A large piece of frosted glass? (Altho I love stainless steel, and there are several catalogs that sell self-adhesive "tiles" of it, so it could be a DIY job.) My sister has a large piece of glass that her kitchen reno team painted (for a reason that I think was the heat factor of the stove, merely putting clear glass over the painted wall wouldn't work).

Thnaks for the replies. I was all excited about the microwave drawer until I saw the price - $5-600?!? Seriously! DH would flip! We are already looking for places to cut costs as this build is seriously pushing our budget. The hanging sapcesaver MW is an idea. We'd have to get dimensions and check it out, as that space (under the cabs on that side) was going to be for the coffee maker. I personally like the pantry idea, but not sure DH will go for it. I'll bring it up tho. On the updated plans it looks like the pantry has been whittled down to 4'10 by 5ft and has a chunk taken out of the corner, so I am not sure how much space will be in there. I don't want to get rid of the message center all together. It IS full height (it is going to house slots for mail for each family member, cook books, recycling can underneath for mail recycling, and our cordless phone) and only 12 in deep I think so not sure a MW could go there anyway. I linked the updated plans below. SIGH. This is so hard....all for a stupid MW. Grr. Here is a link that might be useful:

prospect711: Thanks for your reply! I had my eye on the Sharp R-820JS, which is the stainless steel sister of your Sharp! (It sounds like an amazing appliance that pretty much does it all!) I just couldn't figure out how to get the size to work. Having a deeper cabinet is a Very interesting idea! I'm going to show this to DH to see if we can somehow swing it with our Ikea cabinetry. Thanks again! (Love your cabinets and beautiful backsplash!) Luv2Laf: Your photo is Exactly what I wanted it to look like! And right next to the fridge seems like such a perfect spot! If only it had convection too - I was really hoping for a little back up oven to cook and reheat small meals. Hmmm... Thanks so much for your reply, gorgeous photo, and the food for thought! colorfast: Okay, so it seems that the microwave/convection combos, unless they are the very wide OTR type, are pretty deep. I'll stop hunting for one that isn't. (No more wild goose chase!) We were planning on having 15" wide cabinets flanking the fridge on either side as a pantry (floor to almost ceiling height), but, maybe we should make one wider set of cabinets instead, where we can put the microwave/convection oven. I love how you have yours next to a counter. That seems to be an ideal setup to me. As for recessing it into the wall, I think we're out of luck, since the wall backs a stairwell leading to the basement as well as the stairs leading upstairs. I'm not sure that we can mess with that. I will share these ideas with DH. Thank you for your reply!

You know what? I'd like to ask that water question of some of the Sacramento Cemetery folks. And maybe the ladies in Pine Grove. But, again, because our climate is so radically different, we might not have a good answer for you. But the Roundup question . . . YES. I would avoid like the plague any cemetery that makes use of Roundup. Here's what I've seen . . . As more people move up into new development in old Sierra Foothills communities, some formerly-neglected cemeteries ARE being "cleaned up" with lots of Roundup. Trying to plant new roses in that situation would likely break your heart. So -- don't even TRY to do it, unless you are doing it in PARTNERSHIP with the owners/managers of the cemetery. That's the situation in THIS cemetery: THIS cemetery is maintained by a group of volunteers. They work closely and in harmony with the volunteers who are restoring roses to the place. Here is one rose that has been donated back to the cemetery by the rosarian who collected it years ago. Other plants, long-since collected, and preserved elsewhere, will also be donated back.