Lavender_Lass, I'm glad to hear you love your wall oven! Everyone who has one seems to. I think I'll enjoy it, myself, and DH is already thrilled with the idea - he's even been checking them out at appliance stores, and he's never been that interested in ovens before. I agree that the space would really open up without the peninsula. We could do a small table and keep it simple at first, but we'd have the room in the future to expand a little, add chairs. Ashleymking, I actually love the open counter space of the peninsula, myself, and if it weren't for DH's bad back and therefore the desire for a wall oven, I'd almost certainly keep the peninsula. The 30" walkway is definitely too narrow, though - I would gladly sacrifice the peninsula space for a larger walkway. It feels cramped just looking at it from across the room. This may not apply in your layout, but for us, looking in through the dining room door, the peninsula actually extends into that line of sight, so if you walk straight across the room you could walk into it. More importantly, it's a real bottleneck for people passing through. Only one person can comfortably pass at a time (2 if you don't mind brushing up against one another!), and with an active 3-yr-old and 2 little dogs, we feel like we're constantly telling someone to get out of the way. This is compounded by the layout of the refrigerator being just off the end of the peninsula, so the walkway is totally blocked if someone opens the fridge door. It doesn't sound like a big deal - of course you can just wait a moment until the person at the fridge is done - but it annoys us every day. We felt that between 40 - 44" would work for us, larger being better. We arrived at that number partly by looking at recommendations in posts here on GW and partly by looking at the sight lines through the doors, measuring ourselves standing there 2-deep and just imagining "what if I wanted to do X..." scenarios. Well, there's my novel about our walkway, LOL! Hope that's useful to you. Marthasdream, it's funny, I had considered open shelving for the plans with the peninsula but didn't think of it with the wall oven/ open plan. Thanks for the reminder that they could still work there! My open shelf fantasy is actually to have a set of 2 or 3 with some room on one for cookbooks, and the bottom shelf having hooks for my most-often used pans. Perhaps the dream isn't dead!

Funny, Williamsem. I guess I never really thought about it. We like to entertain and it makes sense to have a nice space to prepare drinks and store everything in one general location so it's ready to go. Currently, I have to go to some effort to retrieve the bottles and glassware, create a place to set it out, yada yada. It's annoying and I always forget something. I figure the easier I make things for myself, the more often I'll feel like entertaining and offering up a glass of wine, martini, cosmo, or whatever else I have the makings for. So it's all about function. Yeah, that's the ticket. Function.. :)

>>>I guess there is concern that if the floor flexes during the spin cycle, the stackable unit could topple over. From what I was told, sandiego_steve, the old ATE50s banged around something awful and would not maintain SQ's super-fast spin in many upstairs installs. My dealer said they'd had several returned because they couldn't be stabilized. (Oddly, when he sold me the ATE50, knowing it was for 2nd floor installation, he didn't mention this.) I went ballistic when I was told I was getting the new model because I'd planned the timing of my reno project specifically to avoid the new electronic controls. I ordered -- and paid in full -- for the ATE50 in late Nov. or early Dec. Because I was so pissed, my dealer then offered to sell me one of the returned units if I "insisted" but maintained he was doing me a favor by switching out the washers because the new one he was bringing me had dynamic stability. I tried to download the manuals right then, but no one had them uploaded yet, not even SQ. Then you guys here talked me down, and I felt better. THEN they hauled it up the stairs -- 800 pounds! -- installed it, ran a test load, handed me the manuals, and left. After I read the manuals and exploded, my dealer said he had been unaware it was for a second floor install, but those words all over our email chain, and I had specifically asked more than once about the ATE50's stability upstairs. He was my contractor's vendor of choice, and they worked hand in glove on the whole project, so while he may have "forgotten," he certainly knew. And if he had "forgotten" then why the hoo-ha about switching out the units to avoid stability issues? But like I said, the thing does not so much as twitch. It is more stable than the 20-year old convention kenmore TLs it replaced. They may have needed those weasel words for the ATE50, but IMHO, they don't need them for this new version. I hope I never come to regret keeping it, but I do love it. It is an amazing machine. But now I have hijacked the OP's post, and told her more than she need to know about SQ. And I do thank you, sandiego_steve, for the help you have given all of us in making our SQ choices -- you possess a wealth of knowledge on the topic. I think the OP could not choose a better machine in any version.

My kitchen designer (a Wood-mode dealer) also told us that its best to buy storage fittings after market from Hafele or Revashelf. You can also buy custom drawer insets in maple or lexan on the internet. That proved to be good advice for us. I bought custom maple insets for a few drawers such as flatware and utensils and lexan for others. We chose her because we liked her contemporary designs and attention to detail but she is definitely was not an organization expert. Her approach was to maximize drawers and design the cabinets to be flexible. If you want someone to measure every item you have and design a place for it I'd suggest you do that yourself (or pay someone to specifically do that). That's not going to be covered in a standard design fee. Just curious why you chose Wood-mode? Brookhaven is their semi-custom line. Finishes are shared so you can buy Brookhaven and then upgrade only the pieces you need to custom. Do you have a unique design or specialty finish that drove you to Wood-mode? Just about everything on the Wood-mode website is very custom (well beyond a $30K budget). How much is the hefty deposit? Design fees usually range from $0 to $2000 applied to an order. Have you signed off on the design yet and has the order been placed? I agree you aren't off to a good start. To be honest if the cabinet order hasn't been placed yet I'd talk to the designer about parting ways even if it means you lose the design fee. The designer may be willing to give you some if not all of the deposit back. My guess is they feel the same sense of uncertainty about the relationship that you feel.