2) Sounds like you got unlucky with a bad blower. A 1000 CFM hood with the griddle should be fine. If you had the infrared grill, it would be a different story. 3) I'm guessing what you are seeing is, indeed, humidity. A gas oven will exhibit plenty of moisture on the backsplash until the oven heats up and the water is turned to steam. I'm also guessing you're coming from an electric oven. Enjoy the humidiity, especially if you bake. Breads, cookies, etc will all turn out better. 4) "Season" the griddle just as you would a cast iron skillet: dampen a wad of paper towels with vegetable oil. Swab the griddle with the wad. Heat the griddle on max until you see smoke. Once the hot griddle starts to seem dry, CAREFULLY rewipe it with the wad (wear an oven mitt or other substantial protection if this makes you nervous). Cool the griddle completely. Repeat entire sequence three times. Your griddle is now good to go. NEVER clean it with soap, or you will have to start over. Same goes for acidic foods, such as tomato, vinegar, or lemon. Be prepared to embrace that dark mahogany patina; the showroom-new gray is gone forever.

Using a temperature probe I measured to door temp to be around 135 and the face of the range (where the knobs are) was 165 degrees. The inner top of the door was 210. I called Wolf and they told me to have a service tech come out and check the door gasket. Has anyone with this problem ever had it fixed?

This post made me laugh ... I thought I was the only one who noticed where the vents were placed in a range! I agree that their placement can really be an issue with some ranges and that was something that I took into consideration when I was choosing which to buy. FamCook, is the floor model you are looking at the old-style AG with the top that comes apart? If it is, there is a removable drip tray that is positioned directly above the oven door. The outer edge of the drip tray forms a downward curve that covers over the door vents completely. If you were to spill some hot liquid while standing at the stove, the curved edge of the drip tray makes an excellent splash guard. I feel very confident that no spills would make it into my oven door vents while the door was closed. Some of the other ranges I looked at did not have any sort of protection over the vents .. some had such huge vents in the door that I couldn't see how things WOULDN'T fall into them! Of course, you'd have to be careful to avoid situations like you describe above where liquid fell in while the door was OPEN, but I think that since it has happened to you once, you are now aware of the possibility and it's unlikely that it will happen again.

The range is flanked by windows (like breezygirl's kitchen) so their are no upper cabinets to contend with. My concern was putting the range on some sort of platform (safety) so that it is high enough to clear the adjacent counters and what that would actually look like (aesthetic). Would it look odd to have so much clearance below the range? We currently have 37.5" tile countertops with an old (1980's) electric range/oven. There is a small drawer underneath it so that the height works. It looks fine, but with the Wolf the height of the actual appliance is greater and I was trying to envision how it would work in this new kitchen (this is new construction - not a remodel of the existing space). There is another thread (I couldn't find) about whether the cabinets get put in first and then the floor installed to the cabinets or if the floor gets installed first and the cabinets placed on top of the floor. If it is the first scenario, then I will gain some height from the floor. (Can someone point me to that thread?) I really don't want to switch to a rangetop. We've been back and forth so many times and I finally thought I had it all laid out properly with my desired appliances that will work for the space I have. It will be challenging to find space for a wall oven :( Thanks for any advice! Pictures would be greatly appreciated.