I often say it--my mother has had 54" pot drawers since the mid-'60's and they're still just fine. :) I can't make a particular recommendation for the drawer bottoms, having left that up to a very competent cabinetmaker, but I'd think half inch ply would be good and strong. The drawer box should also be constructed in such a way as to distribute the gravitational force to the sides rather than pulling against them, but, again, a good cabinetmaker should know how to make a good drawer. Since I have a lot of cast iron, my cabinetmaker also decided I needed the 250# rails. I really don't think I have more than 100 pounds of pots in any drawer, and you don't get soft close with the heavier rails, but they're definitely not going to fail. He assured me that there'd be not problem if the children played in them--like got in and played sailor. :) I figured out that I could make all of my drawers the same height around the perimeter and still get the storage I wanted, rather than dividing them up for each purpose, so my bottom two drawers are quite deep. The middle one is 9" inside, and the bottom one is 11". If I weren't going for the single line, I could have made them shallower and put more in the top drawer. As it is, however, my stockpot just fits in the bottom drawer, with its lid inverted. I could have easily put it in an upper cupboard, instead, but it's convenient where it is. With the depth I have, it's easy to store my pots with lids on, though I have the smaller ones stacked. The top drawer front covers the apron in front of the cooktops. The other drawers on that level have 4" interior height. I think the vestigial drawer is 1.25"-1.5". I found a couple of pictures of it: Top drawer (pre-organization). Note the notch for the gas and electrical lines: Showing cooktop apron:

You could actually do a couple different things. You could have one rod and use hangers. You would have to fold them a bit to fit on the hanger and not drag on the floor, but that's usually how they come from the cleaners. For heavy cloths, use two hangers together for added strength. You could also hang multiple rods at slightly different heights and depths. If you have a walk in closet this works great, but will still work with a reach in. Hang the highest rod the farthest back, then one a bit lower and closer and even a third lower and closer than the second. Then you can hang the cloths right on the rod instead of on a hanger. I like the rod because of it's larger diameter it doesn't leave creases in the cloths. You can also overlap them on these rods. For optimum use of space, you'd need to use multiple rods and overlap. Is that totally confusing?!

There was a great thread in January about installing a working a drawer just under a Thermador induction cooktop. I searched and it is gone. I saved it on my computer and have copied it here. Unfortunately the pictures would not copy. RE: Thermador induction cooktop questions Posted by carguy60 (My Page) on Mon, Jan 7, 08 at 16:26 I installed the cooktop on a standard 3 drawer base cabinet. It has a normal shallow drawer on top with two large drawers below for pots and pans. I skirted the issue of the "heat shield" mounted on the bottom of the cooktop, by mounting the heatshield in the shallow drawer pointing up. In that way it comes within 1/16 inch from the bottom of the cooktop. I also put a piece of weather strip on the bottom of the cooktop, that the heatshield rests against when the drawer is closed. By doing this, I was able to have a fully usable drawer and still provide the functionality of the heat shield. So far it has worked fine, and I believe that it was a good solution to this clearance problem. If I had mounted the heat shield on the cooktop, the shallow drawer on top would have been unusable. This was not an option. Good Luck  Posted by minu (My Page) on Mon, Jan 7, 08 at 16:52 Carguy60: Thanks for the detailed description: hopefully my installer will be able to do something similar. The Thermador website does not list the 12" burner in the specifications for the 30" cooktop, but the picture clearly shows a large burner. Could you please confirm that indeed one of the burners is 12". How do the burners perform with pots/pans that are smaller in diameter? Thanks again for all the replies: you all have been extremely helpful. Will probably go for the all-induction one. ________________________________________  Posted by carguy60 (My Page) on Mon, Jan 7, 08 at 17:41 The large burner is 11" across. I do not know where the sensor is that detects that a pan is on the burner. I would suspect that it is near the center. We have not had any difficulty with pans smaller in diameter than the burners, but I doubt we have been much smaller. BTW. I personally believe that the weather strip that I mentioned in my previous post is overkill. If you get the shield within 1/8 inch, I think that it will do it's job OK. I put it on because I am an overkill kind of person. You will love the cooktop. It still amazes me how it will boil a teakettle full of water in less than three minutes. No more tea with microwaves running around in it. Good luck ________________________________________  Posted by tamjo44 (My Page) on Tue, Jan 8, 08 at 1:39 minu-I have the Thermador 36" and we have been using it for 2 weeks now. We love it. It is a breeze to wipe off and the instant control is amazing. We definitely wanted the larger burner in the middle. I've found a variety of cookware that works well on it. I would recommend it. carguy60- can you please elaborate on your heat shield solution? We ended up cutting down the depth of the drawer directly under the cooktop. I can put a knife holder in there or flat items, but not the spatulas, ladles etc that I was planning. Kind of a disappointment. ________________________________________  Posted by carguy60 (My Page) on Tue, Jan 8, 08 at 8:33 1. measure the distance from the bottom of the cooktop to the drawer. 2. cut a piece of wood,(I used cabinet filler wood) to a thickness, that when added to the height of the heat shield, will come within 1/8 to 1/16 of the distance measured in step 1. 3. Measure the distance from the front of the cabinet to the heat shield when mounted on the cooktop. 4. remove the heat shield from the cooktop. 5. fasten the heat shield, with wood strip attached to the inside of the drawer so that the heat shield is at the same distance from the front that it was when mounted to the cooktop. The heat shield will now move with the drawer, and the drawer becomes usable. Post your EMail addr, and I can send you a picture. Good Luck. removed the heat shield from the cooktop, and mountid ________________________________________  Posted by jgirl_2007 (My Page) on Tue, Jan 8, 08 at 8:52 Carguy - Can you please post a picture. I'm in the same boat and would love to have a usable drawer under the cooktop. I'm meeting with the cabinet maker tomorrow so timing is perfect. Thanks. ________________________________________  Posted by minu (My Page) on Tue, Jan 8, 08 at 9:40 Carguy60: please do post a picture. I think I understand the steps you described, but it would help tremendously to have something to show to the installers as well. If you prefer email, please email me through the "My Page" link. Thanks for all your help. ________________________________________  Posted by carguy60 (My Page) on Tue, Jan 8, 08 at 11:16 jgirl, minu I will take some pictures, and post them as soon as I get home from work. ________________________________________ ________________________________________  Posted by carguy60 (My Page) on Tue, Jan 8, 08 at 19:25 As you can see from the first and second pictures, the top drawer is outwardly unmarked, and usable inside. The third picture shows the heat shield mounted on a piece of cabinet filler with it's height set to just clear the underside of the cooktop. This does the job of the heatshield which is to isolate the air intake and exhaust ports on the bottom of the cooktop. I hope this is helpful. Good Luck ________________________________________  Posted by tamjo44 (My Page) on Tue, Jan 8, 08 at 19:44 Thanks Carguy, the photos do say a thousand words. Now, if I can get my drawer back, I will be a very happy person. By the way, did you come up with this brilliant solution yourself? Do you think doing it this way will void any warranty? ________________________________________  Posted by carguy60 (My Page) on Tue, Jan 8, 08 at 20:04 It was my idea. When I realized how intrusive the standard heat shield was, I considered several options before settling on this one. It shouldn't void any warranty, since it is more effective than the standard mounting. It is also easy to remount for any needed warranty service. ________________________________________  Posted by minu (My Page) on Wed, Jan 9, 08 at 12:16 Carguy: Thanks so much for these pictures - they really help. I notice that you have quite a few plastic tools in that drawer. How warm does it get in there when the cooktop is operational? Thermador should include this installation option in their specs:-) ________________________________________  Posted by carguy60 (My Page) on Wed, Jan 9, 08 at 12:48 It does not get warm in the drawer. We do not cook on 4 burners simultaneously very often. (maybe never) But we do cook on 2 burners quite often, and 3 burners sometimes. We use power boost only at startup or to quickly boil something. We believe that we have heard the fan come on 1-2 times in 4 months. I am not worried about too much heat in the drawer. ________________________________________  Posted by rocksinhead (My Page) on Wed, Jan 9, 08 at 22:05 Carguy - What size is the cabinet beneath your cooktop? 33" or 36"? We are planning a 33", with framed cabinetry, and so I wonder if your heatshield trick will work. I am guessing the internal dimension of the drawer will be 28 - 29".

We also have much more recycles than trash. So I need a larger bin for recycle, and a small one for trash. I like the idea of keeping the trash smaller because it will get emptied more often too. I want to keep the pull out narrow so not to give up much cabinet space. So the trick is to find 2 trash can that are narrow, and together take up about 24" depth. The double bins I saw on Rev-a-shelf were all at least 12 - 15" wide, and much less than 24" deep. Also they are much shorter than under counter height, so not an efficient use of space. The photo from Judydel looks closest to what I want. What other brands should I look at? We also started composting recently. Right now I just use an old bread bag to collect stuff during the day, and then dump it in the compost bin after dinner clean-up. My BFF was composting years before it was fashionable. She didn't even have a disposal. She keep a small pretty ceramic pot w/lid on her counter next to the sink. She lined it with a bread bag, and collected her veggie scraps there. Every other day she would dump the contents into the compost pile. So I plan on getting a "compost pot" for my counter too.