You need to start with your budget and why in the world would you want the microwave over the stove? And you say slide in oven. Are you talking gas? electric? induction?

If budget is a major consideration I would look closely at Costco, big box (Home Depot/Lowes, Pacific Sales/Best Buy, AJ Madison), Sears, and local stores for sale and discontinued items. It may take a little more time but it will be worth it. When we bought our refrigerator we spent almost 3 hours at Pacific Sales looking at everything they had on the floor. In the end we went with an LG counter depth that was "on sale" for $1000 off "regular". That was part of the reason we chose it but the main reason was because we felt the shelving and drawers would work well for how we use the fridge and freezer. There are subtle differences in how the interior spaces of fridges and ovens are configured and user interfaces on the electronic controls can vary quite a bit. Those are personal preferences you'll have to consider based on how you use the appliances.

There are a lot of horror stories online about appliances but keep in mind people are more inclined to post when they have a problem. Everyone has appliances so even if only a small percentage of buyers are unhappy that's still millions of unhappy people. There were many reviews about our LG fridge model sounding like a jet plane -- which we found to be an exaggeration although it definitely is not noiseless. Be prepared that the life expectancy of appliances these days is 7-10 years and plan accordingly. If it lasts longer -- great, but I wouldn't want to plan my kitchen with the assumption I'll never need to replace an appliance. We buy extended warranties on most appliances these days. Don't use the self cleaning feature on the oven (the high heat seems to easily damage the electronic controller).

The reason we were thinking about the microwave over the oven is because our kitchen is about 10x10. It seemed like a good solution to save space, but we are open to other options if something else is better,

Post your kitchen plan over in the kitchens forum and you will get plenty of advice.

Do you have external venting? If so, and since it seems like you cook a fair amount, a regular hood (chimney style or under-cabinet, but venting as opposed to recirculating) would be your best choice, and then find someplace else to put the microwave (in your case, probably on a shelf, since you wouldn't want to take up counter space).

I also recommend Pacific Sales, since they have a large selection on the floor. We bought all our appliances there and got as least as good an overall price as we could have gotten by ordering online. They couldn't discount the built-in Thermador fridge, but they gave us extra discounts on everything else to account for that.

Oh, just wanted to add that I use the self--clean on my oven all the time without negative consequences. In fact, we ran it twice in one afternoon recently (the oven is Fagor - a Spanish brand that we were sort of forced into due to some size constraints, but it turns out it's a great oven).

We've bought all our appliances from Abt for fifty years. They have ONE store, which happens to be in our (Chicagoland) area, but they are on the internet too.

It's not very useful to know whose appliances have been most satisfactory, as it seems all brands are trying to build cheaper and cheaper. I've been fine with GE over many years, but I can see that the 14-year-old GE fridge I replaced recently with the same GE model was heavier and better made than the replacement. (Old one was working fine, but I was being proactive, fearing it would fail, and I'd have to wait six weeks for a new one on Maui.)

I stay away from heavily promoted high end brands. I can buy two Plain Jane's for the same cost, andthey are likely to last just as long. I have liked my Fisher & Paykel dish drawers -- but I don't think anyone else makes these, so I have no basis for comparison.