Our warming drawer is in our island with 2 drawers below. The location works well for us because it's the side of the island facing the oven, so we use it either for things coming out of the oven and/or for items that we'll be putting on the island to serve, such as appetizers, rolls, pizza, etc. I like having it as the top drawer because it's easy to go from the drawer to the island top, or even to serve from (e.g., open the drawer and grab a slice of pizza.) The drawers below are for pots and pans; the spaces on either side are blank because those cabinets open toward the ends of the island (trash pullout on one end, drawers on the other.) FWIW our cabinets are tall (we raised our counters to 39") so the drawers you see under our warming drawer are a bit deeper than what one would get with regular height cabinets.

Will 3cm marble have a plywood substrate? Mine at 4cm does not, and it was my understanding that if I had chosen the 3cm it wouldn't have had it either. I have a paneled 30" KA WD under my double oven stack. When I decided that I had looked around enough to know I could find a good deal on one and that we would use it enough to warrant buying one, my cabs were already mostly built. The only spot I could really put one was under the ovens where there would have been a drawer of that same size. I was looking for a panelable one and just happened to find a killer deal on the KA on Ebay. My cab maker made a cab front for mine as I wanted it to match my cabs. He said he couldn't drill the holes for the control knob and indicator light through the Shaker front so he made it a slab. (I don't think he had ever paneled at WD before.) DH really hates how it looks with the slab panel so we're having it remade in Shaker without the holes. I don't turn the control knob through that hole anyway as I can't see the temperature markings without opening the drawer, and we'll just have to remember to turn it off. (Ignore the pot roast on the rangetop and grease spatters on the drywall behind.) The KA has a moist/dry setting and a slow cook function. I have yet to use it as a slow cooker, but it's nice to the ability is there. I use the WD about 5 times a week: - To keep food warm when I've mis-timed getting everything finished at once - When I know I'll need both ovens at the last minute and need to bake something else also. I bake the dish ahead that can be kept warm in the WD. - Warm plates. - Keep DH's dinner warm on all those nights he works late. - Keep certain foods warm for second helpings. - Proof yeast dough. - Batches of pancakes as they come off the griddle - Warm bread or rolls. (I haven't used it yet to retherm dried out crackers or bread but I know I will at some point.) Mine may be in the least ideal spot, but I can't believe how much I use it. I'm so glad I bought one. I second Plllog's excellent advice to do it now. Retrofitting will be difficult with the electrical outlet you'll need and, possibly, the extra room at your electrical panel.

I put pulls on all of my integrated appliances, including WD, so that there would be a visual cue that it was an appliance, especially the fridge drawers and WD, since the coolers and DW have their shapes for cues. You don't have to do that! If you want your WD to look like a regular drawer, put a knob on it! My WD is Monogram, but as far as I know it's like any other WD--there's a gasket that creates the only seal, and it's not a pressurized seal, and the drawer itself is very light weight. There's actually more to pull against in my regular drawers with the springs on the soft closers than on the warming drawer, so a knob would be perfectly functional. I don't know if my pull looks funny by your definition (looks fine to me, but it's your beholding eye that counts):

Yes, any warming drawer can be used as a slow cooker. You just need to know what temperature you want to cook at and for how long for it to be safe, and a $10 oven thermometer. I have a five year old Monogram, which was chosen because of its temperature range, ability to take a cabinet panel and price. I also liked that it's a simple one with no jobs for engineers program overlay of electronics. It has an on/off switch, and a Lo/Med/Hi dial. I think the temperature range is something like 85-210. I don't need it to do reheating (which is what the ones that go to 250 do), and do need it to do plate warming (well under 100 degrees). I don't remember the numbers off the top of my head, but if you look at explanations of how the old crockpots worked, they tell you the temperatures. Use those with the old style recipes that expected a minimum of eight hours for a cook. (I have a real issue with the new kind of crockpots which don't actually cook slowly--though you can do that in the warming drawer too, at their higher temperatures.) So, since you don't use a blech, you need more warming oven space, but since you do open/close the oven while warming, and do reheat from a primary source (i.e., in a warming oven rather than on top of the water urn), it's not so dire. The Gaggenau Shabbat/Yom Tov setting you described is what I was talking about. I think it's *brilliant*. Over engineered in a *useful* way. If I held the heating vs. cooking issue, I'd want one just for that. There are a couple of good locations for a warming drawer. Top drawer, or first under a shallow utensil drawer, either under or next to the cooktop is a GW favorite. This is especially useful if you make pancakes for the whole family to eat together, you can flip right onto the stack in the drawer. If you have a varied, multipart dinner with people eating in shifts (little kids first, sports kids later, grown-ups when all have come home), the height is perfect for dishing up right out of the drawer, rather than having to take each vessel out one at a time. There are a few useful locations. Besides near the cooktop, there's near the table. The one is better for accumulating parts of the meal, the other is better for serving and refilling plates. The least liked place is the bottom of the oven stack. Bottom is inconvenient because of the bending. The oven stack is bad because it's usually in the least used part/most out of the way of the kitchen. It's telling that Thermador used to make a combo appliance with the microwave on top, then the warming drawer and the oven on the bottom. It was compact enough that the oven was still reasonably high off the floor. But they thought the warmer shouldn't be on the bottom either! It only is on ranges because it's an extra. If you don't need a pan drawer there on the bottom, might as well make it a warmer. My own warming drawer is just below counter level, in a stack with the speed oven. It's about 7' from the cooktop area, but on a straight line to the dining room. It works great there. Still convenient to the stove, but significantly easier to get to from the table. My theory is that another reason warming drawers are often put under ovens is that there's only room for a drawer under a double oven anyway, and builders don't realize that if your pot is in an oven and you want to keep it warm, you just leave it in the warm oven. :) There is nothing that you can make in a steam oven that inherently comes out better than by some other method of cooking. It's just a lot easier. You can add steam to a regular oven with a ramekin of water, a pan of water, etc. Plus, as I said, the seals on new electric ovens are so good nowadays that they don't go dry the way the older ones did. I haven't ever steamed vegetables in a conventional oven, but I imagine if you put a pan full of water in, brought it to 215 degrees, then put a perf pan or rack of vegetables over it for six minutes, they'd be perfectly blanched, too. The *plumbed* steam oven allows you to set the oven to pre-heat and work up steam, then just pop your pan of veg in and out. Dead easy. My can't be bothered chicken is also dead easy. For boneless/skinless breasts or tenders, I brush them with "suntan lotion", i.e., some kind of sauce or dressing, sprinkle on dried herbs and seasoning, and pop them in and out. For a whole chicken, I remove the excess fat, if any, and the spine (or get the butcher to do it--I save them in the freezer for stock), and make a "rack" out of a large sliced onion with a package of cleaned baby carrots (for the lazy version--brushing whole ones works fine, but they go limp on me in the produce drawer and I hate giving them shelf space when I can just buy a package ready to go), plus whatever veg I feel like adding. Lay the chicken over the top and do the suntan and sprinkle routine and cook for an hour and a half on 360/60% steam. Crisp skin, tender perfect chicken. If one didn't go too wild with the veg (height), it would be possible to do two at a time. The liquid that comes from the chicken and veg does accumulate in the pan, as well as a good bit of condensation if everything starts cold, so the carrots come out as if in stew--which is a big hit here. :) I've even done fat slices of zucchini, and while they're way overcooked, they're delicious. Hard eggs come out great, according to the direction, but I have an egg steamer, which I think is easier to use. I grew up with one too. It's the only single use appliance I use regularly. Duh. I just thought of something. You probably should have a double oven just so you don't need to kasher the big one every time you want to bake. You could definitely make all your roasts in the combi-, unless you were having super crowds. The combi- has all sorts of crannies and crevices. It can probably be kashered, but it would be with great rigamarole. It doesn't have pyrolitic cleaning. It's all stainless steel, and has a mesh cover over the fan, etc. I'm pretty sure it couldn't be kashered for Pesach at all, if you hold very strictly. Re fridge, since you have experience with it the way it is, and you and your sister like it where it is, who are we to argue?