Glad I could help. We can all use a little savings. As for the granite guy, he was referred to us by someone at the distributor. He also called me the day after the installation to see if the cooktop fit OK, which I thought was a nice touch. Also, I failed to mention that the installer also hauled off our old appliances for us, which was a big help. No extra charge for that.

Kithenaid and Amana are both owned and manufactured by Whirlpool Corp. (as are Maytag, Jenn-Air, Admiral, Roper, some Kenmores, everything sold at Lowes or Costco, and several other brands, so the quality should be identical amongst those brand names. Some of their older models still use the design they inherited when Whirlpool bought Maytag a couple of years ago, whereas others use the Whirlpool-based design (identifyable by their smaller icemakers and dual paddles for ice and water dispensing). Best reason not to get a KA is that there's often a comparable Whirlpool, Kenmore, (or more recently Maytag-) branded model with similar features and design but significantly lower cost.

Advice appreciated! And thanks for the link, sum5463! The video on that page helps clarify, too, though that fridge is mostly hidden on the sides. (Oh, if only I were a blogger! I too would make a video where I was over-the-moon about my new free appliances!) Re: the cabinet color. I think the Benj. Moore "decorators white" is very slightly green, so there may well be a danger of dinginess against the "white ice." At least in sample size the paint looked smashing with countertop and backsplash materials, which are in fact being installed this coming week (huzzah!) The underside of the top cabinets is also being painted this week, before the undercabinet lighting goes in, but the cabinet faces won't be painted for a while yet, since the painter likes to be last. So I don't know if at this point I can change my mind about which white I want on the cabinet faces. Maybe I will just have to paint a cabinet door and trek to the nearest big city in search of a real live white ice appliance. I also have to think about whether the white ice "ipod" style cues will fit. Maybe -- the cabinets are simple in style, and my new breakfast-area light fixture will be pretty modern. It's such a huge change from the brown early 80s that it's hard to visualize, and I'm lousy at visualizing to begin with. Here follows a bit of rambling re: model choice. This model fits under the existing cabinets; other counterdepth models I have looked at tend to be a little too tall. Capacity is not an issue for me; in fact I have so much extra space in my current 18cf fridge that I store about a dozen large bottles of nonperishables like fizzy water -- because a fuller fridge is more efficient than a mostly empty one. Which reminds, me, some of those bottles have been in there more than a year. I probably should move them around! :) I thought about a 24"/apartment-size one as more suited to my own habits. I cook when I'm home, but I travel a lot, so I don't keep huge amounts of fresh food on hand. But I have a 36" x 69" space to fill. A smaller fridge, even the 28" x 65" one that's there now, looks awkward. And I'd have to buy a fullsize one anyway if I were selling the house. I want the side-by-side because I use the freezer mostly for single-serving leftovers; having those on shelves in plain sight, so that I can see at a glance what's there, is a bigger priority for me than storing large fresh or frozen things: there has never been an occasion when I wanted to put a pizza box or a sheet cake in my fridge. So I have really thought about usefulness; it's just that I use my fridge differently than people who find the french-door style useful.

I have to say, I was very impressed with the look of the White Ice Collection when we remodeled our home three years ago - so we bought the whole kitchen suite. Since purchasing them, we have had to make multiple service calls (of course the warranty was up after one year) before the second year of owning them was up. The dishwasher pump has already been replaced since it stopped working, the knobs on the gas range get stuck, creating a seriously dangerous situation where you cannot turn off the gas. I have two knobs out of the five knobs already replaced and one of the replaced knobs already got stuck after only 6 months. I had 3 service calls on the microwave as it quit functioning all together. I have contacted Whirlpool only to get the "we are so sorry you are disappointed but want you to know you are a valued customer". It is only my husband and I using these products. I maintain and gently use all my appliances, not to mention keeping them very clean - I can't tell you how disappointing these products are to us, as this was finally a dream kitchen re-do that I have waited for many years to get - now that we are on our own after raising a family. I hope nobody else that bought/buys them has the same bad luck as we did.