momof2doxies: thanks for the photo! That helps me visualize. I think if I do BB there I'd have to do something contrasting -- either striped like yours or end grain. shanghaimom and ci_lantro: reinstalling the Jenn-Aire as a functioning cooktop is not possible. We have a stone house and the exhaust vent to the outside is already covered up and re-stoned, so I can't hook it back up. (We had a lot of stone work/patching done before we moved in and had the vent patched at the same time, before we really discussed options for dealing with the big hole!) This is a strange and quirky house, so the patched counters will just have to be one of its charms!

All of the answers are wrong. I recently went through this and hired a pro to fix it. For $1400 he shoved some weather stripping in my 4 sets of french doors. This is a garbage fix. Finally I fixed all 4 doors myself. What you need is a bump threshold. M-D Building Products 69709 1-Inch by 3-1/4-Inch by 73-1/8-Inch TH153 Bumper Threshold, Bronze https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003YUGSCC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_6VAqMTR5lSupb The bump threshold provides a solid aluminum bottom edge for the doors to seal against, with a silicon gasket. I used an oscillating saw to cut the bottom of the astragal so the astragal won’t hit the bump threshold. In my last house I had Anderson Architectural French doors. What I loved is that it was a single unit that included a gasketted seal on the bottom. Essentially a jam, just like on the top and sides. You could turn a hose on for an hour and you would not get a drop of water inside. They key is that the bottom has a jam too. So when I searched for a fix for my shitty-installed french doors on my new house, I wanted to reproduce this solid edge seal on the bottom. And after much searching I found the MD bump threshold. In addition I replaced the door shoes with M-D Building Products 43337 M-D... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PKSFEAI?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share And I replaced the drip caps: M-D Building Products 68734 1-7/8-Inch Vinyl - 36-Inch DB037 Door Sweep with Drip Cap, Bronze https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001M58S8I/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_pKixN4pHg3L89 I also recommend this adjustable stripe plate which helps make sure your door latch engages at the right place so you get that satisfying “thunk” when you close the door and feel it latch into place at exactly the right place for the door bottom to seal tightly against the bump seal. Defender Security U 9488... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D2K39BM?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share Overall, fixing a shitty French door installation isn’t easy. But if you are weekend warrior, then installing a bump seal might be for you!

I am nearing the end of my remodel too. I spent all day yesterday putting stuff back into my kitchen. I bought some drawer dividers and the drawer to the left of my stove has 5 slots for the utensils. I think I need to purge some of my utensils. It is already full! For the time being I put my older cutlery holder in the drawer to the right of my stove along with my potholders and flexible cutting boards. I may move the cutlery into a smaller drawer by itself and buy a holder that would fit in my small drawer. I had some old cabinet lining and I put that in my tall cabinets that are on the backside of my island. I would not have bought it special--but since it was there, I figured I might as well use it. I am seriously considering getting one of those knife holders for the drawer.

My experience with using 2 pulls on a wide drawer has not been good. So for this kitchen I will only be using 1 pull per drawer. When you have 2 pulls on a drawer, it takes two hands and often you already have something in one hand. Or, if you just use one of the 2 pulls to open the drawer, it creates stress to the drawer on one side, and also the pull will loosen over time from being asked to pull the entire drawer open from one side. As a result, I am using 1 pull for my drawers. I am using different sizes. Just my taste, but I don't like all one pull size for the entire kitchen. I have read about the 1/3 rule, and the pulls I am choosing, the Top Knobs Princetonians, have many sizes. When deciding between two sizes that both fit roughly the 1/3 rule, I get the smaller one. The wider pulls are expensive, but as a percentage of the cost of my entire reno which is multi-thousands, I am spending about $450 for my pulls. The majority of mine are the 11-11/32" size which are about $13 each. I am getting 4 different sizes in all (includes 2 pulls that are 15" long hung vertically for pull-out pantries). I don't think it's that bad to spend a couple hundred more to get the size that looks good. The pulls really make a difference to how the entire kitchen looks.