If you're no totally soured on GE...... In three family houses and one friend's house there are a total of six identical GE Profile wall ovens -- three convection; three w/o convection. Black with glass fronts and touch-button controls. The oldest is nine years; youngest about five. They've been exemplary performance-wise and trouble-free. Only complaint is the indicator tone. Everything else on the unit is easily user adjustable but the volume of the tone is not. My aging ears wish it was.

Well, basically, smoke & cooking grease rise. Even with a traditional hood, you have to be sure you have enough CFM to capture. We have friends who own a downdraft - and not a cheap one either. I've watched it and even at high speed it can't suck the stuff from the pot right next to it, let alone the one on the front burner.

ML- First of all, thank you for the link! I need a good software program and Chirstmas is just around the corner :) This is my dream plan! This is after opening up some walls and adding in the porch, replacing the main bath and adding the laundry, pantry, 1/2 bath and vestibules. I put two doors on the mudroom, since one side goes to the deck and one side goes to the barns, but you make a good point about a single door and more storage. If I had enough money, I'd love to put a glass/screened porch back there, instead of the mudroom and deck, with storage for tools (and extra coats in the winter) with access to a smaller deck or patio. That would be sweet! Also, I'm thinking about taking the door off the pantry and making it a big arch, instead. I saw that in a magazine the other day and it was so pretty. I have the perfect sink to go under the window. It's the original sink, from the old farmhouse. North is the top right corner...the house faces sountheast. That makes great light for the dining area, so I'd love to have room for a small lemon or orange tree (like my inspiration picture) and maybe a star jasmine. The stairs facing the front door, go up to the second floor. There's a plan for a pocket french door, back by the bathroom, that will access the basement stairs. Hopefully, the future garage is off to the left of the mudroom, with parking along the driveway, which is behind my squiggly curve, to the left of the plan. That's my shrub border! LOL The two chairs in the kitchen are by the little cobalt blue Jotul woodstove (love this little stove) that will be back up heat and boiling water in the teakettle, if the power goes out. I need my tea... :) While your description sounds great (my husband would love it) I wasn't planning to put a TV in the kitchen, but that might change. Maybe a little one on the corner, by the oven/microwave. That would be easy to see from those two chairs. The main TV is in the living room (across from the sofa) with another one downstairs in the rec room. Behind the kitchen is my huge pantry (6' x 10') the freezer, small cabinet for the hampers, washer and dryer are on the backside of the kitchen sink. Across from them is the mudroom/coats area with a big cabinet with a window next to it, then the half bath. The shower is part of the main bath (with the claw foot tub) but the wall I opened up for it is a load bearing (where the addition meets the house) and that's why it's a big shower, since there has to be a big post or something there. I probably forgot to draw it in, correctly. I forgot, I moved the closet to the wall to the living room (better sound barrier) and it made the bedroom 15' x 10'. More room around the bed for dressers and the french door out to the hot tub. All this drawing, is an attempt to get the plan very clear in my head, so I can visualize it and maybe that will help us get to the place where we can start the remodel. Here's hoping! :)

My pantry is the size of a closet with deep shelves on the back wall and wire baskets on the side walls. It's also a total disaster. My late husband use to get on me for having so much food stored in the pantry, cupboards and freezer, but that never bothered me. During the blizzard of '78 we were almost out of bathroom tissue and dog food, but not people food, and as soon as we could get out, we walked five city blocks to a grocery store and back for those two items so I'm especially careful to always have a good supply of both items. Since we moved to the boonies with the nearest grocery over twenty miles of twisting, turning, hilly, narrow country roads away, I really keep stocked up on everything. Flour and meals go in the freezer for a while after buying, then into food safe buckets. Sugar is in food safe buckets. I do have my home canned goods as well as store bought. The freezers hold mostly meats and fruit, but I also buy a few canned meats. I froze half gallons of milk last year, but didn't like the thawed texture of it so won't do that again. Coffee, tea and homemade hot chocolate mix are well stocked. I have a good supply of all the essentials for baking anything I could want or need. I have 'way too many spices and condiments. Leftovers, if I don't freeze them for later meals, they go with me to work as a meal and last, but not least, to my super spoiled, fat chickens who are killing me right now because they aren't laying.