't radically different? Personally, I like the bells & whistles of GE ovens (cooking modes, phone control), & the DIL, with four kids & a newborn, is discovering their usefulness too.
Since you have dual fuel capability, explore an all electric induction range. Bosch 800 or Electrolx are choices. Wolf also.
Before we were empty nesters, we were a homeschooling family with 5 kids. I often wished we had 2 dishwashers. I loathe doing lots of dishes by hand, so we almost always had dishes waiting for the dishwasher while it was running. (We always ran it twice a day, minimum; often more than that as we had so many at home for all meals in a day.) In my previous kitchen, which we did our own custom, gut job remodel (hubby designed and built all cabinetry) we seriously considered two dishwashers, but decided it wasn’t worth the real estate given the L shape constraints. (We would’ve been cramped in the corner to keep sink placement centered under the window) I ended up placing my trash compactor in the island, not quite directly behind where I stood at the kitchen sink. It worked beautifully... even better than I had hoped, to be honest. The island was my main prep space in that kitchen, so it just worked really well. However, if you’re mainly using the 2nd dishwasher for large platters and overflow for when you entertain, I see no problem with placing them side by side so long as you don’t keep them both open for loading/unloading at the same time. I think two dishwashers is a very nice luxury, and why shouldn’t we enjoy some luxuries if we are able to?
@pennfire - Well, now I’m going to have to find room for it in my layout 😂
In my salad days I entertained more, and large groups too.
When I figured out how much all those disposable plates and bowls and utensils would cost me, (the quality ones that wouldn't leak through and break off, etc,) I realized that it would be less expensive to hire someone to wash the dishes as they were generated for any overflow that wouldn't fit in the dishwasher, or for things I needed right away that couldn't wait until the dishwasher cycle was finished.
Not only that, by having someone work during the meal and just afterwards, when all was said and done, I had happy guests because I was relaxed and I was happy because I had a clean kitchen. She even helped serve!
Win - Win.