janmark275 10:32 PM I do NOT recommend Wolf Designer cabinets. We just had them installed, on the advise of our contractor, who said we would be very pleased with these semi-custom, budget friendly, made in America cabinets. We are so disappointed. These cabinets are poorly made and poorly painted using low end wood. The shelves are light weight and low end. Please look at the pictures of my "new and improved" kitchen (not!).

Do you use a griddle now? I would consider an overlay griddle instead of a built in. The one I have(Royal industries)is 15”x23” and is about 50% bigger than a 2 burner built in. I have a Wolf range. It can be bigger because it is made of heavy aluminum which has much better heat transfer properties than steel so heats more evenly. It comes in bare aluminum which seasons over time and nonstick. With a built in you have about half of the power, somewhere around 15K BTUs. You can set the griddle anywhere you want or you have the flexibility of using all six burners. I have picked up my griddle and put it in the oven. You can take it to the sink to clean. These are Royal Industry overlays. They are pretty inexpensive. http://royalindustriesinc.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=4_22_48 Chef King makes a similar griddle out of steel. With the built in, you have a thermostat so you can repeatedly turn it in to a certain temperature and get that amount of heat. If you go this way, look how the different brands are built. Wolf uses an infrared burner to get a more even heat. The steel is twice as thick as BlueStar. BlueStar uses this burner on the RNB griddle. Thermador uses an aluminum griddle and an electric element.

I just got the wolf speed oven and so far so good. I just did a partial kitchen remodel and got the 36 inch all gas wolf so wanted a smaller electric oven for a 2nd oven or for smaller meals. I also was happy to ditch my countertop microwave. I had space in my cabinets to put the 24" oven in without a lot of carpentry needed. The24" seems to be the same interior size as the 30" model, only the outer casing is different. At first I was a bit thrown off by the fact that the microwave turntable turns even when using convection mode but I've found that with the low riser its great for cakes and pies. They rotate as they cook very evenly. I haven't tried any of the microbake or microroast settings yet and the "gourmet" modes seem sort of silly, mostly just plain microwave.

What about a 36" cooktop and double wall ovens? What is more important - the amount of burners or the oven sizes? A 48" has a small oven and a reg 30" one - while the 36" range and a wall oven give you 2 larger ovens. How's you back? A wall oven will be more convenient. Then of course there is the quality of all the appliances you are looking at - get the best your pocketbook can handle - whichever configuration is best for you. Good lucK!