You don't say what price range, other than not "a ton of money." If I were you I wouldn't even worry about brand, especially. Go find the stove that looks the most attractive to your eye in terms of design and color that is within your price range. If you are near an Ikea they have some modernist styles available that might suit you and they are under one thousand dollars. Also, keep an eye out on craigslist and ebay as you may find a nice stove that a builder is trying to get rid of or somebody moving out is trying to sell. Put any money you save away for your purchase of your next home and dream-stove.

I haven't cleaned the insides often (had the range swapped out because of the burner issues, so haven't had one long enough to get the inside too dirty). Yes, it is a PITA to do (the downside of no self-clean, but the alternative would be having the range pump out tremendous amounts of heat for many hours). I always had to clean my oven door manually on my old self-clean range anyway, and had to wipe out the ashes left behind after self-clean, so it''s not as though I had a free ride before! For the top, once you get the hang of it, cleaning goes pretty quickly (I don't clean the actual burner rings themselves BTW, don't see a need unless there's been a messy spillover--they're burners after all--not suppposed to look pristine and unused!). For spot cleaning or jsut wiping down the burner pans, I have found that Perfect Kitchen spray (from BB&B) was a good recommendation from the people at the SZ/Wolf showroom. Depending on the am't of mess, I'll spray the burner pans or spray a paper towel and wipe. For baked on crud or more extensive cleaning, spray with Dawn Power Dissolver spray gel, let sit (how long depends on how burnt on the mess or how much time you want to wait), and then "scrub" in the sink with a blue scrub sponge (ours usually has some Palmolive dish soap on it already), rinse, and dry. I use a dish towel to dry the pans. If I notice any smudges or finger prints after popping the pans back onto the range, I might give a quick buff with a dry microfiber cloth. The grates get a quick scrub in the sink with a soapy blue scrub sponge if I'm going to be cleaning the drip pans as well, not if I'm just spraying and wiping them. I do those first, then lay them upside down on a sheet of paper towel on the counter. They're pretty much dry by the time I've replaced the burner pans. I'll just blot up any remaining water/wet spots with a towel/microfiber/or paper towel and we're good to go!

No our previous range was SS with a black top ant the black was really hard to keep clean our current range is all stainless and I usually just wipe it with a dry paper towel to clean up spatters. The range is a coarser finish than the fridge and dishwasher. On them I use a little Wyman's SS cleaner and polish about once a month it helps to prevent finger prints and of course we try to use the handles. You didn't mention specifics of what you want in appliances, but the old fashoned top freezer refrigerators are the least expensive, Maytag Whirlpool Kitchen Aid and Jenn Air are all made by Whirlpool and are your best brands. The Maytag and Whirlpool will be the least expensive. This is a nice range but over $1500 http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/KGRS505XSS.html here is another all SS for $1050 http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/JGB810SETSS.html here is a nice large otr microwave http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/KHMS2040W.html and a smaller one for less http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/R1514T.html for dishwasher I would stick with Bosch Kitchen Aid or Whirlpool. Hope this helps.

Bluestar.