I confess to being completely baffled by this question. From my perspective, it's no contest. As Donna Karan once wrote about women and the statement they make to the world thru their fashion: "It all starts with the legs." When a woman with pretty legs puts on nylons, she transforms herself from an ordinary member of a rather dull species (homo sapiens) into an exotic creature from another planet. That's all it takes, and sorry girls, but nothing does it like nylons. Nothing captures light and sinuous shape like a leg in nylons. Thanks heavens, some young women are starting to figure this out. In contrast to those who are, a starlet in bare legs - especially in a period movie - looks positively ridiculous, and we see it all the time. As Matt Damon said in a movie recently (to a gal in sheer black nylons) "When you wear those, I'm completely defenseless." Why is it that European women understand this implicitly, yet American women seem so clueless? European women wouldn't be caught dead walking down the Champs Elysee in bare legs. If I see two women walking down the street, one with bare legs, one wearing nylons, there is NO question which one I'm watching. It's a statement about herself, her sexuality that render her one of those exotic creatures. It's that exotic quality - not nylons per se - that is so powerfully attractive, and nothing conveys that exoticism more definitively than a woman's legs in stockings.

We went from a 30" range to a 36" range. This includes buying a 30" DCS off of CL to use in the renovation (and then selling it again when I had a change of heart). I felt if we were to ever want the larger range, this was the time to do it, not in a few years. I don't think the 36" range looks all that much bigger than a 30" range, but you are right, it does give it just a little more oomph, being wider. I might not have all 6 burners going at once, but to be able to use all of my larger stock pots, and saute pans that never really seemed to work together on the 30" range makes the larger stove worth it. I do have all 6 going sometimes, though. And in my opinion, you do seem to have the room for a larger range (our kitchen is only 12' wide). Once you have a larger range, you will not want to go back. In fact, I'm dreaming of a 48" range so that I can get two ovens....next reno. Here's my range, you can see it doesn't look that big, and my room is only 12' wide.

I stumbled on this thread looking for recommended time to pressure my duck stock and want to thank you all for your lovely insights. I usually make poultry stock by the five hour barely simmering method and get very clear, highly gelatinous stocks. I've not tried PC because I knew boiling stock makes it cloudy. Well, heck. I didn't need this duck stock to be clear so now was the time to experiment with my new PC. I see that some folks have gotten cloudy stock and some clear. Mine is rather cloudy and I notice the fat layer on top seems to be rather scummy. I think next try I'll bring the pot to a simmer and go through the skimming exercise before adding the veges and bringing up the pressure. I further wonder if keeping the temp as low as possible while maintaining pressure would help.

I still would bet any amount of money that most people on here who say they have custom cabinets that were locally made are not anymore custom made then anyone else who bought cabinets from Lowes or Home Depot. Good grief!! Dave, you may know your lines but you haven't read enough threads on this forum if you think that. My cabinetmaker and I poured over my initial drawings. He told me he could make anything if it was made out of wood. Same price for standard cases and my heart's desire. He prices by the kitchen. I said, "No, I want it this way," and he made it. I said I was allergic to VOC's so couldn't have them in the processing or adhesives of the wood, so he sourced ultra low to zero VOC plywood for the boxes, bamboo for the fronts and varnish for the finish. I said I didn't want little cabinet doors above the coolers, so he found heavy duty flip up hardware that would take the weight. I knew that flip down hardware was available for the table, and he concurred, but I didn't want the bamboo to be horizontal so I found sunflower seed husk board and he made the flip down table out of that. We went round and round on inches. I wanted every inch of counter space I could get, so he reduced the frames for the ovens, and I nixed his desire for symmetry on the spice rack. He and my tile setter had many discussions of exactly what height to reach the windows for a flush installation, and how to finish the tops of the cabinets. He put in flush plywood, on a misunderstanding (it was meant to be flush boards, I guess), so he routed channels in it as you can probably see above. He created aprons to cover the undersides of the sinks, and cutouts for the services. He created bamboo moldings which the chief installer, who has a reputation for perfection, matched as much as is humanly possible, to the cabinetry. He created bamboo veneers wherever the plywood would show, and has an edge banding machine for veneering the shelf edges, which I would have been fine with having as exposed plywood. He wanted to use it on the fronts as well, but I convinced him that the bamboo core was pretty and it only needed to be finished. I won a convert. He made me custom shelves from the bamboo with just the edge treatment I requested, and designed little feet to hold up the bottom one where there wasn't enough room between the shelves and the cabinet for one of my decorative brackets. He made the drawer boxes to my particular specifications. I measured my stuff and figured out exactly what I wanted, and that's what I got. When I wanted more pullouts for my pantries he made extra. I also wanted Arlosmom sideways pullouts where I have true blind corners, and he figured out how to make them roll on the shelves rather than being attached to the cabinet sides, so the shelves are adjustable. In the cabinet which was thereby too wide, I said I'd be fine with a stile but I wanted it that wide to be useful to me, and he figured out...