Thank you all so much, antss, buff, trevor, and emilner! I'm placing my order tomorrow. If I may...2 follow-up questions. My cabinetmaker came today and said he could easily do either the 46" or 58" ventilator. 1) Since the difference between the 46" and 58" is only a little over $100, would there be any reason not to go with the 58", just to gain the additional capture and possibly cut down on noise? 2) Your advice re: depth is duly noted. The Wolf 36" is 27" deep. The Best by Broan ventilator is 22.5" deep. Is this a sufficient depth? I asked him if he could mount it "forward", meaning out a bit towards the front of the hood, so it catches the smoke from the front burners. He said no problem. I guess my alternative would be to look in to a custom ventilator, one that is a few inches deeper...but I don't know if this is necessary (if the standard 22.5" depth is sufficient). Cannot thank you enough!! This has been so much easier with the help of so many kind GWers.

The cork flooring will reduce impact noise a little but it has almost no sound separation properties so it only needs to go where you will be walking. The most cost effective way to reduce sound transfer is to install a layer of 1/2" drywall at the ceiling below the kitchen on metal resilient channels that are 1/2" deep. Don't allow the drywall screws to penetrate into the framing above. Another similar system is made by IsoMax. It takes up more space but is more resilient. http://www.kineticsnoise.com/arch/isomax/index.html Make sure there are no penetrations that will allow sound to leak between the spaces (pipes, ceiling lighting). Sound leaks will defeat any sound reduction system. Filling the joist space with ordinary fiberglass or cellulose insulation will help with sound leaks but will not be as effective as the resilient channels for sound reduction. Google resilient channels to get more information about installation. Here is a link that might be useful: resilient channels

Thanks everyone for your comments. What are vinyl planks and what is on site finished hardwood flooring? You mean they stain it on site ? Wouldn't that cost more? What I like about hardwood flooring throughout is the flow and you don't have those divider strips in between the doors. We have three small dogs. I have wondered if they peed on hardwood floors , would it soak down to the sub flooring and make your house smell like urine or would it stay on top so you can wipe it up ? One of my dogs gets UTI's and she does on occasion have an accident. About cork , I've been reading about it and how great it feels on your feet but I haven't seen any cork flooring that I like the color ! The grout is a huge reason why I dont want tile. I am too old to be scrubbing grout with a toothbrush, lol. I am really tired of vinyl, but haven't ruled it completely out. Dee

Ppbenn, the wallpaper is "peonies" from tempaper. It is not standard wallpaper. Its a self-adhesive wallpaper, aka a giant sticker. I don't know how it would take water color bc of the finish. But, Tempaper sells a product that is plain that you can decorate. So maybe? Tempaper has a website with faqs, and they would likely answer questions too. It's a sm company/neat story. Good luck! I am sure my kids will paint ours soon. I've already wiped up pen and pencil. Marker and paint are likely not far behind. Fwiw: hanging this is just slightly different than regular paper. The back is very sticky. That is great if your flat walls meet crisp edges of the even/level ceiling. With my old wavy plaster walls and old wavy plaster ceiling, covered in tons of paint, a standard wallpaper likely would have been easier to hang because it would have been more forgiving to stretch, move and slide. But, this paper was worth the effort. And removal will be so much easier, though I have no plans to do it anytime soon. Fori! I remember you asked questions about the smeg. I hoped you would pull the trigger before me! I will try to remember to post a more thorough review after we use the speed oven more. I want to try to bake, heat a frozen pizza, and grill fish or meat. Then I'll post again. In the meantime, as I mentioned above, we have abused the oven feature on the smeg everyday for more than a month: reheat french toast, warm left overs, cook chicken fingers, spring rolls, eggplant parm, roast veggies and chicken, make nacho chips and cheese. It just gets hot so much faster than my 30" Berta gas range, which isn't particularly slow to get hot. And I think/hope it has to be more efficient to use the small electric oven than the larger gas oven. (?) And the mw is in use everyday, reheating my coffee, cooking frozen broccoli etc. The mw performs well, as I would expect. We have not baked, used the grill function, or done any speed/combo cooking. But to be honest, the combo features were secondary. I am not very good at following directions and I usually never use the pre-set options on anything! If and when I bake, it's usually in batches; I imagine I would usually use the range to bake and the smeg to cook dinner. I will use the grill function; hope it works well. We decided to take the leap, or be the guinea pigs, bc we only had so many spots to put a mw. The best spot was prime real estate, below the counter. To give up cabinet drawers, I wanted an appliance that would do more than mw. I cook, a lot, everyday and on holidays. A second oven was really attractive. Obviously I didn't have space for a wall oven. I don't even have space for a countertop convection or toaster oven. So we looked at combos. Since I only have 24" my choices were limited. The reviews on the Miele were really good. But it didn't sound like $$$$ better for how I would use the appliance. And I didn't have that extra $$$$ to just get the Miele bc it's the Miele. Really, my biggest concern: yes, my kids play with the knobs. But i can't blame them. It is cute.