Jaty, our range is installed and it looks lovely. Here's the feedback: * The Pacific Sales installation guys were nice but they weren't equipped with the right tools (a very thin wrench) to properly extend the legs to level the unit. I subsequently called Electrolux who sent servicemen to do it for me. Meanwhile I had borrowed a thin wrench from a friend which these guys used to level it. * The unit must be hardwired so be prepared to do some electrical work if you're replacing a more conventional unit. * We are extremely happy with smooth glide racks, the look of the unit, and its cleanability. * The convection bake settings are not working correctly (rear element doesn't heat up). Electrolux promptly sent out very courteous servicemen but their first two attempts have not been successful. They're coming out again. I'll keep this board updated. (The regular bake setting works so we're not yet hampered.) * The burners are wonderful. No complaints here. They are, however, spaced far apart, so conventional griddles barely fit and are not uniformly warm. There is some dead space in the middle of the griddle. This is true even of the griddle they give for free with the unit. On full blast the flames can peek out from under the griddle towards you, so watch out. * You can get infinite control of the simmer setting by turning the knob between off and ignite. Very useful. * The grates are very heavy. By design, it seems that the inner tine is angled just slightly greater than the outer one, so pots rock ever so slightly. It's really not an annoyance but I don't know if it's a defect or not. * The lack of a temperature gauge takes getting used to. The oven beeps twice once preheat has been achieved, so if you've left the kitchen and missed it, you'll never get positive confirmation. This is probably true of other pro-style ranges too. For the price we paid we think it's a great bargain and we would do it again.

How many cfm you need depends on your cooking habits. Since you are not going for a 36 or 48 inch restaurant style range, you probably will not be generating all that much heat, smoke, and grease splatter when cooking. So I think 315 should be okay. About our experience: We had a 235 cfm unit (Broan) installed in 1991. By current standards, that's low. We recently bought a Bosch gas range which recommends a minimum of 300 cfm. But we're in no hurry to upgrade our exhaust system. The cfm ratings do not, I believe, reflect what you will actually achieve. A lot depends on the installation, whether the venting duct is straight or makes a turn before the opening to the outside, etc. When we do real heavy sauteing, the max exhaust setting is not quite adequate, and some of the cooking smells tend to linger for a while. So we have to keep the fan on for an hour or so. But we don't do that very often, and ee have other things to spend our money on. So it'll be a while before we do anything about that. Consumer Reports gives a good account of the OTR MW versus rangehood options, and strongly recommends the rangehood option. I agree.

The Dacor OTR MW is made by Sharp. There is a Sharp OTR convection MW that is identical, except for the door appearance, that's all. But the Dacor will cost double what the identical Sharp will cost. You could save a lot of money by buying the Sharp instead. Like you, we have a small kitchen and could only do an OTR MW. If we could have, we would have done a hood for sure. We also don't have the ducting to the outside. From what we saw of convection MW's they didn't do such a good job on the convection part. So we chose instead the GE OTR Advantium. Much better than a convection MW, and I would recommend it. However, it comes in two versions, the 120 watt and the 240 watt. We chose the 120 watt which was much less expensive, and we also didn't want to pay for the wiring needed for the higher wattage Advantium. Some people believe that the more expensive Advantium is superior, but we have been very satisfied with ours.

I'm surprised by your comment about microwaves with trim kits looking gaudy. I've never seen one that looked terrible. Many companies sell them and they go hand in hand with specific models of microwaves so that it is a custom looking fit made to fit into a standard size opening (24", 28", 30"). GE, LG, Panasonic etc - they all seem to have them. Have a look and see if you can't find one that suits your fancy. They aren't expensive ($70-$120) for most that I've looked at and give a really nice finished appearance. Another option is the microwave drawer - the most common one is made by Sharp. I think they look great and many people like them at the lower level. That way, especially as you age you aren't lifting hot items down towards you, rather up onto counter level from the drawer. They are not an inexpensive item but look and function well and can be quite hidden if you put them on the backside of an island configuration.