arich69, I think we did the exact same research, I was in the exact spot as you. I got totally swayed by that 3rd rack! The Boschs seemed like such a good value when I researched, considering all the features, 3rd rack, and hype that Bosch is best for DWs (if you cant afford Miele, which I couldn't). However, I read many negative reviews of bosch too, my SIL hates hers, and the thought of it not drying as well as I was used to (replacing cheap GE w/ heated dry) really made me nervous. I got the feeling Bosch is great, IF you take many precautions...make sure its got a high loop (? something I read here...!), check water hardness, must use salt & lots of jet dry (to which I found some posts about why would you want to use extra chemicals that basically stay on your glasses...)...yadda yadda. It made me wonder, but...with those KitchenAids in the $1500 range and all the bad reviews on them (alongside many good ones)...I ended up with a Bosch! So..I literally just ran it last night for the first time. I was disappointed this morning that all my plastics were quite wet. I cleaned probably more than average amount of plastics, I have little kids, and I know plastics are almost impossible to get dry, but Im pretty sure they were way wetter than they used to be in my old GE. However, don't go looking at cheap GEs yet! It was my first run & I don't think I ran it optimally. I tested my water & it came out slightly hard so I should use salt but I don't have any yet so I didn't. Theres an extra dry button or something you can choose but I didn't do it for this first time, I wanted to see how it did without it. I also didn't press the sanitize button. Which is supposed to really help drying. And I think I kept the rinse aid setting down as low as possible, because I really don't want to drink that stuff. Sorry, I really just gave you tons of info that's not very useful until I run more loads, but I just read your post & its really timely for me! I will get back to you with more results as I use it more & change the settings. I hope I made the right decision going with the Bosch. I got the SHX7PT55. Its close to top of the line (theres a SH8 & SH9 too). I got a really good price on it, make sure you ask about all rebates, I think I got 2 Dishwasher specific rebates, plus 10% off for buying 3 Bosch appliances.

It seems to me you ideally should get - Refrigerator close to the breakfast room (less pushing through the galley to get milk). Consider storing breakfast things (cereal, bowls, etc) in the breakfast room. You also have the option of beverage refrigerator (milk, juice) in the breakfast room. - Sink and cooktop on one side of the kitchen, with as much counter as possible on that side. You're not one to spin around and use the counter behind you, so you need as much counter as possible on the main ''working side'' of the kitchen. Having sink and cooktop on the same counter is convenient. - Refrigerator not directly across the galley aisle from the sink or the cooktop or the counter between those two. The aisle around the refrigerator is going to be about 33'' if you use 24'' deep cabinets on both sides with minimal countertop overhangs. (You can get a wider aisle in most of the kitchen, but let's focus on the refrigerator here.) A counterdepth refrigerator will be around 27'' deep, so it will reduce that aisle width further. If you can recess it into the wall you can reclaim 3'' or so (feasible even with a load-bearing wall, it is basically like building a doorway). Even with a recessed counterdepth refrigerator, the door swing will interfere with someone standing in the aisle. So you want to avoid locating prep, washing, and cooking in that door swing. - Cooktop and wall oven. Ranges are around 28'' deep and often need some additional clearance behind them. Rangetops are also usually about 28'' deep. Since aisle width is tight, a cooktop which is typically 22-23'' deep seems the best choice, to fit in 24'' deep cabinets. This forces you to use a wall oven, and I'd put it on the non-working side of the kitchen. - Prep zone close to the fridge and the pantry. To minimize squeezing back and forth in the narrow aisle every time you need to fetch a lemon, some cream, an onion, etc. All this suggests, I think, a layout like: - on the interior wall, which becomes the ''storage side'' of the kitchen, put the refrigerator nearest the breakfast room, then pantry, with wall oven(s) at the other end. - on the exterior wall, which becomes the ''working side'', a run of counter across from the refrigerator (with dishwasher under), then the sink, then a long stretch of counter (the main prep space, under the window), then the cooktop, then some landing zone. - counterdepth refrigerator, recessed, probably French door or side-by-side (for the narrower doors). Cooktop with hood venting to the outdoors, can be induction or gas. Dish-drawer type dishwasher (a conventional type with bottom-hinged door will hopelessly clog up the aisle, no matter where placed, a dishdrawer can be slid in and out as easily as closing a drawer). A wall oven, or two. One oven could be a speed oven, but they are expensive, and it seems more convenient for the microwave to be at the refrigerator end of the kitchen. The pantry cabinet could be shallower, as depth isn't that useful in a pantry (depends on if you'll use pullout pantry organizers or simply fixed shelves) and you get something like 38'' aisle width in the kitchen center (depends on the options in the cabinet line you use). - change the position and width of the doorway from breakfast room to kitchen, to accommodate the 24'' counter on the exterior wall and avoid interfering with the refrigerator door swing. That means shifting the doorway to the right a few inches. Shouldn't cost much. Remember, there is no point to a 36'' wide door leading to a 33'' aisle. - moving cooktop and sink to the exterior wall will cost some ($2-3K?) but I think it will make for a much better layout. The exterior wall can provide a significantly longer counter than the short interior wall. The exterior wall has a window, which works when it is over a counter but not when it is boxed in by fridge, oven, and pantry cabinets. You can recess into an interior wall, but an exterior wall is harder or not possible depending on climate and construction. Layout is the most important thing. If budget requires, I would live with the crappiest Craigslist appliances, builder-grade fixtures, the cheapest laminate counters, skip the backsplash, learn some DIY skills, etc - to get a good layout. A $100 Home Depot faucet will work 90% as well as a $1000 faucet porn star, and can be changed out in an hour someday. A $100 no-name stainless steel sink will work 120% as well as a $2000 Shaws fireclay apron front sink of indeterminate dimensions, unknown drain placement, and - oh, drat, its cracked. A laminate or butcher block or granite tile counter will work - well, at least 100% as well, and maybe better than a pricey Carrera marble counter that has you popping Valium whenever lemons or wineglasses are set on it. But a lousy layout will be a lousy layout, forever, no matter how much lipstick is applied.

I'd leave the cabinets alone right now not because they're OK but because you want to eventually remodel and painting is NOT an easy quick fix. It's a ton of tedious work for the homeowner with probably poor results and/or $$$ to have it done professionally. A DIY paint job can result in textural probs, paint wearing off, cracking within a year or so depending upon the finish, the prep, the products used and the technique/exp employed. I've done my share of painting cabs including our current one and I'm OK with it but it's not a pro finish so I try hard not to stare too hard! I will say I've never painted NICE cabs such as yours and I probably wouldn't. We wanted to gut our current kitchen but a new heating system and several other more critcal redos bounced it out of our top 5 projects so we settled for DIY new cabinet doors/drawers and paint. My second comment is based on the fact you just moved in. You're going through the normal "I want to" thing we all go through initially after moving in. Your wife is in the dream stage because she's already thinking of gold rose hardware...lol. But, please take it from someone who's lived in and remodeled/gutted 6 homes. If possible I have never redone a kitchen or made major paint decisions in the first year of living anywhere and it's always, ALWAYS been the right decision (unless I throw some white paint on a crazy color wall) What I think intially is much different one year later and a lot of that has to do with exposure. Do you realize right now, that June is the darkest this kitchen will appear? It's the summer solstice and that means the sun is high...therefore not coming in the windows as much as when it's lower. Decidious trees will also shade the house. Concentrate on the cosmetic and take some of the advice already given re: lighting, the backsplash perhaps (I wouldn't bother to replace with tile though...go cheaper) We supplemented our undercab lighting with IKEA inexpensive LED tape lights that plug in so you might try that first if there's none currently. And congrats!

The Eagle has landed! Only took 4 days to arrive. This Ruvati sink model became unavailable on Amazon right after I ordered, even though it said 8 were left. I had called Ruvati before placing the order to see if Amazon was the best way to order it. Very helpful person named Summit answered the phone. So I knew there were no others left in their warehouse. Considering all possibilities... what if I had the last of current inventory and I was getting someone else's reject? Timing of arrival to my door was perfect. Right when my AC repairman had turned on the heat (yes, heat in Austin Texas in June) to thaw the frozen AC coils. We had 15 min to kill while my house heated up. So naturally I said, "Hey, wanna see what my new sink looks like?" He was game! We unpackaged... After several layers of carefully packaged cardboard and foam, I find a black silky stocking as the final layer of protection around the stainless steel sink, OMG it is HUGE ! The construction and finishing of those corners + ledge is really impressive. What is purpose of these squares? Website pic of the bad-a*s rounded corners that look even more impressive in person where the corners meet the ledge. Serious manufacturing skills to create that result. First impressions of the Ruvati RVH8003 kitchen sink workstation: - Incredibly well packaged and packed. Almost iPhone level thought into how it's packaged for shipment and removal from the box. - Thanks to the thoughtful packaging, 2 outermost cardboard dents didn't affect anything inside. - Love the black silk Ruvati "stocking" that surrounds the sink as the final layer of protection - WOW it is HUGE. Like... I could perform an autopsy in it ...huge. My first reaction after seeing it naked outside of all packaging: ::Panic Attack:: OMG I must have ordered the 45" by mistake !!! Run to get tape measure. Measure it. Nope, just 33 x 22. ::Panic Attack:: OMG I must have measured my current sink wrong. Walk quickly to my existing kind-of-puny-looking double-bowl sink and measure it Yep, it's 33 x 22. Am I witnessing a David Copperfield-level optical illusion? ::Whew:: - LOVE the rounded seams in the corner of the sink. Very pro. Very perfect. - No scratches at all. - Like the sound it makes when I thump it "Heavy duty SoundGuard undercoating and thick rubber NoiseDefend padding – minimizes noise and reduces condensation" VERY happy.