I ended up with the Bosch. To a great extent it came down to the look. (I know, many would belittle that reasoning.) I have an appliance wall that has the fridge, 15" landing space, a Bosch Induction range, 15" landing space and a Wolf Steam Oven. The handles on Kitchenaid looked like the lat-pull down bar at my gym, ugly in my opinion, and I didn't love the look of so much variation from appliance to appliance to appliance. (I also have a Bosch dishwasher which I love; it actually has a pocket type pull, no handle. Getting the three Bosch appliances maximized my rebate, which was a bonus but didn't really affect the decision.) The refrigerator is okay. I don't like it as much as my old Amana (which I think at the time was the same as the Jenn-Air french door fridge). Because I have a chest freezer I don't really need the second drawer for longer term storage; given the choice I'd prefer a single drawer. I'm also getting used to the loss of storage with the counter depth. To compensate a have a beverage cooler for the beer, wind and tonic which took up at least one shelf in the Amana. It's a trade-off. I'd probably do the same thing again, at least as long as the handles are the same. (You can't fully "appreciate" them unless you see them in person.)

Well, I'm bummed out, back to square one. The PB chair has been discontinued (though active on their website) and the CB chair is just too dark. Do you all have any recommendations for chairs with clean lines, low profile and low height? preferably with some patting in the seating area to soften the look. Thank you

No, we aren’t lowering the ceiling. We are putting shiplap on the slopes part. Someone mentioned the island. We have turned the island that way to make the island bigger. If we had it turned the other way, the island would be too small, as we have a main walkway through there. We added the end cabinet that goes to the counter as we thought it would make the design look less “cookie cutter “ . The end cabinet to the right of the sink is where the old short wall was that we are taking out. By taking out that wall, it only gives us a few more inches but it opens up the kitchen to the family room. We have to be careful that we don’t have our kitchen feel like it’s inside the family room. Hope that makes sense. We are considering taking the cabinets up to where the roof line slope ends to maximize storage space. We met with our Ferguson appliance specialist today and have narrowed down our choices to Wolf, Thermador or KitchenAid 36” range. Not sure if we will do dual fuel or just gas. Thinking we will do the 36” wide 72” tall panel Fisher Paykel refrigerator. We want the clean look of a panel fridge but don’t want to spend extra $$$ for subzero. We like subzero just not on our wish list. We will go with Sharp microwave drawer in island. Our appliance specialist recommended Bosch panel dishwasher. I started out wanting the Thermador package, which we are still considering. We may put our home on the market in the future, so choices for resale are a factor with our price point of home... we want to go with similar brands that our competition has in their homes. I appreciate and welcome all your input. The exterior of our home is traditional low country. We had started a remodel of our kids bathrooms before my husband decided to try out a new job out of state. We are also remodeling our master bathroom, and doing a cosmetic facelift in our basement. All the things we are doing is what we would have done if we decide to stay. It’s a lot and during a pandemic is a different kind of stress, thankfully we have another home we can stay in until the reno is complete. Now my husband is working from home indefinitely so our plans to move permanently may change. Thanks again.

I'd do an engineered white oak flooring. I know the rage is vinyl, but engineered is so much better looking. do you have 8 kids and 5 dogs? Stick w/linoleum. otherwise, real wood will be fine. for the actual kitchen, do this. you can paint the island, it's not that big. have some end panels put on to finish it. the floor shown here is a regular oak floor. looks beautiful. look at how they did the island. finished panels and trim. painted white. ignore the rest don't know if you're changing countertops. if not, all of the colors will work w/oak another oak floor, although this is LVP I believe. a soft blue wall, white trim work on the panel and front peninsula similar oak cabinets. black accents. blk/white granite and white tile. a nice runner. Oak floors. You can't go wrong with oak floors. either white oak stain on site, or engineered white oak. colors that will work w/oak dark charcoals and blacks look great w/oak. (another oak floor)