I sympathize with your dilemma. At least you know, however, where the noise or problem is coming from. My problem isn't so simple to define, since finding the source of the noise that I hear seems to be about as likely as proving the single shot theory of JFK's assasination. I've been renting at this apartment complex for a little over two years and have had to call the police three or four times now. Sometimes it's actually quiet, but it's been getting worse over the last couple of months. First, the two apartments across the hall from me are occupied by a woman and her son and daughter-in-law who like to conduct loud conversations up and down the stairs (we're on the third floor) with the door open. Oh, and this woman has a voice that sounds like she's speaking through an artifical voice box. It's horrible and gutteral and low pitched and screechy like a demon from a bad horror movie. Anyway, I've already complained to the landlord about them, which seemed to quiet them down for a little while, but how can you hold back the sea? But before I could relax and enjoy the respite, the neigbors directly below me decided to start playing their music loud from around 10:00 to 11:30 at night. I tried to ignore it at first, but when it continued the next night I did contact management. This time, they seemed more hesitant to do anything. In the midst of all this, there are a band of lowlifes that populate one or other of the buildings behind mine, who like to scream and talk loudly at all times of day and night outside my window, toot their horns, and bang on the door of their buildings while yelling to be let in. How their immediate neighbors can put up with this, I'll never know. Since I don't know who these people are or even their exact apartment numbers, I've been hesitant to call the landlord. I have gone outside late at night and crept around trying to identify the source of the noise, and jotted down the address of the specific building and the floor I thought it was coming from. When I called the landlord about them, the manager said he would try to get security to look into it. That doesn't seem to be working, though, since every week since then I've experienced numerous disturbances, usually two or three times a week. I've been lying in bed at midnight and had to listen to loud street talking among what sounds like a group of guys, using rough language and acting like they're in a bar. Just today, I was awakened at 4:11 a.m to the sound of music blasting from someone's apartment, followed by loud talking and cussing that went on until after 5:00 a.m. When I finally went back to sleep (I had to get up early to drive my sister to work so needed the sleep), I was awakened again at 6:40 to loud music. This is getting to be too much to handle. How am I supposed to police this whole complex when the management apparently is unwilling to do so? How, also, am I supposed to lodge a complaint when I don't know the source? And apparently, the people living near these scumbags are either too apathetic or scared to get involved (or perhaps they're friends or relatives). Does anyone out there have any suggestions? This is ruining my life! I feel totally harrassed and violated.

You mean it'll be a pony wall at the R end of the FP? The prep sink would work there on the kit side. From Sena's LO there'd be about 4' of prep space between it and the stove. I'd still use a shallow pantry on the wall of the laundry room at the end. (that'd also eliminate the deep lower corner cabinet area problem) I'd put in an EZreach upper cab on that corner to butt up to the shallow pantry. uppers usually run about 15" deep, don't they? I'd want a long area of prep space on the other side too instead of a deep pantry. Having the window side not so deep by the door and shallow on the stove side would make it more open at the doorway. Easier to see little ones coming in too. Having a prep area on both sides would be great when you have help in the kitchen by family/friends. On the window side, how about the fridge next to the dw? You could even move the sink/dw to the L maybe another foot - that'd give maybe 3' or so to the R of the fridge for the desk area. (before the doorway to the sunroom) Try putting this in the layout/or 3d pic and post here so we can see how it looks. I like the idea of the 6' between counters when a number of people will be working in that area - and possibly someone going out or coming in that laundry area door. Less congestion. The wall ovens - those are good for those who have problems bending down to the oven on a stove. Really tall people, those with a bad back... or those who often use oven and stove top at the same time. Many don't like standing at the stove top with the heat of the oven so close to them. I'd love to have one but I so seldom use the oven, it doesn't seem worth it for me. I probably don't use the oven 2x a month. Maybe once a month. btw, I tried bolding my '2x a month' above and it did. I didn't hit submit tho, so maybe it would bonk me if I did that. Or maybe it is the phone or just when editing a post? I'm gonna go ahead and click on submit so we'll know. Saving my post first tho...

Well, I took your combined advice and it worked! She (hopefully) fixed everything and ended up not charging me anything for it. I really do like her as a person and I trust her. And, yes, she is licensed and bonded and very experienced. But, she was originally going to charge me $190 for a new part that she brought , although "nothing for the labor" . She'd called some folks at KA and it was what they suggested. I told her that DH was really upset because we'd spent almost $1,000, had her out 4 times to fix them and nothing was fixed still. And then talked about how exhausting it always is to have to haul everything out to our garage fridge and freezer and then back again later. Which it truly is. That's a long walk back and forth dozens of times! I admit that I took the coward's way out, laying the anger on DH who wasn't present. So, she installs the new part for the oven, which was pretty complicated, as I watched the whole thing. She turned it on . . . and it still didn't work! OMG, we were both so discouraged! She tries a few more things, but nothing. And then, she notices that the oven door has a small worn (?) hole in it where the latch fits in, and it is letting the latch slide out most of the time. When it slips out, the oven won't turn on! It was fairly unobvious, being on the door itself, but when the door successfully latched and stayed latched, the oven would turn on. When the latch slipped out, the oven wouldn't. She made a temporary small metal patch that she drilled in and will now search for a replacement latch hole strip. So, the new part wasn't needed after all, but she left it in because it would have been a bear to take everything apart again. She did say that in all her almost-20 years in this business, she's never seen of such a problem or heard of it. I told her to write a paper on it to present at the next convention. And then she starts working on the freezer. She brought a small portable steamer with a cone nozzle, stuffed it down the drain in the bottom back of the freezer drawer and blew out and dried up a clog there. The clog caused the freezer to ice over and then drip. It also iced up the tracks that the drawer slides on, so we may have not needed the new runners after all. She did show me how to use our own steamer to do the same if it happens again, but she said it shouldn't for many years, if ever. She also said that the drawer was tilted down a bit and used a electric screw/bolt driver to tighten it. What a saga! I truly hope it's over! Thank you all for your thoughts, words to use, and encouragement. I listened and they worked! If people are rude to me, I have absolutely no problem "jumping down their throats with both feet", as DH likes to call it. I'm very effective wording things, both in person and in writing. But, if it's a nice person that I like, and she is, it is so, so hard for me to say anything! So, this sometimes-Cowardly Lion says, "Thank you for the borrowed courage!"

My way of cooking boneless breasts works on charcoal grills, gas grills, and stove top in a cast iron skillet. It will be moist. Start grills with heat only on one half of grill. Take breasts out of frig and rub with evoo. Do not salt. Salt pulls moisture out of meat. I salt and pepper at the table. I do not use any marinade other than evoo. Place on grill with the thick part toward the heat, but on the side with no heat. Lower lid on grill. Turn over occasionally. Cook until 165*. Do not go over 165*. You can stop a few degrees short, it will rise resting. Remove, cover lightly, and let rest for 5 minutes or so. If using cast iron skillet on top of the stove, just heat on high. Add chicken and reduce to medium. When brown on one side, turn and cover. Turn occasionally until done. I love this for checking temp. https://www.thermoworks.com/Classic-Thermapen?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI96zp7ujx2wIVRjqBCh0ypQFPEAYYAyABEgLOK_D_BwE