Rangetops are not more reliable than cooktops. The advantage of the rangetop is that you don't splatter grease nearly as easily on the knobs ,with oversized pots you can get a situation where the knob(s) is under the pot and gets hot,and lastly you loose cooking space with the cooktop...and usually a 6th burner. In your price range a good option is Caldera.Pretty powerful,good quality and good price because the company is no longer in business. You don't get a warranty but I doubt you will need it. I am 99.99% certain you will never need proprietary parts,any competant repairman can fix with generic parts. Like ignitor and spark module in the distant future. In the link below store sells for $929 but you may find it cheaper somewhere else. If buying from a defunct small compay just plain scares the bejesus out of you then I would go with GE Profile JGP975SEKSS. I don't think you are getting extra peformance or value with Electrolux. You are paying for their price-fixing policy.The GE Profile 18k btu dual-stacked power burner is the same exact buner found in uberexpensive GE Monogram ranges. Here is a link that might be useful: Caldera Cooktop

Oooh - these are great ideas - thank you so much. I like the idea of fruit - kiwi, orange, star fruit. That would be nice with the somewhat spicy main dish and the fennel in it. I've never purchased a star fruit. Are they hard to find or readily available? What else do I need to know about star fruit? Hi Teresa!! Yes, I'm a very rare poster here. I browse through the posts fairly often but like I say, rarely spend enough time cooking at a level to warrant a post here. Sometimes I come more often if I'm on a stay at home vacation. I like to try cooking new things then. We have a weekend lake place in the Brainerd Lakes area and sometimes I'll take a week off up there and do some cooking and entertaining and then sometimes I surface here with questions. Believe it or not I think I did once post a picture here. I never even thought to take pictures of food until I saw them here. I had this beautiful cedar plank salmon, couscous salad and corn on the cob - probably my only food photo.

My husband's opinion is typically based on what is the best value for the money. I have finally convinced him that I am standing firm on wanting to do a color range, so he is okay with that even though he thinks it is silly to pay a lot more just to get a color rather than stainless range. He is actually the one who originally thought of the idea of just having the Legacy with no countertop to the left of it. I am truly struggling with how much heat and power one needs. I know that there are many here who swear (actually I just made a typo and wrote "sweat" and wonder if this was a freudian slip) by their super-powered stoves. As someone who has managed to cook pretty well for years on a pretty ordinary gas range, I do wonder how much I need. And, I also hear all of those who say it would be a bad idea to put in a 36" with only an 8" counter next to it when there is a traffic pattern there. (We have completely eliminated the possibility of just having one side of it free-standing.) This started out with a desire/need for new countertops. Then, we decided we might as well replace an aging range prior to doing the countertops. There is a certain symmetry to the layout of our kitchen, and we don't want to move any other cabinetry around other than being willing to remove the counter to the left of the current range and get something smaller to replace it. As far as venting, we have been told by several salespeople that even with a high-powered range like a 30" Bluestar a 600 cfm should be adequate. Thanks again all.

"Also thinking on the bottom wall to have counter to ceiling cabs with pocket doors that can be open for prep and access to countertop appliances but that can close and hide all the mess when not in use." The problem with counter-to-ceiling cabs in a prep space is that you lose significant counter space with the cabinets. Even with 12"D uppers and 30" counters (which you may have an issue doing if you cannot reduce the size of the Dining Room doorway), that still leaves you with only 17" of workspace in front of the upper cabinets (30" - 12"D upper cab - 1" door = 17") --- too shallow for any real work. If you want to do that, I suggest a 36" to 42" wide space in the middle that has standard uppers (15"D & 18" off the counter) and then flanking that space with 15" to 18" deep uppers to the counter. Also, keep in mind that with 30" deep uppers, accessing upper cabs only 12" deep will be difficult for most people. If your sister and mother are tall (> 6'), they may be OK with it. Most people will probably only be able to reach things up to about chest high...they'll have to lean far in to reach even that far up. Oh, and if you have cabs to the counter, if someone is working at the counter with bowls, pots, etc., sitting there, you won't be able to open the doors behind the dishes, etc. If you go with it, I suggest drawers for the first 12" or so above the counter before switching to shelving. That will help with access. What it sounds like you really want is a "reach-in" pantry that has counters & cabs that can be opened/closed to hide the entire space (& mess) when not in use for prepping.