ChiSue, The drain hoses flex every time the drawers are opened/closed but there's no immediate concern unless they're leaking. They're designed to be flexible but cracking at some point of aging is a fairly common thing. The fill hoses also flex but they're more of a stretchy/rubbery material than the drain hoses. My lower drawer drain hose had a crack a few inches behind the drawer. Both had cracks where they exit behind the unit and made a sharp turn toward the left through the cabinetry partition. Impossible to see back there when the unit is in place so I have no idea how much bend is in effect on the new hoses. :-| KA discontinued drawer dishwashers a few years ago. The only brand currently on the US market is F&P, and possibly DCS (which is owned by F&P). I considered updating to the latest model (tall upper drawer!) and the racking is more adjustable now ... but decided to fix the DD603.

I'm SO EXCITED your kitchen remodel is finally going to happen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You've gotten so many responses and good tips, that I was only able to skim through. I love our kitchen dish drawers, but we cheated a bit. Our dish area has a hutch sitting on the counter above the dish drawers. It's mostly full of glasses, cups, serving bowls, and pitchers, but has drawers across the bottom for flatware. This means that the top drawer in the base cabinet, that might usually hold flatware, is free for dishes, like custard cups, etc. Our plates (dinner and salad/dessert sizes) and cereal bowls are in the 2nd drawer from the top (the first deep one), and we have Tupperware type containers in the bottom drawer. (In the pics in the link below we still had some serveware in the bottom drawers, but now it's plastic containers in one and lids in the other.) I wouldn't want to have everyday-use dishes in the bottom drawer. We had 46" for the dish storage, so we did 2 cabinets each at 23" wide. Our dishes are heavy, and many for our crew, so I'd worry about going too wide. Here is a link that might be useful: my kitchen... Dish drawers shown about 1/2 way down

Hi erikanh, our kitchen in the "in progress" section of the fkb. DH is making some of our lighting fixtures and I refuse to call it done until they are up---so we've been at 95/98% for 3+ years (our cabinets were installed March-June 2005). Good thing we have classic cabinets. Otherwise the kitchen would probably be hopelessly out of date by the time I consider it "done". I think the FKB link brings you to my photobucket album which is not at all organized and often has multiple shots of one view---not really ready for prime time. layout and top wall: left side of top wall (toward eating area) and right side (toward mudroom) with baking center: Right wall: bottom wall: Left Wall from kitchen side and then back from dining room side (hutch doors are a pass through) The cabinet lines ended up looking squiggly when I shrunk the photos. Please be assured that our cabinets are really nice and straight : ) I know what it's like to fall in love with cabinetry. I first scoped out cabinets in a couple of local lumber yards in the early 90's. There was just one line of cabinet I really really liked and I put some literature in a folder. More than a decade passed and I checked out cabinets again in 2004. I was introduced to CP by a family member. I loved them and compared to some bathroom cabinets we had made by a cabinetmaker friend they seemed like a good value. After ordering the cabinets I found my old folder from 1991 and the cabinets I had loved then were CP! Obviously their sales method had changed (no longer in lumberyard kitchen showrooms) but my heart held steady without me knowing it. Lucky thing we waited so long because we're at a different point in our lives where we're willing to spend money on the infrastructure of a house we hope to still be living in in 40 years. Bottom right corner before reno:

I have been looking at this range also. I found some reviews here. KitchenAid range What I'm not sure about is the depth which will stick out 4-5 inches beyond my cabinets. I had another KA range and it worked fine though the stainless finish developed some problems - stains that didn't come out that appeared to be the start of some corrosion of the finish. Same happened to a friend with the same range. I bought that at least five years ago so hopefully they've overcome that problem. I'm getting black this time around so I'm hoping I avoid that risk completely.