Do you have a preference on open-burners vs. closed? I would need open, which would leave only Bluestar as my only option (of those 4 listed). Have you been to any stores to physically touch any of those brands? I haven't touch Dacor nor Capital. For me, Bluestar feels more like a work-horse, like my big Weber grill so I don't have to baby it. The Thermador feels "pretty" so I would have to take care of it (higher maintenance). I feel like the Bluestar is an outlier, compared to the other 3. I'm biased. I would get the Bluestar over the other 3. No help w/ hood; I'm still dealing w/ that right now. I'm also Asian and garlic/oil, fish, etc a lot, so I am looking for high CFM. Dealing w/ my copper hood shell issue; but also torn between affordable Proline (w/ not great customer service) vs. a name brand one for more $$$. good luck. Amanda (note: I bought a 36" Miele induction cooktop, after all the research on gas rangetops.)

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I'm in the same boat, I'm buying a Wolf 30" DF range, and I only have 30" between the stove top and the cabinet above. I'm thinking of going with the Kobe Ch-122 as it has a depth of 22" so it will capture the majority of the front burners and the length of the unit is 5 7/8". Leaving almost 25" of space between the stove and the hood. I'm 5"10 and I went to a store that had this setup and I was relaly suprised because it was very workable for us, didn't bother me at all. I'm still debating on getting the even larger CH-27 model, which has a length of 7", but that would leave me 23" of space between..I dont think it should make too much fo a difference. I'm leaning towards the Ch-27 because it uses baffles which I have heard is much better than the CD-122 which uses the oil catchers.

I purchased both of my marble mosaic off of ebay from Phoenecian Arts (I probably am spelling that wrong...but do a search for marble mosaic and you'll find them...they sell thousands). They are both fabulous quality. I'd highly recommend him, and his prices were quite good! So how to choose, well I have a busy granite as well, but you can have more than one bling focal point in a kitchen :) I'd limit it to three or four but no more. So if you have crazy granite, lighting that's unique, the other BS is beyond eye catching, and your knobs are bling bling...well maybe keep it simple. For me, I wanted the range to be a major focal point, and for some odd reason I wanted chickens (they say kitchen to me). We did debate over the Ronald Regan and the Pope mosaic though...heh heh Anyhoo, I decided size based on the size the mosaic was available in. I did this for both of mine (one is a carpet) and then made them fit the space with the use of a boardering trim. I have a hood as well, so the height was determined by the distance between that and the stove, and then some astetics were involved (if you look at the top black granite you'll see it's actually inside the hood about an inch....that was for framing purposes, and was a bugger to do because the granite had to be shaved down to fit over the already high steel). I haven't removed tape and stuff, but here's an idea of how nice a mosaic can look: (OK I think they're nice LOL) They're not grouted and cleaned here. Today they get their enhancements :)