I started to browse through this website forum since I needed to gather data on the issue of noise on condo complexes and hear what the current and/or past tenants of condos) have to say about their actual experience when living in a condo. Although I found many comments to be appropriate and suitable for the subject matter that written/posted by Vendora, I found quite a few commenters� posts simply to be offensive and inappropriate such as the one posted by Mike_Pam, chinacat_sunflower, GammyT, and so on! Just simply look and listen carefully to their tones and motives that they have written behind their comments. So, is it really true that their intent is good, pure, and positive or rather is the opposite�meaning trying to take control and show pride of themselves or their egos to others whether they realized it or not? For example, how is it that Vendora was making a poor choice in moving into the condo complex when she obviously did not foresee nor knew in advance that there would be such horrific noise issue inside her condo unit right after she moved into her condo unit as what chinacat_sunflower clearly and inaccurately stated? How is it that Mike_Pam trying to help the nature of the issue when he obviously distorted his true intention in the forum as if he was giving the right and appropriate advice to Vendora when what he said and posted on his comment clearly is an insult and mental assault not only to Vendora, but to the nature of the subject matter and to the forum as a whole? Then, the next commenter (GammyT) after Mike_Pam posted his comment even aggravated the assault to Vendora and reminding that she ought not complain about the people above her and that is nothing she could do, etc.! As you all can see and understand, these commenters obviously get the kick out in deliberately saying untrue and destructive things to people, especially to the subjects (i.e. Vendora and other similar condo tenants) who are undergoing the torments of noise issue from neighbors�to even make the nightmares to be much worse and more intense than ever before! It is one thing to give advice�meaning the right and appropriate advice; but it is another to insult, assault, and annoy others (i.e. Vendora) simply because that commenter wants to show off his or her ego and would say and do anything to put others down and make others look bad when these showoff people are the ones who needed help and needed to take a good look at themselves and to cleanse their unhealthy self-esteem and self-image once and for all! In addition, simply because a person raised an issue on certain subject matters; it never meant that this person is asking nor looking for advice nor meant that anyone could say anything and do anything to inflict unnecessary and additional pain to this person as the way some commenters had done to Vendora! This is called maturity, human respect for your fellow human beings and for yourself! Sincerely, Newlifestar

wekick, Thanks for your post. I'm sincerely glad you haven't had the issues I noted with the Wolf range. How long have you owned your Wolf? Wondering if it's only an issue with the recent Wolfs (Wolves?). Look at this link to a video of a paper test. Is this inaccurate?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGyugwvncFA&feature=related Interested to know if you found different results. Most shocking to me is the heat pattern. As for Wok cooking, I have a fairly powerful outdoor Wok burner 137K BTU but can't really accomplish that in my kitchen (probably unsafe and illegal). I live in northern Vermont and "wokking" outside isn't pleasant in the sub-zero weather we often get here. Also don't want a separate wok-only venting system and don't want to void my fire-insurance policy. Many of the dedicated built-in wok burners i've seen suitable for the home are actually rated around or even lower than 23K BTU and the better ones aren't much more than 30K BTU. Wolf's dedicated wok burner, for example, is only around 22K btu. I found the 23K Culinarian burners to do a fairly admirable job. In my experience, it's not just the BTUs that matter for successful wok cooking, but heat/flame pattern is equally important. I found the Culinarian burner flame pattern to be extremely Wok-friendly. There's an ongoing debate as to whether gas or electric is better for pastry baking (IMHO it depends what you're baking) but there's not much debate that gas is generally preferred for cooking/roasting meats/veggies and even bread which is more my bag. Depends upon preference, as you noted. Also I didn't mind the lack of rolling racks on the Wolf, but the Wolf range I tried didn't accommodate full-sized commercial sheet pans. Oven seemed a bit cramped. I also considered the Bluestar and still very much like the cast iron tops on them. The service record, however, concerns me. There also apparently remains major problems with door hinges, failing igniters, etc. I've considered an "additional" induction burner for my new kitchen, but would never replace open-flame cooking with induction. It is incredibly efficient but somehow lacks soul. Call me old fashioned or romantic or whatever, but I derive great joy from cooking and have never found cooking over electric, ceramic, or even induction to be as dynamic or satisfying. I won't even consider a sealed burner. This may be why i'm smitten with the Culinarian. It has the feel of a true commercial, open burner range, and nearly the power of one. I hope you don't take my post as in any way diminishing your choice. As you say, it's all personal preference and, having not yet placed my order for our 48" inch Culinarian, I'm open to being convinced to go another route if my experiences were anomalies that can be demonstrated. Continued satisfaction and happy cooking!

lol, I picked her up from school yesterday and we went back to her class to get her backpack & binder. I asked, 'you have everything?' and she said yes. Later, after 5pm she tells me she forgot her spelling words in her desk. Well, Wednesday is the night they have to put spelling words in alphabetical order and write them three times each. She knew this but I wasn't thinking about it, we had been at the doctor's office & radiology all afternoon, but she brought it up. She said she guesses she can't do her spelling since school is out. My first thought was she did it on purpose and I wanted to call her on it. I didn't. I thought about it for a while and a couple miles down the road, I said that when we get home, she can call her friend that's in her class and ask for the spelling words. She claimed she didn't know her phone number but I told her I do. When we got home, I double checked her binder and the usual spelling list wasn't there but the spelling words were. I found a loophole... the teacher sends home an optional sheet on Fridays. It's an activity they can do over the weekend and at the bottom, it gives the next weeks spelling words so they can start practicing if they want. Well, of course she was bummed that I found that and proceeded to write them out three times each but not in ABC order. DH had her redo it in ABC order. Then we watched TV for a while. She had a great attitude. Her mom sent DH a text message an hour after she went to bed to have SD call her. He wrote back that she was in bed and if she wants, she can call in the morning before SD leaves for the bus. She called before any of us were up and wanted to talk to SD so I went and got her up. I heard SD telling her about going to the doctor and say her arm doesn't hurt anymore. She started to ask BM how she was doing and then abruptly says ok, I love you too. Bye. BM apparently didn't want to 'chat'. That is the FIRST time BM has called SD in a very long time, I can't remember the last time she called her. The doctor called me a few minutes ago to say the X ray shows no break. He said she probably pulled a muscle if she fell on her hands playing on the trampoline. There's not much to do for it, he said to apply heat and showed us how to stretch the muscle. It will resolve itself in a few days if she rests it. and I do agree that some lying... about school work or brushing teeth, etc. are common at her age. I don't know if it's normal or alarming, and I understand the lies she tells her mom to get mom's attention, but she is old enough to understand that there are consequences for those kinds of lies when mom gets CPS or the police involved. There could be great consequences for DH and me. I was more concerned with her lying about injuries, being hit, and things she complains to her mom about but doesn't tell us. We don't find out until BM calls DH to chew him out or now, until she calls CPS. SD never complained to us about having to eat foods she doesn't like and when she told DH about her arm, she only mentioned it once and he didn't see a reason to go to the doctor and she never complained to us about it again. And we don't know if SD complained to her mom or if her mom is the one that is asking her if she was seen by the doctor but I don't know why BM would put it on her daughter to get dad to take her to the doctor if SD isn't saying it hurts. I'm probably overly cynical of BM, but I'd say she knows SD fell on the trampoline and got hurt and didn't want to pay for a doctor visit so she told SD to tell dad her arm hurts so he can make sure it wasn't hurt too bad. SD told him a couple of days after coming back from BM's, after she got off the phone with her. BM might have reminded her to ask dad. DH looked at it, and didn't think it was broken and considering SD had gone to cross country and was swinging her arms around earlier, concluded it wasn't too serious. SD never told him she fell down on the trampoline. I'm sure she didn't want to get mom in trouble, although we don't know exactly what happened so it could be an innocent **stuff happens with kids** accident or it could be she was not being supervised and got hurt. We don't know that and we already know BM isn't going to tell us if she did anything wrong. But, when SD came home this last weekend, she did tell DH that she collided with her sister on the trampoline and cut her lip. She said her teeth went into her sister's leg. That was on Sunday and on Monday, she didn't call BM but she did call BM on Tuesday and after she got off the phone, she again told DH that her arm hurt. On Wednesday is when CPS went to the school so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see how coincidental it all is. I'll admit that I am pessimistic when it comes to BM. But, I've never been wrong about her actions.. not yet anyways. I have been surprised that she has done some things I've predicted because I honestly was fooled at first and she presented herself as a GREAT mother. But, maybe because of my 'control freak'ness, I noticed little details that went unnoticed by my DH about her. I mean, she did things that I found odd being a mother myself. I went through custody issues with my son's father and we would fight over who gets him more, not who has to take him. She was always asking him to take SD on her weekends but if he ever offered to let her make up the time, she said she was busy. She never asked to makeup the time either. Then, when she refused to help her daughter do a school project, that pretty much sealed my opinion of her... she actually told my husband that if I want to do 'mom' things (like bake cookies, which I guess really upset her) that I can help her with her school project too. Hearing her say that shattered my image of her being a wonderful mom because I can't imagine saying or doing that to my own child. It's been downhill since then and she has aspired to new lows as a mother, in my opinion. The only one I did not see coming was her moving away and giving us custody, that blindsided me because we had just spent several months (and thousands in lawyers) to fight for custody and she fought it so fiercely, I never imagined anything would cause her to give up her daughter so easily. Maybe that is why SD was so affected too, she saw how fiercely her mom fought to keep her, only to be discarded two weeks later for a stranger. (so, yes I have had a hard time not resenting and hating BM for doing that and I need to learn how to let that go, but it's hard)

Lisa Thank you thank you thank you, I sent an email to Kim Freeman with the summary I have above in this thread, plus what has happened since, yesterday evening. Today I get a call from the chairman's office! A lady name Wendy apologized for all we have been through. She was on her way to meeting so our conversation was short. We are getting A BRAND NEW STOVE next week! She totally understands when I tell her I have no faith in the stove we have. I did not plead our case did not even ask for it, she said this is what is going to happen. The one year warranty starts when it arrives. Doing the happy dance! thank you thank you thank you! for your help and the links. This is our remodel we did in February. My husband and i did all the work except installing the granite. Our kitchen was a 1973 L shape, skinny with a door into the living room and a mini hallway into the front door hallway The fridge is now where that hallway was, plus two angled panties. the original kitchen this is where the fridge is now and the two pantries we built one to the left and enlarge the one to the right to make them look the same. Angled walls. This is where the island with the stove is now, the arrow pointing shows the 33 feet of windows we put in over looking our yard woods corn fields, ponds etc! We took down the wall to the left where the stove and fridge are and the wall to the living room. the side door is still there.