Hello, All --

About four years ago, DH and I re-did our entire kitchen. I used and perused this wonderful forum for days, hours, and months. Largely as a result of the good advice from members here (and posters' generally very helpful nature), we are (were) thrilled with our final kitchen. (In particular, we did lots of low-cost/high-impact "stuff" -- e.g., potfiller faucet, appliance lift.)

Now that four years have passed, the dust has settled, and we still love (loved) our kitchen. (DH and I have been very smug, in fact, between ourselves, about how the massive research and thought had really paid off. Kind of like "measure twice, cut once." We "planned a dozen times" and "built once.")

However, there are (inevitably) a few wrinkles.

We have the 30" Miele double ovens, and are very happy with them. We also own (owned) a Miele Red Velvet vacuum, and have been pretty happy with it. (Fabulous suction / plastic and hardware bits do not stand up well to hard use.) It is the Miele cooktop that has been a problem.

We bought the Miele KV 424 Ceramic Electric Cooktop. About a year after we had it installed, it began to be flakey about turning off. The problem was very intermittent. (Full disclosure: We bought a floor model.) It wasn't a huge priority for us to have the cooktop serviced for a flaw that most likely would NOT show up when a technician was here. (Obviously, no small kids in the house; our youngest is 13.)

Fast-forward to earlier this week, when we actually had a kitchen fire! Long story, but everyone is fine; could have been a lot worse. The fire chief is still puzzling out the cause, but human error has definitely been ruled out. It was either the cooktop (which, because of the timing of the fire, we assume would have had to have added "turning on spontaneously" to its little tricks), or else the range hood (short circuit causing a fire and falling debris from the range hood igniting some oil in the bottom of a pan on the cooktop).

So, I have a couple of questions.

I have searched this forum, but cannot find any other mention of this type of fault with a Miele cooktop. Does anyone know of such a thing? (Could easily be just ours -- and we certainly should have been faster to call the service people.)

Second, we will be replacing the cooktop, and are wondering about good models (if more expensive than what we had, we will pay the insurance company the difference). Any advice? (I will, obviously, be reading postings again, as well, to mine advice!)

Does anyone have any experience with replacing cooktops in a granite countertop? Are we likely to have to replace the granite? (Of course, it was the last slab the granite supplier had of a pretty distinctive stone.)

The Miele vacuum cleaner was in the kitchen during the fire, and is probably a loss, as well (soot and smoke damage). This isn't exactly the right forum for me to ask this, but if anyone has any quick thoughts on that replacement, those thoughts would be welcome. (Soot plus inoperable vacuum cleaner doesn't leave us as much time as we would like for good research on that point. And in the past, we have been unhappy with the two vacuums that we bought based on Consumer Reports recommendations.) ....just if anything hits one of you good-hearted, helpful GardenWeb people.

Any input?

Again -- Everything that is important is fine. Kids home from college, asleep at the time of the fire, are fine; pets okay; even photos were not scorched. Lost some great cookbooks, the cooktop and range hood, a couple of cabinets, and possibly a few vintage cookie jars, but nothing that really counts. Last I checked, folks were still selling cooktops and range hoods and cookbooks.

Hello after an absence -- And thanks, All!

-- Nean