"Vision" is a kind way to put it Igloo! There was something about the house that pulled us in when we saw it, despite the total lack of curb appeal and the hideous kitchen, bathrooms, living areas, garden, etc etc. Flyleft, yes, wine above the fridge (required to give us the "vision"). I know its not the best place to store it, but we're not talking long-term storage here! The wine fridge has "good" wine (1 bottle of) and a couple of beer bottles but is mostly full of Pellegrino water. Your DD is getting a very thorough education in "Advanced Remodeling", she will be ready to graduate soon ;) Soigne, we got the L-brackets at Lowes. i think they were in the hardware area (not the shelf bracket aisle, those were not heavy-duty enough). they were very cheap, maybe $10 each. Dgmarie, I don't know whether the pendant lights are code. I do know i have seen other pics on here of pendants hanging over sinks, which doesn't mean that its code of course. My DH installed them (and the undercab lights). They each have their own box in the cabinet right above the pendant, so if they somehow fell, they would cut out. But i do not know if its code -- anyone else know? Mystery, we like the fridge but wish we had gone with the french-door version you have as we didn't think about clearance between door and island -- there is not too much space to get round the door when its open (at least not for me, but thats another topic!). Yes, I agree the freezer is annoying, but i suppose all bottom-freezers must be similarly so. I do prefer having the fridge on top as we are not huge freezer-users, so for us, the frustrations of the bottom-freezer are worth it. The cooktop is fantastic, my DH researched and bought it and I'm very glad we went with induction. We paid a lot less by importing it (I think it was about $1000), as I've read for others importing from the UK or NZ.

A sink was a hard decision for us. I think so many people here buy really expensive sinks. I found a bunch of ss sinks on ebay and was concerned because I could save so much. I was concerned because I couldn't find what the catch was. looked at lowes and HD and could look at the cheap ss sinks and tell that they were cheap. I asked our granite guy about them and he said that is what he has in his own house and he can't hardly tell the difference when set side by side, so I took the leap and bought a sink off of ebay from sink direct. I have to say...It looks great, I don't think it looks anything like the cheap things at Lowes and HD. They had so many different shapes and sizes to choose from. Mine is a 1 deeper larger bowl and 1 shallower smaller for $120 shipping included, I just need to buy a second strainer because it only came with one.

I fell in love with the SS508 months ago myself. I've read several replies where people mention it isn't a big deal to clean. When I tried to talk myself into the cheaper one I found that the dimensions didn't meet my needs as well since I'm going with a 30" cabinet anyway. Then when I was finally ready to order it was out of stock!!! I waited at least a month and made many phone calls waiting for it. It's on it's way to my house now - with the smaller square sink. Again I tried to save money and go with the rounded version but size once again pushed me towards my favored choice anyway.

Depending on the model you are looking at, check Overstock. With their 10% coupons you can find, it might be cheaper. That's how I got my Ticor. I found it on Overstock, and then tried getting that price through Galaxy's "Best Offer" route on eBay. They never accepted my offer though, so I went with Overstock and received it very quickly.