Brendan, the duct already is in your cabinet, right? Generally, cabinets above range vents are sacrificial to some degree or another. I would be very cautious about cutting the clearance between your vent "bottom" and your range "top" too close. As you practice with your Bluestar you will find yourself getting more salty with the pans and it is nice to have some clearance in there so you can "toss" the veggies and shrimps without having to worry about banging something. Also, I have a few brewpots for beermaking that are around 18" tall and I would not want to worry about having to lift them off the cooking surface with only a few inches clearance. Just some thoughts, YMMV. Best of luck whatever you decide.

Gary - no, the 700 series didn't doesn't have "gills" at all. It's systems are down in the bottom of the unit and are completely covered by cabinetry toekick and / or the bottom drawer panel. It was the first unit to be TOTALLY concealed ( no trim, no fins, no gaskets showing ) and is for the most part unchanged since it's rollout in the LATE 90's !!!! - which is its biggest drawback today.

I agree that you need to live there a while. However I'm the walkpath person and I see that people walk from one door around the table and out the other door. If you had a straight shot walking alongside the wall you can deadend the kitchen. I'm assuming that you plan to use the dining room, yes? Then deleting the table and replacing with a wheeled cart with hinged countertop for seating a person or two might help you make the space more flexible. Put it closer to the middle of room. You can plunk things there when moving into/out of room so that the L of the kitchen is dedicated to actual work. You can release brake and pull/push it to be a different work station or get it out of the way against the wall when you need to. If you spend under $1000 for it you can sell it after you get a bigger plan and meanwhile you enjoy a kitchen that's more efficient. Ikea sells many styles--start looking there but don't stop there. Just think about what it offers. Lower shelves on a cart provide storage for cooking gadgets to get them off the countertops--crockpots, processors, stockpots, gizmos, serving pieces. If top is a chopping surface it moves one person out of the L so another can work there unimpeded. Meanwhile that blank wall begs for art and color.

Yes, you could do that. You definitely want the back of the false drawer front to be supported and flush on the back. Another option would be to use solid stock for the center panel and rabbet that piece instead of rabbeting the rails and stiles. Are you using featherboards on both the table and the router table fence? I use both so that I'm only using push sticks to feed the stiles. I place them tight enough that there is no slop and it's almost difficult (but not dangerously so) to feed. You can also spray your fence and table with a silicon spray for glide. If you didn't do this for your sample door, mill your rail ends first. Then mill the stiles and the long edge of the rails second. That way if you have any tearout on the rail ends, it's hidden by the second lengthwise cut. And also, if you haven't already, make a setup block out of a scrap of wood that is the same thickness as your door material. When you're finally ready to do the doors for real, milling all the rails - and then all the stiles - allows less room for error and is more efficient (i.e., fewer changeovers from one bit to the other).