R/F: I'm partial to SZ, having had great performance with multiple units (in multiple houses) over many years, & have SZ in our new kitchen.

Beverage Center: have you looked at the Monogram one? Great looking & racked well. We ultimately went with Monogram refrigerator drawers because we wanted food storage capability too. Beverage centers don't get cold enough to safely store food.

Range: I was impressed with Monogram, never could see a BlueStar in our area. Both the Monogram & the BlueStar have the power you need, so the slow simmer should be your main decider. If both are satisfactory to you, then it's down to your decision between electric or gas oven. (We chose a DCS all gas 36" range, all burners, because of our wiring and we also have an electric wall oven. It can do low simmer without a diffuser. The infrared broiler in our range is more important to us than the lack of self-cleaning, and the oven can switch to convection.)

DW: We've had KitchenAid & it's good, much better than the JennAir it replaced. We have Miele now, which cleans better than our KA and is much quieter.

Faucet: We have KWC Domo & love it. We have the side control pullout version on our main sink, and the top control pullout version on our prep sink.

Microwave: I'd prefer a drawer in an island.

I think you have good choices lined up; nothing listed sends off any alarms.

Both the Monogram and SZ 650 a good choices. Pick whichever one fits your personal preferences best. Same with the Bluestar and Monogram ranges. Both have excellent simmers, and you'll love the power on both of them.

I have the KA bev fridge and am quite happy with it. Unlike most BCs, it DOES go down to 37 degrees, so you can store open juice in there without worrying that it's in the danger temperature zone. The KA is also one of the few BCs that has three wine shelves instead of only two.

KA and Bosch DWs are both excellent choices that are a little bit more budget friendly than Mieles.

Our microwave is undercounter, but we chose to use a regular microwave in a cabinet instead of a built in one. Both a regular built in or the Sharp drawer are also good choices, but pricier. Especially the drawer. We ruled that out based on price and also fear that with it being such a new product, wondering if it'll still be around if we needed a replacement years from now.

I feel your pain- i too have been on this site way more than I would like to admit-- so heres my 2 cents.

Refridg- we were also going to get a sub zero-- but we heard that consumer reports rated it the most prone to problems. And we have friends who had issues (and after spending all that $$ that would really upset me). So we are looking at Amana, GE and Jen Air. The guy who is the head sales guy our local kitchen store owns a Jen Air. Our friends have Amana and love it. My problem is i wanted a standard depth and recess it into a wall and panel it and no one has that! so.....

Dishwasher- we were also going with the top of the line KA-but i heard that over the last 6 months KA was rated worst for customer service with issues. The Miele Optima is about $300 more and supposed be much better...and supposidly if its not as quiet as they advertise Miele will take it back no questions asked. And i hear their service dept is great.

Microwave- I hear Sharp built in is the way to go....

Our friends have DCS range and love it. We are looking at Wolf 36 inch Rangetop and Thermador built in 30 inch ovens

Hope this helps- keep us posted!!!

thanks all for your feedback...

One thing about the GE Monogram range is that you can negotiate the price in a way that you can't with some of these other brands. I have been at three different appliance stores and the range is: $5199, $5799, $6299.

With Bluestar, I have been offered '07 pricing until 1/31/08 which saves me about $600. That price is $4950 + $250 for island trim, so about the same as the lowest GE Monogram range price.

I think I'd be happy with either one.

The Sharp Microwave drawer... I'm pretty excited about that.

Thanks again... still pretty unsure, but I will have to decide this week. Will let you know what I do. Any more feedback would be appreciated.

The Sharp microwave drawer is a slick deal. Everybody I've talked with who has one has been happy with it. Longevity of the design?? Who knows? My only concern is that no one else has brought one out to compete with it. If nobody else is joining the party, there's usually a reason.

Regarding the microwave, we have an Advantium & really like it. It is both a microwave and a speed cooker.

hi,
just wanted to give a quick update... I was absolutely sure I wanted the Subzero 650 and in the end went for the GE Monogram... It was somewhat an economic decision - the savings was $2300. A certain very price range hood caught my eye and in order not to blow the appliance budget I starting cutting back. I think the range hood will make our kitchen... the functioning seems to be what we'd want - baffles with a wide capture area, 600 CFM fan. The look is really nice. It is the Taconic Wall mount in stainless with a pot rail, bands and rivets on the corners by Range Craft.

We went for the GE Monogram range. I ordered it through Eurostoves since I have been in there MANY MANY times over the last couple of weeks asking a bazillion questions about the Bluestar. They gave me the best price on the monogram appliances.

Haven't purchased the other stuff yet. The cabinet maker has dimensions for both microwaves and is going to see which fits better in the island. The GE spacemaker is $500 less than the Sharp, so I am pulling for that one particularly given that we went for the pricey range hood.

this is all so exciting. i am in my glory!!!

thanks everyone.