Thanks all. We were planning on the SZ 36" bottom freezer, but cabinet changes left us with a bigger refrigerator opening and, as kaismom suggested, I like the sxs look. So, rather than having some fillers or a strange looking 7 foot tall skinny cabinet, we have embarked on a search for a 42" refrigerator. Jumab -- One of the things I hated about some french door refrigerators (apart from those plastic thingys that many have on the left door to provide a seal surface) is that, when you open one door (let's say with a handful of stuff), you may find that you can't open one of the drawers or crispers inside without opening the other door. How is the interior of the Jenn-Air?

Melissa, You have probably seen some of my postings on this topic. Each frig is different even in each line. It is possible the sxs are perfectly wonderful and the problems that some of us have had with the French Door counterdepths are limited to that model. What I can tell you is that our replacement frig has been working fine and we are happy that we did buy this model despite our problems. It is also possible that other sites might have only excellent reviews. While GW is pretty active and covers a wide span of consumers, it is only one site. And people are more likely to complain instead of praise. It is really easy to drive yourself crazy with all of this. Please don't let that happen to you. I can't make your decision for you tho... Trust yourself.

Earlier this year we changed from a Bosch to a Dacor double wall oven. This required enlarging the oven cabinet both in width and height. The new oven required that the cabinetry opening was 1/2" wider and 3" taller. I spent considerable time trying to decide whether I would encroach downward into the drawer below the oven or modify the cabinet above. In the end, I decided to do the harder work and go upward. It took a few days to properly removing the upper doors, carefully extract the nails and supports holding the upper cabinet shelf in place, and relocating everything. It was a time consuming job. The width was enlarged by routing the front vertical edges which had been made a little narrower than typical because the original Bosch oven was slightly narrower than most wall ovens. I also had to relocate the electrical outlet behind the oven and upgrade the 240V wiring to a larger gauge in order to accommodate the higher current requirements of the Dacor. We then bought new upper cabinet door fronts from the original cabinet maker (Coppes Napanee) which matched the 9 year old cabinets. The end result was great.

What are the overall dimensions of the refrigerator space (66"H x ??"W x ??"D)? The newer counter-depth and built-in refrigerators are close to 72" tall. Does your upper cabinet have any filler b/w it and the old refrigerator? If so, you should be able to cut it down. However, if there is no filler, you may have to choose b/w taking out the cabinet above the refrigerator and having a gap all around it. There is a third possibility...if you can find a decent finish carpenter s/he may be able to "downsize" your upper cabinet to allow a taller refrigerator...but that will entail not just cutting down the cabinet carcass, but also the doors. If you have a slab door it may not be difficult, but if you have any other kind you may have to order doors from your original cabinet company (or your carpenter may be able to make doors to match). Did you do your own refrigerator research? Check the various manufacturers' websites, they usually have the specs for their products on line. Just a few manufacturers to check: GE (regular, Profile, Monogram), LG, Samsung, Sears/Kenmore, Kenmore Elite, KitchenAid, Whirlpool, Amana, Maytag, Sub-Zero, Liebherr, Jenn-Air, Fisher & Paykel, Viking, Thermador, Bosch, Dacor, Frigidaire, Electrolux, Haier, and Hotpoint. Yes, it will probably be a lot of work, but you have very specific needs. Good luck!