I would love to hear what they say if they respond. In my experience, UK and European appliances are almost always superior, especially the ranges and cooktops. Maybe not refrigeration. And I've never had good luck with EU washing machines, but that could be me. Still, I have written both Bosch and Aga requesting some of their EU appliances be offered here, but no luck. Aga makes a gorgeous induction range there, but here? Nooo. BTW, we have a lot of friends and work associates who move back and forth regularity w/work transfers. Very often they have the company either ship or store their EU appliances, then ship them back again. But almost ever do they attempt to actually use one. Mostly they just want to hang on to them. I get the impression that, cost wise, they pay a lot more for their appliances than we do, though I haven't done the math.

Lemon, If you had asked me, I would have visualised a water fountain as one of those stone garden ornaments, perhaps those people you spoke to thought that was what you meant! I have fallen foul many times in the past of putting the wrong mental image into someone's head, e.g. trying to describe something over the phone is a mine field. So much easier now with cameras on phones as long as both parties have them! I wonder if they can be used in a country where one does not speak the language? Just flash up a pix of what is required? Beats a dictionary or pointing, my usual methods of communication :-)

There are interior doors made for sound reduction, they have STC ratings and there are exterior doors that have STC ratings you could compare the numbers to each and compare them to your wall assembly and see what would work. 1 3/8 interior doors can have a better STC rating than The wall. You could retrofit a wood threshold to the existing door to close the gap at the bottom or just lower the door assembly if it is on carpet and use the carpet as a friction fit . If your dead set on on an exterior door you remove the threshold , cut it down and modify if with wood and also shorten the width, you could remove the aluminum sill, cut the frame down and put a lower profile sill in or let the weatherstripping graze the floor.. If you like the aluminum sill just replace your flooring with aluminum flooring to match the threshold. There are many options but lack of details to help assist.

For those who like to be amused, here's one instance I recalled immediately that you can further laugh about. A colleague and I arrived on a rainy winter day for a work visit of several days to a town about an hour outside of London I'd been to before, to a hotel I'd been to before. It was about noon, we were to check in and then meet the two individuals we'd come to see at a nearby pub for lunch. We agreed to drop our bags in our rooms, freshen up a bit, and meet in 15 minutes back at the front desk. On entering my room, the extreme heat was apparent. It was very hot, certainly 80 deg F or more. The radiator had a thermostatic adjusting valve on it - I turned it and it turned freely, obviously broken. Back to the elevator to descend to speak to the front desk about the problem. While speaking with the clerk, my colleague came up and listened and said "Your room is too hot? Mine is stone cold. I tried adjusting the radiator valve and nothing happened. The heat is off and won't come on". The front desk person apologized and said he would call the repair service immediately. Reassured, we left for lunch and the meetings of the afternoon. Returning to the hotel late afternoon, the plan was to relax a bit, go back to the pub for a beer in an hour and then go out to dinner. On entering my room, I found it was still uncomfortably hot. I went back downstairs to the front desk. The same person was there that I'd spoken to hours earlier. I said the room was still uncomfortable, was the repair person on-site or expected soon? The conversation that follows as I best remember it. Him-"No sir, I'm sorry. They're quite busy because of the weather but they'll be here Thursday afternoon" Me-"I'm staying just two nights and leaving Thursday morning. Can something else be done? Can you give me a different room please?" H-"No, I'm sorry sir, that's not possible. We're fully booked up" M-"Maybe you could give me a room tomorrow that someone has vacated, let a new arrival have the room I have now?" H- "No sir, I can't do that. It wouldn't be fair to give an arriving guest a room that's uncomfortably hot." M-" Isn't that what you've done to me?" H- "Yes sir" M- "Let me ask, with my room too hot, and my colleague's room too cold, hasn't anyone mentioned this before? The problem can't have just happened in these two rooms. How about your room cleaning people, no comments from them?" H- "No sir. I'm sorry" I called my office, asked them to find me another hotel. On returning from dinner, a message was waiting for me, saying that because of some local event, no rooms were available in the area for the next two nights. So I slept with my windows wide open and my colleague was given several extra blankets, having declined my offer to sleep in my room.. He showered the next two mornings in my room. I returned to that town many times but never again to that hotel. I remember the hotel was part of the Trusthouse Forte group, its branded materials were in the room and the hotel public areas. It was a UK hotel operator of some size at the time. I just checked (having certainly remembered the name and location) and the high street located hotel has a bit over 100 rooms and is part of the MGallery hotel business. It's not a mom and pop operation. I recall many other ridiculous incidents like this. Bad luck? No, I don't think so. I long ago reached my conclusion from experiences like this.