@deeageaux - Thanks for the information. Unfortunately, BS & CC are out of budget unless I can reallocate. BS & CC are $3k & $2.8k respectively (BS had a recent $ increase). Also does the off center heat make that much difference on a cast iron or all-clad. They are suppose to spread heat evenly over the entire area. No? Otherwise, which is the better option? KA or Dacor? I live in the placer county and I believe we have "soft" water here. No hard water stains on any our faucets so a base Miele should work. One turn off on Miele is that they are now handling the delivery & install under their "concierge" program (so more $$). With the KA ovens, what if you don't use the self-clean mode? Will that alleviate the reliability problems since the problems stem from self-cleaning. I agree with the looks on the Elux. @dodge59 - I like your idea of the single + speed. Did you get the Elux Icon? I couldn't find a speed oven in the base Elux line. Glad to hear about your experiences on reliability. @Caddidaddy55 - BS is now $3k. Called a dealer yesterday & they said that they recently raised their prices and that there is no discounting from MSRP. Dealers risk losing their accounts if they do. Same for CC. @JPRain - Appreciate your thoughts on holding out. But as I mentioned previously, we're not going to wait. We are operating within the limitations of the house, our cooking needs and financial investment (ROI). Also, we have a 3yr old. Remodeling combined with living in a new house and with a young child would just too disruptive. Finally, would love to hear from others on their experiences on reliability on the brands and items on my list. Thanks everyone! Great forum!

My house doesn't have the antique appeal of a nice older home like so many of the ones in magazines, so I can't rely on white just being classic as part of an obviously newer remodel of an older home. I used to live in the mountains of upstate NY and was always drawn to the houses with history, but hoped to remodel it to make it my own. But, alas, we moved to North Texas before buying a house in NY, and now I am in an 11 year old cookie cutter builder grade home in a North Texas suburb. It is nice, don't get me wrong, and I feel very blessed to have a home at all. But, I live in a very "trendy" upscale area, and yet, my neighborhood is definitely on the lower end of the home price curve, which suits me just fine since a huge mortgage payment was not on my list of things that I wanted in a home. It is a lovely home in a good, clean, safe area with excellent schools. BUT, the homes around me in surrounding neighborhoods cost 3-10X as much, and they ALL have SS, either originally from the builder (newer home than mine) or have been "updated" with SS appliances for no other reason than to "update". My kids go to school with these kids, and so when my daughter found out that we were thinking of replacing our refrigerator, she excitedly asked "Can we get one of those cool grey ones? Nobody has white anymore, Mom." Of course, this has potential to be a lesson in not following the Jones' and all that, and believe me, in general, our family does not fret over being in style or having the latest and greatest of everything. BUT, I also don't want to invest a few thousand dollars into something that just looks cheap, even if it wasn't. I know that I would know that it wasn't, but.... If I am going to live in a low end home because a house is just a house and a home is what you make of it, then I would like my home to not look just like it did when I bought it 10 years ago when it was filled with barebones builder grade everything, from the colonial blue pleated shades to the thin, builder's grade carpeting. We have since installed wood floors, wrought iron balusters, fabric roman shades, etc., but have not done much to the kitchen. I would just like my kitchen to look a bit nicer than it did 10 years ago, yet, I don't want to succumb to a possibly passing fad, even if a lot of people think that it will last forever. So, I am leaning toward staying with white. My stove and oven work fine, so I can't justify spending money just to change a color (though I still would like to change out the grey grates for black, since they always look so dirty!) Certainly, the stove and oven would break within 10 years, I would imagine, and I could match them then, but by then, the new fridge, etc. would probably need replacing, too. I didn't really like SS when it first came out (too cold, etc.), but now that it is EVERYWHERE, I think I have gotten used to it and do see it as somewhat of a neutral. But, the fingerprint issue is huge, since keeping my kitchen clean is difficult with my current white. SS, or worse, black, would probably make my life more difficult. I plan to get a french door fridge, so maybe that will eliminate some of the "confusion" over whether it looks cheap or original to the house. Thanks for all the input! You guys are great!

Within the last 10 years we have gone thru 3 different W/D First was top loader Fisher and Paykel W/D, not too bad, but after 3 years mechanically failed, quiet machine. 2nd was a highly rated front loaders Whirlpool (go green). what a horrible, horrible mistake. Hubby does the washing and finally had to hook up a hose from the shower to the washer to add water, was funny at the beginning, but as time went by, the frustration was growing, clothes was not coming out clean and it took longer to do a load of wash more than anything. After a year, we finally gave in a starting researching for another W/D, ran into SQ. The sky opened and the sun came out. Never saw a happier husband, who loves to wash clothes. The price for the W/D was less than 1/2 what we paid for the Whirlpool, and this was on the higher end residential model. We were able to sell our whirlpool front loaders to someone who was really looking for our model (rated high), we lost money in the sale, but was happy to get rid of it. Immediately noticed a difference in towels and clothes, came out cleaner, no more shower hook up for water. I think many people forget about SQ and they don't realize that they have been in the commercial business (laundry mats) for a long long time, can you imagine the abuse those machine takes. Recently had a friend who was convinced to buy a Samsung several years ago and is now running into issues with their machine. Even the repair man told them that he would not have bought a Samsung. They tried selling the Samsung and a used dealer used he wouldn't touch or buy that machine at all, he highly recommended a SQ and if my friend was selling a used SQ he would have bought that from him in a snap! The wife and I are laughing, because she wanted the SQ but he decided to listen to a salemans. He is now buying the SQ and had to donate his Samsung, because no one wants to buy it. SQ for a happy life!

damairain that is certainly something to think about that I hadn't considered. I had thought about moving the garage stairs, but not flipping the whole thing that way. I tried to sketch it and couldn't get everything to fit (aisle width) on my first try, but I'm going to play with it some more. thanks for your time and ideas! cpartist-- thank you for your offer to help. At this point I feel like the whole "wing" of kitchen, family room, mud room eating area is on the table, but I just don't want to open the can of worms dealing with Narnia. If I did, it would only be to convert it to a real bedroom. That said, I could also put the office in play -- because of the big window on the front of the house I feel like its value is somewhat limited though. mark_rachel, Julie B and lyfia I didn't mean to totally ignore you. :) Yes, those are valuable comments about the refrig distance from the sink. My reasoning for the island design was our awkward family of 5, and thinking that a set up turning the corner vs all in a line would be more functional for us all to sit and eat there. --