Thanks for the comments. We did end up leaving it like in the picture, actually about 1" down due to vent hood cover sizing issues. The amount of space was such that the single cover fit almost perfectly if we dropped it 1" from my rendering. The finished height is just about 30" now. I'll post a finished photo later. I'll probably be the only one who will see the 1/4" difference on each side. An issue we ran into is that the ceiling is not perfectly level. Surprise, surprise. So with the cover secured with all 4 screws the cover just about touches the ceiling in the back and has a noticeable shadow in the front. By only screwing the top 2 screws it was possible to set the cover so it is pretty even with the ceiling. If you look up over to the top of the hood you see the gap there rather than up at the ceiling. Only thing I could think of other than doing this would be to put some sort of molding at the top where the hood meets the ceiling-- something similar to the stainless schluter edging we used on the tile. Regarding the software, I use Interior Design 3D for Mac, which is similar to Sketchup but much easier--and lets you change textures, colors, etc. It can import sketchup models. http://www.belightsoft.com/products/liveinterior/overview.php Only $40 from the Mac App store. It's a good way to visualize the overall look, and change perspective, etc., but not a full-featured kitchen design program. It has a limited set of built-in cabinets for instance. I created the uppers by making boxes of diferent textures, assembling them, and then merging into a single object. Then I could duplicate and rescale. Same with the hood-- it's 2 boxes.

Finally saw the GE GBC12IAX in person and am so glad I did. While the exterior looks nice enough, it was shorter than what I had envisioned and the plastic interior pieces seemed cheap and flimsy. It in no way compares to Liebherr (the only other one I've been able to view). I suppose nothing will:( I so wish I could have one, but spending almost $3000 for a refrigerator would really blow the budget. Anyway, GE is off my list, too. Now deciding between Fagor and Equator Conserv--I don't like the looks of the handles on the Summit CP-171 (do they look as bad in person as they do online, I wonder?). I know Equator and Summit are basically the same thing, right?? I never thought I would waste this much time trying to pick out an appliance. This is worse than car shopping! It would help if I could compare all brands in person, but apparently I'm the only person in Minnesota with a small kitchen. No one seems to carry smaller appliances around here, they are all "special order".

Hi Buttons...it's too bad you got the dual fuel range because it's not so effective to put your head in the oven and turn the gas on hahaha! I bought a Berta years ago (I think it was 2008) and it was a glorified easy bake oven. Thank goodness we moved only a few months after installation...it never did work properly! If and when you could get the burners to work, they did an ok job...but only if/when! The oven was horrible and couldn't even fit the pizza pans that my old Magic Chef had handled so beautifully. Don't get me wrong, I still love the look of the Bertas, but if you plan to actually cook or bake, you're out of luck. I would have guessed, with your husband being a chef and all, you would have known to choose function over appearance. Oh well...all I can say is "I'm sorry!".

We recently bought a Bertazzoni MASFS30XV wall oven dispute some of the negative reviews we read and love it. Review complaints included fan noise and hot air coming out the front. Other than the hot air, very few reviews were actually associated with the operation or reliability of the oven Our oven is installed under the counter in an island and the old oven that we replaced was so hot it heated up the counter top and the door window was so hot you could not touch it when the oven was operating. I don't even think the old oven had a cooling fan. Yes the Bertazzoni does make some noise from the cooling fan, but I believe it is actually from the air movement and not the fan itself. This oven required a vent opening in the back of the installation space and a vent in the kick plate, but since we installed it in an island and not against a wall, the vent was installed in the back of the island with an antique cast iron heating grill cover over the opening. If you would not have a cooling fan to remove the exterior heat the surrounding area and door would get hot. Result of the cooling is this oven exterior remains very cool to the touch. Both the counter over our oven and the door glass remain very cool during operations, even at 500 degree Fahrenheit. This is a bonus if you have small children. We have used the bake, convection, and turbo modes so far, and the oven works great. Every aspect of this oven is a big improvement over our old box store stainless premium model oven.