Funny I had some of the same constraints. I have a 30" Wolf cooktop and like it very much. I am now used to it, but 2 years ago when I did my kitchen, I went from a 30" range to the 30" cooktop, it did at the time feel a bit compacted to me because the range had the controls in the front vs. the top as on the cooktop. I am now used to it and while your "big" my not be my big, I don't have any problems using wide pans simultaneously on my cooktop. To make risotto for instance, I use two wide (9 -10") pans on two burners back to front and don't have any problems with the space. 10" is my widest pan however. Surface wise it hasn't felt tight to me. However, there are 2 cooks in the family and it felt a bit close to me in the beginning going from the 30" range to the 30" cooktop but now it is not an issue. I do love the cooktop, though. Performance-wise it is very good. If the latter consideration is relevant to you, however, you may also want to take a look at the Viking designer series - the cooking surface spans the 30" width, controls in front. Do study its outputs though - for me, the high at 14KBTU may have been fine although I preferred the 15KBTU, but 2 years ago, the low was 1.2KBTU and that was too high for the things I do want to be able to make some times. At 675-700btu simmer settings for the viking now, that is a LOT better. The Wolf has 300 or 400btu lows and I find that I use them quite a bit so I would not have been happy with 1100btu for a low. I have a Bosch oven and like it very much indeed. I have a 30" 700 series but since Bosch came out with new models this year, I don't claim to know anything about them. The 700series is a relatively basic oven even though it was their top offering 2 years ago - bake, convection bake, convect. roast, broil, convect. broil and warm, thaw, dehydrate or some modes like that. It is self-cleaning although I've only ever used it once. Goes down to 100degrees in "warm", 120degrees in "dehydrate", 170degs in the cooking modes. The direction of the heat source distinguishes the modes. It does an excellent job with temperature control (+/- 7 or 9degrees per my experience except for when you open the door in which case the temp can drop sizeably depending on mode; Miele Wolf and Gaggenau are even more precise & hold temperatures to within 5-7degrees), very even whether in bake, broil or roast; I liked its size as it was a smaller oven. I LOVE its interface. I noticed Consumer Reports doesn't like it either but haven't been able to figure the reviews out. I will say that you do have to experiment a bit to get used to how to cook in it - either it is the convection or the Bosch itself but there are things I have had to consciously start to do to ensure good performance; I did have some corkers in the beginning before I cottoned on to that. Placing the rack too close to the front of the oven instead of in the center or towards the back will interrupt its' air circulation (in convection) and the net result can be a asymmetric cooking. Likewise sorting out how to load the racks for multi-rack cooking so that they are evenly spaced out else same story. That sort of stuff. Anyhow, I like my Bosch oven very much but claim no knowledge of even any of their new models. I absolutely love the cooktop, but I think that the oven maybe what I play with even more than the cooktop.

We have Thermador 27" double convection ovens. I would have preferred 30" ovens, but we didn't have enough room. I love the ovens. The controls are easy to understand and use, it bakes well, and I like the glide-out rack. Thermador posted the wrong specs on their web site, so we had a little installation issue. That was fixed by the installer.

I recently tried baking cookies in the Wolf M series, and it baked very evenly (cookies on different racks and in the corners of the cookie sheet) -- it was one of the most even baking ovens that I've tried (that and, shockingly, the Thermador Grand Pro). I, too, am a little leery of Wolf ovens b/c of the reported chipping issues here. I also recently tried the Miele M Touch -- this oven wasn't as even a baker as the Wolf with cookies (e.g. bottom rack front corner was less done than the others), but it was still pretty good. The Miele has a rotisserie option (which I couldn't try out b/c the Miele showroom didn't have any that were working -- they had a lot of prototypes hooked up), and it's also got the burst of steam option, which is pretty cool if you're a baker (up to 3 bursts of steam for 6 min. each). I do think the Miele interface is very complicated, and if you are an experienced baker, the whole Master Chef thing isn't that appealing. I do have to say that the Miele did an awesome roast chicken (which we roasted directly on the rack) -- much better than any other electric oven I've tried (tho I didn't have a chance to roast in the Wolf b/c I didn't have enough time). I also want to try the Gaggenau wall oven, which I understand is a great baker but I haven't actually tried myself yet. It also has the rotisserie option, but it's very pricey and only comes with 1 rack standard (which seems ridiculous given the price of the oven itself). I'm not looking at Bosch b/c I've had 2 Bosch dishwashers, and they were both awful -- needed major repairs within 1 year of owning -- so I've sworn off Bosch products as a result. Haven't looked at Elux but maybe I will...

@CPArtist, Thanks for your input! Again, I put up the layout for fun (since the original is, really, interesting/unusual). This will be the 6th kitchen we've designed--we know that it probably won't look like the average American kitchen. We've had the trash near the sink, and much prefer it in the island, where the vast majority of cooking scraps end up. We've also had wide aisles, and find that we prefer what we're used to, which are admittedly not what most people suggest. Too wide and we feel it's awkward. It's yet to be a problem for resale. To be clear, also, the design rendered above is my 'sketch,' not what the contractor etc are using to actually build and design. It is a general idea. For how we live, and cook, it's much more functional than the original with the stove facing the opposite way with air behind a false wall. Again, thanks for your suggestions! If you have any experience with a 24" oven that you loved, I'm really looking for opinions there.