Hi Lynn - We really do like the Turbochef. The "regular" oven is quite good, and I use that frequently. My favourite things to make in the speed oven are roast chicken (delicious and juicy in 25 minutes) and things like roasted veggies or fish. I can get home from work and have dinner on the table in 45 minutes, including all the prep. A couple of niggles. Because the temp settings on the oven are on a dial, to go with the retro design, you can't calibrate temperatures. For instance, if a recipe calls for 225F, I can only choose 200 or 250. The increments are more like an old-fashioned oven. So, for instance I don't have 225F, 275F or 475F. Now, I've never had a digital temp dial but I am assuming that I would have more room for calibration. The other thing is the cleaning. Even though it has a self clean feature I have been advised (by the folks at TC) not to use it. The ceramic plate gets quite dirty. One trick I learned about from this forum is to put 1/2 c of ammonia in a glass bowl and leave it in the oven overnight. The fumes break down the accumulated build up. Re: induction. I learned about induction through the appliance forum and while intrigued, I didn't want to fully commit, esp. as I had always envisioned a gas range. Plus DH really wanted gas (what is it with men and fire?) I love having both. The induction gives me a bare whisper of heat for super slow or low simmering, which I can't get with gas, and we have recently sarted using our gas grill more frequently with great results. I love the combination! HTH, Lynn - happy to answer any other q's. Eliz

I have Carrera in my upstairs bath. It is breathtakingly beautiful and so soft looking. It makes me sigh when I look at it as it just surprises me how beautiful it is. However, I must say that I do worry about it. I am not one of the easy going types who could live with etching. The reason is because it is just so beautiful it would be like the young Brad Pitt with acne. It would be a shame, a tragedy!!! I know I could never live with that in the kitchen. As much as I drool over it I would have a cow if it didn't always look as it did on day one. Call me shallow, superficial, I don't care! It's too expensive to think of it not holding up to the look it had on the first day. I have been looking at some of the white granites and find they vary so much. I love some of the Bianco Romano slabs but others are just plain and unexciting and so nothing for me. If you could find the right slabs it would be a contender. I don't mind the yellow in them, it's the ones that don't have any veins or character and are just speckles that I don't like. I am having to replace my kitchen granite since we had a sink failure and also the granite I have is all pitted and chunks of quartz or mica whatever are falling out. The guy who sold it to me is out of business and the fabricator who agrees it has "issues" and probably was not resined and has too many cracks and pits has offered to give me a great deal on replacement which turns out not to be so great, it's still in the $4K range, but it would be closer to 6K if full price. I'm sick about it. But that is why I am still in the market for granite. For some reason I have had such bad luck with everything we have done in our reno. I am not happy with any of it. I should have used a KD and not tried to do this on my own. But back to slabs, it's hard to not love the quartzite and marble but I just know I couldn't live with it and not obsess. I admire those of you who can!

kodak, thank you for your comment. I had a post all ready to send with measurements and hit a wrong button and wiped it out. Sorry it took so long. When I finished unpacking a few boxes, other things came up. Let me know if you need more; I'm happy to measure or take pics of anything. Toward breakfast area between islands Hall to garage on left, laundry on right Hall to bedrooms on right The LR side of the small island makes a connection between our two hallways, the one to the garage and the one to the bedrooms. Clockwise from left side of sink run - Counter to counter where there are no appliances or sink 39 1/4" - Counter to counter at sink bumpout 36 1/4" - Counter to DW handle 37 1/4" - Closest point of range to island will end up being ~36" but it's not set back far enough yet; the range and island overlap (run parallel) for ~8", but mostly the oven door opens with nothing opposite - Island counter corner to L counter corner 64" - MW to island 51" - Closest point of fridge to island 41" (again, handles are not directly opposite island) - Base of stools to base of small island ~26"? (That's a guess) - Left side of island open to breakfast area, but when table and chairs are in, distance should be no less than 36", very likely more, but I have forgotten the measurement. We haven't done any entertaining in this kitchen yet. We completely revamped the layout. When we do have people over, it's mostly informal. We got the stools at Hillary's Home Furnishings in Raleigh, NC, but they were made in China. : / They were a good deal compared to the price on other stools of similar style that I've seen. Pottery Barn sells one. These are 24" high; the seat is 9" deep (sorry I forgot to measure the width); the base is 14 1/2" deep (again, don't have the width). I was trying to calculate a 13' kitchen. Depending on what you plan for the wall behind the island (assuming you have a wall), you may have plenty of space for seating and passage. If you were planning a 24" counter on that wall, you would have ~1" more than I have behind the stools. If a 12" deep pantry cabinet, you'd have ~13" more, or a total of 45" from counter to wall. Do you have a layout posted yet?

One of the first thing you need to do is to be honest about your house. Can you carry modern (not contemporary) in your house? Design elements are such that it sinks to the lowest common denominator unless you are careful. For example, if you have cheap paneled fiberglass doors through out the house, no matter what you do, it feels as if the rest of the house is at that level of quality. Window, doors and trim work determine the level of 'quality' of the interior of the house. It is hard to do justice to modern design (or justify the cost of remodel) when all your vinyl windows have snap on muntins. It can look too jarring and out of place, IMHO.... The siding material, windows, trim determines the exterior quality of the house. If is hard to upgrade/update the house without paying attention to these types of things that have such impact on the level of quality of work. Modern design is hard to accomplish unless the workmanship is perfect. There is big difference when the gap between the doors are 1/8 inch versus 1/2 inche when you look at it. Often, older houses work well with modern design because the inherent quality of the workmanship in the well built older houses complement the quality of workmanship and design in modern design. Suburban tract homes often lack the high level of quality work, and that is why they age so quickly.... Modern design works best when materials show off its intrinsich qualities at its best. This means that you use expensive quality material and let the material and workmanship shine without detractors. Sometimes, it is safer to go with contemporary if you are not willing to spend a lot of money replacing doors etc on the rest of the house. Palimpest, Henrybuilt (my cabinet company) carves out a small groove in the backside of cabinet doors. You slip your fingers under it and open the upper doors. When the door is closed you see nothing on the upper.