Thank you for the responses...and Clarygrace...thanks for the link :) Actually, our electric is pretty reliable. If our power goes out, it's usually out for most of the area, due to ice storms or other severe weather. Also, an above ground propane tank is really not appealing. We have hunters and bad drivers (one just hit our house a few months ago) and I cringe at the thought of one, shooting/hitting the propane tank. That being said...I've found some nice electric ranges online, mainly from the UK. Here are a few Rangemasters that would be great (although a bit bigger than I need) but they would fit in the space. I was hoping maybe some of you could recommend something similar...a bit closer to home :) From Fairy tale cottage From Fairy tale cottage

A recirculating canopy/chimney hood is close to worthless. A recirculating over the range microwave is much worse. Under code you can install any kind of range you want as long as it is certified for residential use and not commercial. Gas cooktops produce water vapor and carbon dioxide. If they are not properly calibrated and having orange flames they also produce carbon monoxide. The best burners, like the CC, put 50% of the heat directly into the pan but most put about 75% into the ambient air around the kitchen. I would really look into getting a proper hood to vent outside. If not possible I would get an induction range. Electric but just as powerful as gas, and no combustion by product or waste heat. it all goes into the pan. You can read induction threads in the forum about all the pros and cons. There was a recent NY Times article about Kitchen venting and mentions the overall effectiveness of recirculating hoods. Calling them "forehead greasers" lol. Here is a link that might be useful: NY Times LINK

""For roughly $2100 you can buy an American made pro-style Bluestar RCS instead of the Chinese made NXR (albeit with German burners)"". I am sure they are great, but when I was looking for mine the cheapest bluestar I could find was $2500 plus shipping and that was about $300, so like $2800. Unless I lived in Canada where Costco was supposedly selling them for around $2000. So they were always out of my price range. I have never seen one for anything close to $2100 myself. Now Blue Star claims their infrared broilers are 1850 degrees, which I have no reason to doubt, so I would imagine mine has to be somewhere between 1500-1700, I am sure there isn't that much difference. Every time I looked at Blue Star though, other than the price which was always too high another thing that turned me off from them was all the complaints I kept seeing and not only just complaints about something breaking or not working but also that Blue Star was basically worthless as far as fixing what was wrong. Did not inspire confidence in buying one that is for sure. My price range when I was looking 5 months ago was really $1600 max, but we went ahead and got the NXR for $200 more because it looked sooooo much better than anything we were seeing for under $1600. Blue Stars were $1000+ over our price range though. So while I am sure BS are great if you want a open burner stove, the NXR just fit our price range better and so far I am damn glad we spent the extra $200 because it is WAY better than any Kenmore or GE that we were looking at. Also from what I can tell about the only thing on an NXR actually "made" in China is probably the outer shell and possibly the oven door glass. All the major parts are made elsewhere, Italy, Australia, Germany and some in the US. It is basically just "assembled" in China not "made" in China. Either way doesn't really make much difference as I have seen some things 100% "made in USA" that were pure crap, so where it is made is hardly worth discussion anymore. plus the cost of using gas has cut out electric bill decently, the gas is only about $2-$3 per month using the stove every single day.

Only if you want to go with coils or you get lucky finding a floor model or something like that. There are a fair number of models in the $1100-$1200 range, and I think this one is a great bargain. Right now it's expensive everywhere but HD has been selling it for $1294 and probably will again soon. They have it at the low price, then raise the price for a few weeks, then drop it again. It's a bit over your budget but it's certainly a very upscale look and a lot of features for the money. There's a whirlpool smooth top model that runs about a hundred dollars less than the HD sale price, but it looks very antiquated and has fewer features. Frigidaire and GE also have some models for under $1200 if you shop around. If you really need to stay under a thousand, I'd consider a standalone range. There are a lot more to choose from at that price range and you always get more for your money than you do with a slide-in. Here is a link that might be useful: new samsung slide-in range