I have no acreage...it's a tad bit more than 1/3rd acre. but..loving the solitude, semi rural, trees, back road, garden, well water, firebox within a fireplace and plenty of trees, downed and ready to be cut.. I can live a sorta modern, cuz there are no options for being "dyed in the wool" homesteader, this day around here... I have fences around all 4 sides of my property..partly to stay in..mostly to keep others out. I don't like manicured, precise, clipped and delicate landscapes. I love the unruly, natural, lush growth of plants, shrubs, trees, grasses and even weeds in my yard. I get donated clothes from the clothing bank...free groceries from food bank..and give some of what I grow... water from well or artesian down town, in saved containers. heat the house with chopped wood.. do canning in summer, jams after gathering them in prickly vines.. clothes repurposed down to blankets.. no modern cars...as long as the battery works, tires are good..doesnt' even require a heater or radio..but I do need windshield wipers.. I buy second hand supplies for all cooking, household and linens. make my own soaps, from the old fashioned recipes.. hang clothes in summer. I own an iron but haven't used it in over a dozen years.. I save broken dishes and glassware for mosaics and yard art. cast leaves from the garden, in cement for bird bathes, bird feeders and water features for the yard. recycle tires, tubs, rusty pots, wagons, fences, windows, doors and tree branches for growing pots, trellises, garden stakes, benches for more pots.. recycle barbeque grills for holding potting soil and compost, for easy access to pot up seeds. an old mailbox, to hold garden gloves, wire, tapes, labels, trowels, scissors, .... old wood frame windows for cold frames, above old dresser drawers for the base... old patio table, minus the glass, for slats, to hold pallets, for additional 'second story' planting.. many rows of 'tree rounds' as support for fencing posts, to support extra pallets, for shaded areas of yard for shade loving plants..two rowboats, to plant strawberries and cilantro.. frame of a carport, with greenhouse plastic for functional greenhouse, to have the head start on seeds.. tractor tires, to grow rhubarb.. dog house, to keep more hoses, garden cloth and worm bin in.. I don't live on the road facing part of a street, so I can stay out of sight, from passerby cars.. I've learned that if I can completely fill all of my 'less than an acre' parcel, to capacity, then one day, maybe, I might think about a larger place but until then, I have been able to stuff as much as I can handle for one person..with room to spare. cherry tree for both me and birds.. mock orange for birds and pretty.. same for service berries..for birds at my age, I'm not looking for a huge homestead.. instead, I want that piece of security, pride and comfort of growing what I want, at a price that makes total sense, with all the availablilty of providing for extended family, whoever wants to come and join in the fun and work of it.... there's always coffee perking, gloves to share, aprons to wear and lawn chairs to repair... it's my own personal Shangri La and I love it here.

Wow Viking is the worst. I bought all of my Viking appliances right before Covid hit and had to keep them in storage for about a year. Since install my oven doesn’t work and I had to replace all of my gas burners because my daughter had tomato soup boil over. All 4 burners were toast because one boil over!! That was over a thousand dollars in repair. But wait it gets better now my dishwasher won’t work. One day while unloading it I tipped over a bowl with water in it and the lights in the dishwasher automatically went off and I haven’t been able to use it since. I tried to switch the breaker off to make sure it wasn’t a reset issue. These appliances were the worst decision in my life and have caused me nothing but agony since.

My Performer range has been in use daily for almost two years (plus an intermittent year prior to that). I am really happy with it and the cooking results. I have also found it light-years easier that the Wolf AG to clean. (I did not replace the Wolf, which I liked, but we moved.) It had seemed to me that the oven might be turning on and off while in use more than in the first year lately, but perhaps not--I am also the one who suddenly looks at a mole and things, "how long has it been that color?" despite seeing it every day. Murch, I read the negative reviews you linked to. One confusion is that people will report problems with the ovens, the ranges, and the company all in one thread. The ovens seem to be more problematic than the ranges. Perhaps I have been lucky, but would not change my decision. I agree totally that the company should stand behind their products, but have not had any to deal with. should add--the Burners do poof when extinguishing, at least the 25k, but not as much as the Wolf. But I had the older semi-open Wolf.

I finally was able to upload the image from our Architect. This is a first drawing, so forgive the roughness! I'm going to give a brief description bc there is a lot going on!! Let's start with the "left' wall, with the range. The freezer is going to be at the end across from the peninsula, not where it is in the drawing. This gives about 30' of counter space on either side of the cook top. The back wall is going to have a furniture looking hutch about 4'wide. The curved wall is actually going to be a opening to the back hall. The previous desk/recipe area is going to become a pantry. We are going to see if it is possible to bump that wall out to become even with the outside staircase, so we could have a step in pantry. If we can't, it will still be a pantry but the specifics are yet to be determined! The right wall now has the sink, dw, and trash pullouts! The Arch moved the doorway down so that the above items could be accommodated. There will be a large window or windows about this area. The bottom 'wall' aka peninsula will now only have storage and the dinning room side will be raised to bar height. The island will no longer have seating. Disregard the curved end, that part was the Architects doing, and I was not a fan. I was really looking forward to having seating at the island, but we can no longer have seating on the right side of the island, bc of the new sink area. I should really start a new thread bc this is a far cry from my original post!!