I always enjoy your amazing big sky pictures! The colors are fantabulous!

30" Leibherr owner here, now for 4 years with never a problem. I looked at the SubZero, but didn't like the freezer drawer thing: You have to stand to one side to find anything, and I'm much happier with the Leibherr set-up with several drawers, all of which are lightweight enough to lift out onto the counter to sort out, if necessary! We don't use ice, except very occasionally, so I use the icemaker drawer to store stuff in too. I'm one who much prefers the Leibherr door too, with the 'assist' of the lever pushing the door opening. I've used SubZeros and find my arm aches all the time, opening them, plus I know elderly relatives would have problems with it. I find the Leibherr layout to be excellent, and perhaps as a Brit, I am more used to the interior styling. You can store a gallon of milk in the door (most people don't realise it will fit). At 5'3" I have no problem reaching the top shelf either. And we fit all the Thanksgiving leftovers in there too! - it just takes some creative arranging. I did switch to rectangular storage boxes, instead of round bowls though: it's much more efficient in the freezer, and can even slide comfortably under the wine rack.

Something sounds fishy. The glass size makes a difference? With an insert the unit heats up and radiates heat. Would that mean an insert with no viewing window generates no heat at all? Really? I had an insert installed in my home in northeast PA with a big glass window. (Yes, I know it's really ceramic, not glass) And it did the job very nicely. It heated what we wanted heated, and that was the whole house. It was installed into a Heatilator ZC fireplace. Sure they had to modify the ZC unit, but we had no intention of using it again once the insert was there. How does the new fireplace work in a power failure? $3800? Sounds like they're pushing what makes them the money. That's gonna take a long time to pay for itself in fuel savings.

I think in your case, you can go either way. In Rocco's first example, I actually don't like how they frame the top of the fridge because it is unnecessary. The room has a very tall ceiling and there are no top cabinets there. So the extra cabinet looks a little odd. Also, it throws off the symmetry to the floating shelf on the other side. In the second examples, it looks much cleaner. and i think it's perfect. So I think if there are no tall cabinets, you shouldn't frame it.. But if you do, then you can go either way. In Redlover's example, there is some tall cabinets on another wall, but I still think it looks a little odd because the wood frame has no function, it's not reallya cabinet. However, I think the wood framing provide stylistic unity for the kitchen. Since in that example, the kitchen is not going for modern, but going for more elegance. So, besides having top cabinets or not, style of your kitchen is also a consideration. Frameless is a little more modern, clean, it may even feel a little commercial. But the frame maybe necessary if you have a more "elegant", "traditional" kitchen. In your case, I think you can go either way. I'll probably not frame it since the frame probably won't provide usable storage, unless you are going for the elegant look.. then frame it. Lastly, looking at your kitchen layout, your main sink is very far from your range and the fridge. So, you can only use that for cleanup purposes. So your prep sink near the fridge became extra important and you will spend a lot of time preping there. It's a bit hard to see exactly how big of a prep sink you have but it look a little small from the rendering, esp if you get the kind that it's narrow on the side of the faucet. I'll advice getting a sink that is "normal" size, wide, and shallow for your prep sink. I am adding a photo of how we do it in our kitchen .. we have a very small kitchen but we lean toward modern and clean look. So we need lots of cabinets and we have to frame it. Here is the "wall" behind my island (w/sink). I haven't done my Kitchen reveal yet since i'm still waiting for my combi steam oven to arrive (see hole above oven) This post was edited by noopd on Wed, May 1, 13 at 23:51