akchicago, thanks for the recommendation. I see that Abt gets very favorable reviews. Harriet, I'm glad you had a better experience. I would wish this misery on no one! DH is not well. This has taken such a toll on him. Yesterday AM I received an e-mail from AJ Madison's customer service dept. stating they would contact me immediately after their technician checked the range. The technician filed a report by phone in our presence before 3 PM yesterday stating that the range frame was "bent, warped, or twisted" and COULD NOT be repaired. He found, and reported problems we did not know the range had. By 4:30 PM today, we STILL had not heard from AJM or their service dept nor had we heard from Fisher Paykel. I sent an e-mail to AJM asking when we could expect the range to be picked up, and when we could expect a credit on our charge card. Response was that I should "be patient." AJM and Fisher Paykel seem to be at odds over whose responsibility this is. We refuse to postpone our move again. We have given AJ Madison until 5 PM tomorrow to tell us what their intentions are. If no satisfactory course is set in motion by then, we will begin legal action Thursday AM. Inexcusable that it should come to that. Thanks to all of you for listening and for the crossed fingers, John. Venting sometimes keeps you sane.

Interior of mine is: 23-3/4" across. 12" high is usable space from floor of oven to bottom of broiler element. 17-7/8" deep. I've done a small turkey; no problem. The oven is gas and mine's about 25 degrees slow -- there are instructions for adjustment but I haven't bothered since I don't need it to go below 275 though it's probably about 250 on lowest setting. I should add that 500 is highest setting. While the quality of this range is very good for what you're paying, an oven thermometer is necessary to know what the oven temp is. I use a $7 Taylor mercury. To its credit, the oven is extremely steady. It does not cycle on and off and once you get it to temperature it stays there beautifully. I'll trade that any day over the on/off business which I don't find acceptable. But I've found the dial to be just a general indicator. Otherwise, the burners are excellent, excellent double 15K burner and excellent simmer on all. It has a superb continuous top grate so I have space to put a plate down in the center. Convection is great, 3 different styles, color if you want it, lighting is terrific. Looks great, works great. It's just not a Wolf with auto ignition and a precise oven temp readout -- but it's not in the Wolf price range either.

Oh, gdogni. I tried to make this short, but it can't be said in a few sound bites. Who was doing the jobs before the illegals came? They were being done. Have we been quick to buy the idea that Americans don't want to do these jobs because we, ourselves, wouldn't want to do them? Americans have done jobs for many years I wouldn't want to have to do. I would do anything I could do, if necessary, but I do have my 'druthers. I wish you could have talked with the young woman I just spent time with the other day. She was almost in tears because she was pretty sure she was going to loose her jobs because the company had just brought in a new group of illegals. She commuted 60 miles - one way - to work on the assembly line of a chicken processing plant. I've been just in the office of a processing plant and my stomach lurched from the smell. It's a job I don't want to have to do - but others have for many years. She said, in a shakey voice, 'I've just got to have this job.' The shocking thing she told me is, if this company lays someone off, not fired for reason, but laid off because of slowdowns, etc., they will only rehire you one time. That means you can be rehired, but if laid off again (because a batch of illegals come in) you are no longer 'qualified' to work for that company. By way of their hiring practices, they are creating 'unqualified' workers in the area. People know to not apply for the job again. So when the news media goes to the spokesman for that company he/she can say things like 'we just can't find qualified workers', or 'we just haven't had any applicants' or the old stand by 'no one wants to do these kinds of jobs'. Neither they nor the media are going to tell you they fixed the situation. When you see jobs being filled by illegals - the only thing that means is they have the job. It means absolutely nothing else. We don't know how many others applied for the job, and didn't get it. One thing you have to realize is that in many areas, people are aware that only illegals will be hired, and they don't even apply. I saw illegals building the houses that got built in the frenzy of the last few years. Can we assume that Americans no longer wanted to do carpentry, dry walling, electrical,plumbing, bricklaying?? I don't think so. I know a lot who wanted the jobs. They are a bargain to employers because the employers have no responsibility. They don't have to comply with overtime laws, collect and match taxes, worry about OSHA regulations, workman's comp. If one gets hurt, they are taken to the hospital and the taxpayers pay for it. The media and the politicians are not giving out the true story on this. Now the reason I mentioned illegals was the fact they are working here. Americans already are competing with them for jobs, and if things get bad, it will be even more so. There is nothing wrong with mowing lawns and bussing tables, but that is not the only jobs they are doing. We will be hampered by the fact employers will have to work within the labor laws when hiring Americans, so given the choice, they will take illegals. The illegals are also getting benefits that are going to be needed for American families who loose their jobs. Again, just because Americans aren't doing the jobs, don't assume they won't or don't want to - now - but especially in the future.

I agree with BernieK. He said: "I don't think making $250k in one year determines if you are rich or not. How much you have in savings and investments determines if you are rich or not." That's the lesson I've learned this past year. In NJ my DH and I made decent salaries but were barely scraping by each month. It was made even more difficult when my husband was downsized out of a job. We finally moved to SC (because we had to - we could not afford to stay in NJ) and even though we are making much less money, we are better off. Why? Because we're no longer using credit cards. We're on a cash-only basis to pay for things (I am having some work done on my house and have paid for it all with cash I've saved up over time - even the materials have been paid for with cash). We've been proactive in paying off debt. The end result? More going into savings and long-term investing, as well as having the luxury of things like home projects and vacations (our family of four went to Disney for a week in May - paid for the entire week in cash and came home with $600 in spending money leftover). Sure, $250K is a lot of money - but not if that person spends all s/he makes without thinking about saving for the future, or spending it in the least efficient ways (read: credit cards which charge interest versus cash which is just that...cash - no extra fees later on!). For my family, our goal is to pay off all our consumer debt (including cars) within the next two years and basically have only our mortgage as our long-term debt. If we can do that we will actually be able to afford for me to QUIT WORKING ALTOGETHER, and STILL have plenty to pay our bills and put money into our kids' college savings accounts. I can't wait for that day. Will we be rich? No - my husband's single income wouldn't qualify us as rich by a long shot. But we'll be better off financially because of the decisions we've made and our conscious effort to spend our hard-earned money more wisely.