This topic has kept me up at nights. Like you, I hate using a big oven when a smaller one will do. So, I have decided on a speed oven--likely Miele, although GE and Electrolux makes them also--which is a microwave, convection oven, and I think/hope it toasts as well. They are a little less than a half-oven. I would go for the wall oven, warming drawer, and toaster oven/speed oven for you, and skip the double ovens. I think double ovens are great if you bake in large quantities where the food needs to be precisely cooked at different temperatures, but for meats and potatoes and such, the temperature differential is not really a big deal. It is easy to reduce/increase both the temperature and time and still have everything come out fine. A warming drawer is fantastic. Remember, with a convection oven, things cook faster, so for that occasional large meal, it is easy to cook many things and as they finish, put them in the warming drawer while you go onto the next item. Also, with 6 people in your house, you will have kids coming and going at all hours of the day. Rather than say, "Honey, let me heat up dinner for you," you can relax on the couch with a glass of wine and say, "Honey, your dinner is in the warming oven."

jmith, thank you AGAIN! I really appreciate your posts :-) Uh...where does the air make-up unit go?? Breezygirl, wow, thank you for your thoughtful and reasoned post! Yes, upon reflection, an underccounter oven would not be good for my back. I was thinking that maybe I would only use the second oven for parties and holidays, but sometimes we have friends over every weekend. Good point about the cost of separate ovens. I do like the look of double ovens, too. Especially the Bosch 800 series and the Kenmore Pro, but it is very hard to find anything on them...few mixed reviews online. I will ask on this forum. And do some research on Electrolux as well, since they seem to be popular here. I saw the Wolf cooktop at Great Indoors. My mother has a Wolf range, but she hates to cook. Lol. OK, will also look for the Capital. Hadn't heard of it until this forum. Yes, found ajmadison and HomeEverything. HomeEverything has slightly better prices, and usually free shipping. Yes, you're right, I couldn't find a published price on the GE Monogram counter-depth anywhere. I have to call or email each site to get the price, and from what you and the GI saleslady said, there probably won't be much difference except for no tax if I buy online. I have accepted that I can't vent with an OTR MW. I will have to spring for an undercabinet hood. Bleah. $1400. Ugh. Loss of cabinet space. Boo. I am thinking that, since I was planning for stacked 42" + !2" or 36" + 18", I will have to mount the MW under a cabinet...h'mmm...maybe I will have to do a mullion door on a 36" or 42", since the 12" or 18" are supposed to be mullion? Thought briefly about putting MW in island, but kids are 6 and 10 and tall, too. LOVE the Kitchens forum. Haven't posted my floor plan yet, trying to get up the courage to post pics of my truly UGLY kitchen. It doesn't look as bad or difficult on the floor plan as it does in the pictures Will check with contractor. Presumably he is up on all this stuff. Never heard of MUA until cooksnsews mentioned it! The GE Monogram ZFSB25DXSS is currently $3825 @ Great Indoors, on sale. I liked it bc it is 25 cu ft and well-planned inside. It looks.like close to the same amount of space that we have in our KA Superba, which we bought 9 years ago and has never given us a problem. I will look at KA fridges, thank you! I need the MW drawer money for the undercabinet hood. Boo. But the fridge isn't in my appliance budget, anyway. Lol.

We were going to buy a warming drawer and single oven but the gal in the appliance center talked us out of it . . . and we are incredibly glad that she did! Instead, we went with the KA double oven, as it has a bread proofing setting. Both ovens go as low as 170-degrees, with one oven also capable of going down to 140-degrees to dry fruit, etc. The nice thing is that it also works very well keeping things warm if they're covered. I like that my double ovens work for me every day, baking or keeping things warm while I get my meals ready. The bread proofing mode is great, too!

No, Gail, I don't have induction....at the time the cheapest ones were in the $4,000 range vs the $1,000 range for a "regular" electric cooktop. My DH did not want to pay that much for a cooktop plus have to buy all new pots & pans (ours are not induction-friendly!) I started to fight for it but then realized that (1) I could put one in later if it's wired properly for it (it is) and (2) if I gave in to DH with this he would be less likely to fight me on other things (like my $500 faucet or Trivection rather than just convection oven). We ended up getting one of the least expensive GE Profile cooktops for the simple reason that it was the only one that had a bridge element to use w/my griddle for pancakes, etc. In our old kitchen I just put the griddle on the two left (different sized) burners and it worked OK although the heat was uneven. With the bridge element (an element b/w the two equal-sized left burners), the griddle now heats evenly. ci_lantro....our cabinets sit on top of the tile, so that may be why our toe kick is the full height. I measured from the floor to the opening of the cabinet itself. We tiled the entire Kitchen, Foyer, & Powder Room...underneath all cabinets, etc. We thought this would provide us with the best water protection. We've already had two under-cabinet water leaks from our first DW that weren't detected immediately so the water sat under the DW & cabinets...luckily we had vinyl and it didn't go through. Our water is slightly acidic and did a number on our old GE DW. We replaced it w/a Maytag a few years ago and had no problems. We have a KA with the new kitchen...we'll see how long it lasts (OK, I'm hoping only about 3 or 4 years so I can replace it...I don't like it!)