I really enjoy my Kohler "professional" taskcenter sink I found on Craigslist. It is 18 gauge and doesn't sound tinny, however it is also sprayed underneath and has soundproof pads - I recall reading somewhere on this board about spraying sinks after market - something to do with a product found at an auto supply store? If you can find a taskcenter on Craigslist (I kept looking on ebay etc.) then I can almost guarantee that you will both love it. A lot of people on this board have relationships with their granite. I have a thing for my sink. If you go through with this, I recommend cutting a piece of butcher block the depth of the inside rim of the sink (Ikea is a good bet) and attach "short risers" to the underside edges - my sink came with such a board, and I slide it this way and that way from one edge of the drain board to the far end of the sink - makes it very easy to scrape veggie cuttings into a bowl - it also gives me an additional section of work area (over the sink) when I need it. I have linked to the sink to show you the cutting board - it slides over the entire distance of the sink. Regarding your baby - congratulations! Can you take a doll with you when you go to look at the sink to see what the depth feels like? Sounds crazy, but it will help you judge the depth and how it feels with a "baby sized object." We did this when introducing our dog to the idea of a baby - played with a doll for a month! I wouldn't get too caught up on making sure that your baby fits - babyhood is so fast, and you really don't know what will work for your child until he or she gets here. We spent hundreds of dollars on a sturdy, beautiful crib that had hardly any use, as our baby was so colicky - we ended up having him in with us for quite a while, and had previously not considered this. Our dd loved the crib, but preferred the security of the small plastic baby tub for longest time. (She didn't like the sink at all - I guess she didn't feel secure as an infant, and by the time she could sit up, loved her tub.) See the sink in person, hang your arms over the edge, bring a doll and try it out. And I am wishing you a baby with a colic-free babyhood! Hestia-Flames Here is a link that might be useful: sink with cutting board

Have you talked with your municipality about the permits needed for such a beast? Your insurance company? Both will have some say in this. The first "accessory" that you should have is a commercial ventilation system with fire suppression system. Check with your municipality, if you are even allowed to install a commercial range in a residential situation, that may be one of their required conditions of install. If your municipality doesn't require it, your insurance company (again, if they allow it at all) should require it. This will add about 4-10K to your "bargain", but there is no way you should have a commercial range in the home without the proper ventilation and fire suppression that any commercial application would have. In addition to the overhead fire suppression system, you also need several fire extinguishers handy and a first aid kit focused on burns. Commercial ranges have zero insulation and get HOT HOT HOT. And the pilot light is always on. It's not a wimpy residential pilot light either. It consumes quite a bit of gas 24/7. Which means that your cooling system in summer will be quite challenged. You may want to buy a dedicated window AC unit just for the kitchen in order to keep it below 100 in there. And hire a cleaner just for the stove. Sure, it breaks down easy to be cleaned, but if you've ever actually seen a used commercial range, you know it's the furthest thing from a "pretty" clean, even those it might be sanitary. The main reason people want commercial ranges in the home is for the firepower, not the "budgetary savings" of which there is none. It actually costs a lot more to do a commercial range correctly than it would to get a homeowner pro style range with it's insulation and safety features. The ventilation savings alone pay for the cost differences, much less actually being able to keep your homeowner's insurance without an expensive rider.

I think that what you have going on in terms of plugs has a lot to do with HOW you have your kitchen set up. For us, we plan on having only one thing continually plugged in on the countertop - and therefore, we put a low, horizontal plug in that area. The rest of our area is plugmold because we won't be keeping anything else permanently on the counter and plugged in. We will have an appliance "garage" that will house the coffee pot and other consistently used small appliances. My KA mixer has it's own cabinet and a plug inside the cabinet. Like everything else here, when planning your kitchen, it's important to ask yourself what you are hoping to accomplish and what way you are going to use your kitchen. If you are the type that will have various appliances out and plugged in all the time, then certainly, it doesn't make much sense to have plugmold and see the appliance colds dangling down. But, if you have an appliance garage and/or you are the type that will have small appliances out just when being used, you may be happy considering plugmold. We're also concealing the kitchen sink light switch and the UC light switch under one of our upper cabinets as well so that they won't show on the backsplash. Oh, and we will have plugmold on our island also - it will mount underneath the granite. I had considered one of the Mockett systems - they are pretty cool, but I felt that it was more intrusive than what I wanted for our small island...if there winds up being an issue with it and we wanted to get rid of it at some point down the road, we didn't want that large hole in our granite.

"kfunky_gw To wekick: Of course it's subjective, but I can tell you my BS cooks better than any other residential range I've used." Each cook's needs are different, rather than the generic " my BS cooks better than any other residential range", you might be specific in how you make use of its unique attributes. For instance, the star burners are very beneficial if you like cast iron or some plied pans that don't distribute heat very well, because the heat is dispersed over a greater area. You would have to have the pan sized to the burner though to get the greatest benefit. It is not so much a benefit if you use heavy gauge aluminum or copper. "Not sure what 's confusing about open burner? Sealed vs open burner, do a search if it's not clear. The "burner tray" as you referred to, has nothing to do with an open burner vs sealed burner." Believe it or not it does. Maybe I did not explain the confusion well enough above, but you have demonstrated it on the last sentence. The confusion is due in part to marketing that attributes almost magical powers to the nonspecific term "open" burners. Here are pictures. There are two aspects to a burner that go under the term "open" burner. Yes there is the open vs the sealed vs the semi sealed burner tray. This from Handyman is an example of a sealed burner tray. The idea is to keep the mess up top. There is plenty written online and this very forum. It's a thing. Or this If you can't see it well enough is from this http://www.universityelectric.com/node/103 An open burner tray allows boil overs and the mess to go through the tray to your hopefully foil wrapped pull out tray below. It breaks down for cleaning. The second reference to an open burner may mean whether it is capped or not. The cap is there to keep food from getting in the burner ports but the flame is splayed anywhere from a little to a lot depending on how it is engineered. CappedVVV UncappedVVV ".do me favor and tell me what brand makes a semi sealed burner system?" Did you not read my post? It is the American Performer. VVV It has a semi sealed burner tray in that it comes very tight up to the burner but the black tray lifts off and can go in the dishwasher. It has an uncapped burner. "As far as the simmer I can simmer for hours, doesn't matter what type of pot I'm using as long as it matches the burner size. " Again it is more helpful to be specific about what you simmered and the types of pots you have used. It might also be about what you can hold on simmer. Simmering liquids maybe one thing but holding something like mashed potatoes in cast iron with no movement is another. Maybe you don't need that low of a simmer while others might. ...the BTU rating for my simmer would be insignificant to any corresponding BTU rating...." I am not following you here. You go by the high rating because you mentioned it but the low one doesn't count? It is a unit of measurement. How else would you compare. For some cooks the low end is very important so they need to compare. ".sealed vs open are not the same, very different in terms of flame delivery to the pan/pot you're cooking on" Let's look at an even broader concept, flame to food because after all we are cooking. There are several aspects to consider. They don't all roll into the term "open burner" Sealed vs open burner tray is mostly a personal preference on cleaning no real effect on cooking capped vs uncapped-you might have more flare on the highest setting, but this depends a lot on how the burners are engineered. You might want more flare on high heat, if you use a 14" skillet or griddle overlay. You have to see the burner going to see if it is an issue for you. Shape of burner --star shaped like BS, Thermador and American Performer-CC has three rings --single ring on most other ranges. BTUs One of the biggest considerations overlooked is the interface of food to heat-->cookware. There are several articles that address heat conductive properties of various metals. A good understanding of this will enable you to cook on single ring burners, even with a 15x23" griddle. Of course consider the food. "Have you ever cooked on a CC or BS range, just curious as to where your info is coming from...the internet, or have you had any actual real life experience cooking on a CC or BS or any other open burner system?" Why yes I learned to cook on open burners and have cooked on some commercial ranges I can't remember the specifics of, some star shaped commercial ranges and just today was cooking on a commercial American Range that is configured very much like the CC. I am a scratch cook and while daily cooking is for 4-8 and occasionally 12, we entertain in our home 30-35 monthly and 60-75 a couple times a year. I won't say how long I have been cooking. I used to work in a food lab as well. I have not cooked on CC or BS though, but notice none of the information I gave on those was of the subjective kind. But here is the thing. There are four sorts of information to consider when choosing a range. 1. Objective - The facts. I don't have to cook on a range to know it has a sealed burner tray or has uncapped burners or star shaped burners. I can look up BTU ratings and yes they might be significant both top and bottom. Some people have specific ideas about what they want and can eliminate certain ranges based on this information. Yes the Internet is a great source to look at specs and use and care manuals and all kinds of useful information 2. Subjective- reviews-the most useful give specific information about how a cook uses their range. Other cooks can see how that fits with the way they cook. Something that is important to one is unimportant to another. It does not make one person or the other the superior cook. The simmer issue is one such issue with people on both sides saying a particular range simmers or doesn't simmer. A simple BTU rating would allow the same comparison made on the top end. "Even baking" is another very subjective thing. There are many variables on both of these things. 3. Videos and photos might be helpful for certain things. YouTube has some great videos that show how to clean open burners of different kinds and on some you might get some idea of the flame and how it behaves if you can't see one in person. 4. Service/ support in general from the company and locally in your area. You might have a great range but if there is no service, unless you can service it yourself, and some do, I wouldn't buy it. "All I can say is my open burner BS will out perform any sealed burner (residential) range on the market." You would have to first define performance. Performance is often subjective so perhaps give a subjective review of all the sealed burner ranges currently on the market that you have used, to compare. Then people reading your reviews of all the ranges on the market could see if your reviews are relevant to the way they cook. And then some people would want to consider the oven, so do all the sealed burner ranges include DF because for some an electric oven might trump the burners. Cooks are funny like that. Like herding cats. It is great that you are happy with your range though.