piegirl, I admire your tenacity. We are trying to finish this remodel over the next month, (an agressive goal) because it was already pretty close to the end when I resumed it with this new contractor, or so I thought. That was BEFORE GW! Now that I know so-ooo much more, everyone is in Real Trouble! The next few months are the busiest of the year in my profession. When I resumed the idea of finishing the bath in late November, I thought we might have it done by Christmas. When I decided to change tubs, (I learned about GW somewhere in here) I was sure it would be done by January. Once I learned about Panasonic WW, Kerdi, heated floors and towel racks, February has eluded me! Ah, March through May ... my busy season. When we a photographing high school seniors for their graduation invitations and photographing their Proms, and they are 'ravenous' to get their 'stuff '! THAT'S WHEN I AM FINISHING MY BATHROOM! Pretty smart on my part, huh? :( I would have been much smarter to wait until summer, but I was fearful that something else would happen to deter me. And besides, I PROMISED my daughters a soak in that wonderful Tub! So if you guys notice me 'going a little crazy' over the next few weeks when I write in to vent, just say to yourselves, "she's gonna be awright, it's her busy season, you know!" So piegirl, if you spent 'hours' researching for a whole house over a year's time, you will be my inspiration! I will try to remember that this is just part of the process. And you're right, those victorius AHAH! moments are awesome! hamster, I laughed out loud at the "task lighting" brand of lighting products. It IS wonderful to have some place to go to ask even the simplest questions. I have a feeling that when I show my 'doubting Thomas' friends some of these posts, they will just tell me that I have found a bunch of electronic friends who are just as anal and nuts as I am! They, too, will not be invited to the "Bathwarming Party"! I think everyone who has worked as hard as we have should throw one! Mommielady

There are plenty of people with standard freestanding ranges that project out of the counter a full 6" and who have 36" aisles (30" at the pinch point) and are fine with that dimension. That is tighter than recommended and would be too tight for me, but there is certainly no reason you need 51" aisles unless you are planning for wheelchair access. You can keep your current planned aisle space and still have room enough for two people to work there just fine with 48" You could even do smaller aisles and it be fine. You're over thinking this.

I alter granite countertops and cabinets for appliance changes regularly. It isn't a big deal. If you called me, I would insist the rangetop be on site before I arrived. This is so we can both see it is installed properly when I leave. I no longer take manufacturer's dimensions as gospel; that's an unpaid callback. Last two paragraphs, please.

@chispa, having the integrated counter depth fridge be 26" deep is pretty standard and pantry cabinets tend to be deeper too, In principle, you are of course correct. But we made out lower cabinets 30" deep for extra countertop space (awesome decision; so happy we did that!). So, there wasn't any intrinsic reason why the architect would have had to also pull the tall cabinets forward. And the fridge is integrated, so it is intended to be installed flush in its cabinet. so it isn't like your kitchen designer had some secret knowledge. No, it definitely isn't "secret knowledge" per se. It's just the ability to think on your feet and to recognize how every decision has consequences. The architect absolutely could have skipped this detail and things would still have fit; they just wouldn't look quite as polished. Also, it was their expertise to decide to put these two tall cabinets on that particular wall so that they would frame the range. @wdccruise, I would not do anything like you are suggesting. There always are trade-offs with all of these decisions. If you have the space in the floor plan to pull cabinets forward, and if you are comfortable making the needed adjustments (non-standard countertop dimensions; non-standard end-panel dimensions; built-up back wall or custom cabinet boxes; trim piece behind range; ...), then extra deep countertops are wonderful. Whoever decided on 24" counters as a default really didn't have ergonomics in mind. 24" is good for other reasons (cost and room size), but it isn't good for giving you adequate working areas.