Stonehouse - do you cook in heels and a dress too? That's a rad range. Ditto Lalitha on the hood, except you'll need a 54" above a 48" range ideally. If I were you I'd look at Berta...they definitely look pretty and come in colors. I think they are quirky but that may not matter to you coming from what you have! My brother has a 24" Smeg and it is very modern/euro looking which doesn't seem to be what you're going for if you like Lacanche or La Cornue. He does a ton of cooking and hasn't been particularly impressed.

My budget for all appliances is 15K, so if I spend less on the range/hood, I'll have more money for other appliances. If you are budget constrained, keep in mind that an island hood is more expensive than if you have your range against a wall. You'll need a larger hood for an island than if you had your range against the wall. Also, hood manufacturers price island hoods higher than comparable wall hoods. You'll also need more cfms for your island hood than for a wall hood as there is no wall or cabinets to help contain the smoke and grease from floating all around. Your island itself will need to be quite large to hold a 36" gas range plus the needed landing space, plus space so that the people nearby don't get splattered by what you are cooking on the island. As has been mentioned many times on this forum, more time is spent on prep than on actual cooking so if you want an island range for social reasons, it would be better to dedicate your island to prep.

@John Hrivnak, ArCH, AIA, MBA, NCARB, LEED AP - This is a problem with anecdotal evidence. You are not going to architect your way out of a bad builder. When we look at the advantages and disadvantages of design/build firms in aggregate it is pretty easy figure the trade-offs inherent in the model. This is not rocket surgery, it is a simple backward or forward vertical integration business combination and they have been happening a long time now. Somewhere deep in the past a wine maker said. "I think we would be more profitable if we grow the grapes." THE GOOD Every combination requires synergy, so the two parts being better together than they would be apart. In the case of the winery owning the grapes it is a change in the decisions around growing and harvesting grapes. Essentially you can tailor your wine to your grapes and your grapes to your wine. In design/build firms plans will be tailored to take advantage of builder proficiencies and enhanced communications. The designer will be able to anticipate areas where the builder may struggle and will design away from that when possible and communicate more clearly when not. Plans are more likely to hit cost targets as the design process is automatically designing to efficiency. There will also be more communication between the builder and designer during the design phase when they are in the same office. THE BAD Every combination has a sacrifice because of the exclusive nature of the combination. In the case of a winery, if you own the fields and have a grape harvest that is not particularly fantastic while a competing grower has a fantastic harvest, you are still required to use your grapes. If you sell your grapes and buy the others you have destroyed all of the value in the combination. In design/build firms that tailoring of plans to building efficiency will limit creativity. An architect for a design build firm is not going to design towards something the builder is not good at doing. They are going to design to strengths and away from weaknesses. Those strengths and weaknesses might not be shared by every builder. This is a tangible weakness and should be given serious consideration (e.g. If a builder has a preferred window supplier the designer is likely to find a way to incorporate those windows in the design even if a different window would be better). --- This entire thing assumes that quality is equal across the board, which it is not. I can assure you that the answer above is correct, yet it is also meaningless in your decision. Your decision is going to be based on your needs and your market. In your market you may well have several architect driven design/build firms (forward vertical integration), or you might have cost conscience builders providing design services (backward vertical integration). Do your due diligence and then pick the arrangement that you are most comfortable with. I would advise that you take pricing quotes with a grain of salt, the best value is not likely to depend on a quoted upfront price. Also I personally would not look at portability of plans from a design/build firm. This seems like the worst of all worlds... You limit design to strengths of one firm and then don't use that firm. Just my 2 cents... Good luck.

I like the inspiration picture, as well, and if you want a black island and it feels contemporary for you, then do it. When we were looking at houses four or so years ago, I was very taken by the spec houses that had black cabinets in the kitchen. When we ended up building instead of buying, however, we decided that black would ending up being too dark in our space (which BTW has about as many windows as your space does, but our house is urban so has neighboring houses that block light coming in). We chose oak (or was it maple?) stained a brownish-gray, which we like very much and isn't too dark for us. I find white counters and backsplashes boring (obviously my personal opinion); we went with a solid surface that's a light gray and reminds me of limestone or soapstone, both of which I love but have their own issues. (Gray may be out but I have always liked gray, and we balance it with lots of natural wood throughout our house, mostly maple.)