I have a LG 36' 25 cu ft French door with bottom freezer. I did a few measurements and I think you'll be just fine with your space when it comes to having enough room to open doors. With my refrigerator doors closed I have 35" clearance between the door and the counter in front of it. 32" if you go from the handle to the counter. I have no problen standing in front of the fridge with the doors open. When I pull out the freezer drawer all the way I have 18 1/2" of space between the drawer and cabinet. I also have no problem rooting around in the freezer in this amount of space, but I do find I usually stand to the right of the freezer when I pull the drawer all the way open, instead of directly in front of it. When I'm just grabbing a handful of ice or something I stand in the front. It works well for me, and I much prefer the french door style to my old side by side that used to be in the same spot. Double check your measurements. The new 36" fridges are not the same size as the older models. We had to pull out the wood baseboards to get the new fridge in the old spot.

gardengirl, When my inset cabinets were made, smaller cabinets were combined into one larger cabinet whenever possible so that only the thickness of one wall would divide them rather than 2 (as there would be with 2 stand alone cabinets.) As an example, my prep sink cabinet and trash pull out cabinet are combined into one cabinet with an inner dividing wall. I'm sure what you are looking for would be no problem.

Also in Ontario here. I'm not a roofer, nor a roof expert, but my husband has done some repairs here and there on our roof, and we've both inspected it over the years. Your picture above is a bit dark to see. But are you are saying that the part of the roof which is darker is the part just underneath the eavestrough on the upper roof on the 2nd floor ? If so, one thing to do is to make sure you keep the gutter clean and unclogged above that spot - because if there is constant water overflowing from the 2nd floor onto the garage roof right at that particular spot, you will find a lot of deterioration on the shingles where the majority of the water hits. We have small sections of our roof which deteriorates much faster than other areas specifically because water pours from the high roof to the lower roof. Watch during a heavy rainstorm to see if the water is properly going down the downspout from the 2nd floor roof to the roof over the garage, or if it is pouring over the edge. If pouring over the edge, you'll see faster deterioration in your roof shingles. I make a point to go out during rainstorms if I can to watch for clogging. If you've ever cleaned gutters, you'll find in addition to leaves and such, you'll find little shingle particles. So as the shingles deteriorate, little bits of them come off and collect in the gutters. You might see lots of little bits of shingle directly in the gutter above the garage door and just below the darker area. This can help to affect the colour of the shingles. There may be a different reason for your darker shingles, but I suggest this only because it looks like the darker area is directly below the upper roof. Sometimes you can look around the neighbourhood and see other people where the roof is failing in specific areas just because that part of the roof is being bombarded with too much water.

To give you the basics... There are three general types of refrigerators: Standard-depth These are generally the least expensive They are around 36" total depth - including refrigerator box, doors, handles, and required air space behind them Widths will generally range from 30" to 36" Counter-depth These are a bit more expensive than standard depth but much less expensive than built-ins They're usually around 31" deep -- The refrigerator box is around 24" deep -- The doors and handles add another 7" or so to the total depth They don't usually need as much air clearance on the sides & back as standard-depth Built-ins These are usually the most expensive refrigerators - often by quite a bit, especially if it's fully integrated They're usually 25" to 27" deep For standard-depth and counter-depth, the refrigerator doors and handles must extend out past the surrounding walls, cabinets, counters, other appliances, etc. This is so the doors can be opened fully for full access to the interior as well as the ability to easily remove drawers and shelves for cleaning. In situations like yours, we usually recommend a 6" to 12" pullout utility or pantry cabinet b/w the wall and the refrigerator (the width depends on how deep the wall is - the shallower it is, the narrower the pullout needs to be). But, I assume you have to work with what you have. Height may be an issue for you as many refrigerators are now around 70" tall with the requirement for extra space above for air clearance. Unfortunately, it appears the alcove for the refrigerator was not well designed so, as someone else pointed out, you may have to remove or modify that cabinet above the alcove. However, that cabinet appears to be a standard 12" deep cabinet and those are pretty useless over refrigerators, so you won't really lose much storage space. One note, based on the what I see of that wall, if you want a more common size refrigerator (36"), you will probably have to: Put the hinge on the least functional side (so the door opens away from the Kitchen and landing space) -or- Get a very deep refrigerator so it opens into the DR doorway -or- Get a narrow refrigerator so you have room for 6" to 9" of filler b/w the wall and refrigerator How wide is the doorway? You might look into widening the DR doorway so the wall in the Kitchen is no deeper than 24" or so - then you could get any refrigerator around 36" wide and not have to worry about not being able to open the door If you go with a smaller refrigerator - including smaller capacity - you may be able to find one that fits. Is there a place for a 2nd refrigerator elsewhere (e.g., basement)?