I made some comments about our Thermador SGSX305FS 30" cooktop a few months ago... Just thought I'd let everyone know that we did buy the Thermador SGSX305FS cooktop. I installed it in place of a Thermador SGCS304RS cooktop we had for over 9 years. The old cooktop was working fine...we just wanted to update the cooktop as all the other appliances in the kitchens were being replaced. The new SGSX305FS operates just as we expected. The simmer burners (the small left front burner and the large center burner) work great. The auto-ignition restart for the simmer levels can be heard in a silent kitchen, but we don't mind it at all. And the sound is actually quieter that the old cooktop which featured the same simmer method. The ignition restart also fires up if a burner flame should go out because of a significant draft. You must be careful of one aspect of the cooktop, however. The left side and right side control knobs along the front are somewhat close to the burners they control. If you do place a pot that is too large on those burners, the gas flame could lap around the bottom of the pot and cause the metal knobs to get hot. You just must be conscious of this fact. We had all five burners operating the other day...the front left on simmer...and we had no problems. My comments here are just to highlight this point.

hi kkupstate-I have masterpiece and i love them. Here are some differences. MASTERPIECE 1. more door styles 2. more finishes avail. 3. solid wood doors vs. engineered for classic 4. cabinet back is : 3/8" thick laminated printed birch wood grain or white Melamine. 3/8" Plywood upgrade (we upgraded) vs. 1/4" thick, 50-pound density engineered wood extends all the way to the floor to give the entire cabinet box extra strength and stability for classic. 5. 3/4" solid wood full-depth drawer with four-sided dovetail construction and 3/16" plywood bottom vs. Drawer is 4-sided, 1/2" thick 48-pound engineered wood lap joined with adhesive and stapled for classic 6. 3/4" Solid wood drawer fronts vs. engineered 7. Blum Tandem Plus full extension drawer guide with 75lb load rating and standard soft closing drawer buffer system vs. Sidemount WhisperGlide drawer guides deliver a smooth opening and are load rated for 75lbs for classic. 8. Wall Cabinet Shelves: 3/4" thick laminated printed birch wood grain or white Melamine. 3/4" plywood upgrade available vs. 5/8" thick Forty-eight pound density engineered wood. Those are some of the differences but I have included a link to their website so you can see them all. Merillat and Kraftmaid are made by the same company. We originally got quotes on KM from lowes which contained less big cabinets (microwave cooking center) and Merillat Masterpiece was less expensive(after contractor discount). If you went with classic upgrades are available on some of their items whereas with masterpiece almost everything is upgraded and included in price. Like I said I love mine, they are well built and I would use them again. hope this helps you some! Here is a link that might be useful: merillat

Miss Austen Regrets was on TV last night. As always the settings of country mansions, parkland etc were beautiful and Olivia Williams as JA was good but . . . I found it difficult to follow the 'plot', such as it was, and was confused by all the young men Jane flirted with. At 40 years old she was well over middle age by the standards of those days and my, didn't she hit the bottle. I understand that her sister burnt most of her letters and I'm sure Jane would have never started so many sentences with "Oh my God!" Very modern. btw the actress, Phyllida Law, who played JA's mother is 'in real life' the mother of Emma Thompsom.

Minnie, I agree with you about the Forsyte Saga the older version, despite being in b and w and 'studio bound' was a much better production. The long story needed the many episodes to help develop the characters and slowly moving 'plot'. Mary re. Lewis GG. You mentioned him some while ago here. As I had never heard of him I looked him up and found his work is not generally known in England. Maybe Sunset Song was made for Scottish TV. For all you Jane Austen fans you probably know that Becoming Jane a film of a short period of her life comes out over here on the 7th March. Austen purists will probably disagree with the storyline that she was in love with a young trainee lawyer Tom Lefoy but the romance came to nothing. It should be a very pretty film, most of the location shots had to be done in Ireland because Hampshire (JA's county) has become too modern and lacking in bucolic charm. Ann Hathaway and James McAvoy play the leads and her sister Cassandra is played by Anna Maxwell-Martin who did so well in Bleak House and is now appearing in black leather as Sally Bowles on the London stage. And Frieda if you didn't see Bleak House add it to your order, a few more $$$'s wont make much difference. It was the best drama series I have ever seen. Here is a link that might be useful: Becoming Jane