Thanks for the reassurances. Please tell me, though-- how tough is it to clean the oven? Also, can you line the drip tray with foil? I'm still kind of worried that I got too much stove. We are a family of 7 so I went for the 36", 6-burner model. 6 burners makes sense with a large family, right? It will be such a change from the way I've been cooking for the last 10 years. I have a Jennair downdraft on LP, and the burners are so wimpy that I do almost all meals using giant cast iron pans in the convection oven.

First...with this new design you will have a lot of counterspace...so I think you can easily give up 30" for a tall oven cabinet for either a double oven setup or a MW + single wall oven. Second, lower island counters...be sure you have enough room under a lower counter for the plumbing for a sink...check with a professional on this. IIRC, there are minimum lengths for some pipes...but I'm definitely not an expert! Also, be sure you have a deep enough overhang for comfortable seating. The NKBA recommendations for seating overhang are a minimum of: 18" for table-height seating (30" high) 15" for counter-height seating (36" high) 12" for bar-height seating (42" high) If your island will be lower than 36", then I recommend an overhang of 15" to 18"...the lower the counter, the larger the overhang. Pantry cabinet...if you have a good sized walk-in pantry, then I would not get a tall pantry cabinet. They aren't the most efficient storage for pantry items b/c they're so deep. Even with roll out tray shelves things can get lost. Think about a 24" x 24" raised surface with things stacked on it...easily seeing and getting to those items in the middle (or even the back) can be iffy. I think the better idea is the tall oven cabinet. If you need to store a few pantry items in the kitchen proper, use a drawer. You might even consider a drawer for storing baking supplies if you bake often enough to take up prime storage real estate for them. Refrigerator...if your refrigerator is a counter-depth or standard-depth, you will need to be sure the doors of your refrigerator extend out past the counters on the side...that is, if you want to be able to open the doors fully! So, you can recess only up to the refrigerator carcass (box). Also, plan for a 36"W x 72"H refrigerator even if you don't have one now. Refrigerators narrower than 36" and shorter than 72" or so are become less and less common. Plan for the future since refrigerators, unfortunately, no longer outlast remodels. You will most likely need a new refrigerator 10 years or so from now, even if you're buying it new now. So, make the recessed area that size as well as build the "surround" for the refrigerator with an alcove that size. If you are not going to have any upper cabinets on the wall with the refrigerator, then consider building in the refrigerator with walls instead of finished end panels. When you have upper cabinets, I think finished end panels look better, but when the refrigerator is "stand alone", I think dry-walled walls look better...they don't make the refrigerator stand out and scream "refrigerator". However, walls are approx 4.5" wide, so you will need 9" of space for those walls. Remember, too, that counters are actually 25.5" deep, not 24"...they extend approx 1.5" past the cabinets so they cover the doors and a little bit more. This is to protect your cabinets & doors from spills...the overhang directs spills past the...

This looks like a lovely, *big* house. Please excuse my going off topic by suggesting that you do a light fix-up of the kitchen, then list the house for sale. I'm thinking about what you've said about your ages and your mobility issues. My experience and family situation may be very different from yours, but it may apply. My DH and I started building a single floor home fifteen years ago. I was nearly sixty. Since then I have had two hip replacements, pneumonia, a staghorn calculus, and on and on with minor stuff. Back then, I ran around lugging plumbing, lighting, and decorating catalogs, tile samples, etc. I climbed ladders while the house was framed and tramped around to brick- lumber-yards. I walked miles, choosing trees and shrubs. There is no way I could do that today. Heck, I need my DH to carry the heavier grocery bags! I have no debilitating problems and require only one medication for asthma. I am not the fabled Energizer Bunny Elder who will be running marathons into her nineties. I am a reasonably healthy woman, just *older*. I feel lucky to have gotten us moved into our new, 'right size' house *in time*. I can't believe how blind I was to the realities of my *own* aging, having been responsible for an elderly mother and MIL. I totally failed to understand the vast difference between 'almost sixty' and 'almost seventy-five'.

"The cooktop and range hood are 36in" "and slide in a simple gas freestanding stove. They run $700." Nope. You can't buy a 36" range for that. The cheapest 36" gas range at Appliances Connection is this Premier SLK100WP at $839. Is this what you'd install? If you're planning to buy a less-expensive 30" range, what are you going to do about the gaps on either side of the range -- total width: 6" -- that were filled by the old cabinet? Are the gas and electrical lines in the correct locations for the range? If they're not, they'd have to be moved. You say it's easy to remove the old cabinet. Perhaps, but what about the countertop? What are you going to do with the now-exposed, unfinished sides of the cabinets on either side? Where does the flooring end? Would any untiled surface be visible in front of the range? Obviously you'll also have to cut the countertop. "I would most likely do a frosted glass door on the new pantry to hide the goods to not worry about matching cabinets." So you would remove the doors that are currently above and below the oven and hang a glass door...or maybe several? How do you think that would look in relation to the other cabinet doors which are pretty fancy-pants? Is stuff in a pantry the kind of stuff you want to see through the frosted glass? I'd replace the old oven with the Frigidaire FFGW2426UW at $1793. --amateur