Your choice is actually between plasma and LCD - which can have CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent) or LED (light emitting diode) back-lighting for the display. Currently, only LG, Samsung, and Panasonic still produce plasma displays - though Panasonic just announced closure of their primary plasma manufacturing facility. An LCD, with LED back-lighting, with a 120Hz vertical rate, will produce a very bright picture with minimal motion artifacts - and use the least amount of energy. BTW the motion artifacts often referred to on LCDs are the result of the fact that LCD pixels "stay" in their previous state until updated by the next frame. By doubling the vertical refresh rate, the pixels are then refreshed and prevent the abrupt transitions on the eye. Plasma displays on the other-hand allow the pixels to decay before the next frame - the same as traditional CRT televisions - using the persistence of the eye to smooth it all out. My recommendation would simply be an LCD display with LED back-lighting. If you shop at Costco, there are many choices available there - if you don't, maybe look at Amazon - but $1200 would be a absolute upper limit for me - it's just a television. And, no, you don't need 3D (which mfgrs are finally admitting was not the next big thing and are starting to drop) unless this is something that you find appealing.

Hi Angie -- that's right! I'd forgotten about that underside runnel ... and I haven't seen it (though I might not have noticed) in a residential setting. Funny... It's a great idea though. I'd do it if I were you. I'm not sure there is a "Standard" overhang -- I think it depends where you live and whom you talk with. I think it must have been here that I read 1.5" was "Standard" and when it came time for me to discuss this with fabricators and the like, they all acted like I'd crawled in from Mars. And they charged me extra for the "extra" overhang. I do believe, though, it is nevertheless "standard" for some, despite the protestations I happened to receive. But I wouldn't assume anything! This was totally confusing to me so I'll try to spell it out. Please ignore if it's patently obvious to you: I'll call it a mini-treatise on overhang. (i) There is no standard overhang (ii) over hang is measured from the cabinet box ... or at least it can be. And hence the possibility for confusion. (iii) If you choose drawer fronts that do not "inset" right inside the cabinet box, then they will set on top of the front of that box, and add extra thickness. This comes out of the "overhang" measurement. Thus, if you have, say, frameless cabinets with 5/8" drawer fronts, and your fabricator says "Sure, sure, 1.5", standard overhang..." what that translates to, functionally, is (1.5" - 5/8" = 7/8") overhang. That's less than an inch. Thus it is possible for everyone to do as you specified, sort of, and still wind up with less overhang than you'd anticipated. I had them cut "2" overhangs", from which the 5/8" was subtracted resulting in a little less than 1.5" overhangs. It's enough. But it was a fight! And one that I'm glad I put up. And also, remember that your drawer fronts usually have a little cushion they will sit on on top of the cabinet box, a pad or something -- that takes away a teensy bit more depth too. However, it was never clear to me during the skirmish why there was all this miscommunication. But I understand now; it depends where you're measuring from. As a homeowner/user, I don't care about the box at all; I don't pay attention to it. It's the drawer's front panel that matters to me, where it ends. But the contractors sometimes don't even *see* those drawer fronts so they completely ignore the issue. A real miscommunication. My experience at least. One more thing. I've whined about this a bunch but I just spent several moments ruing my ogee edges all over again. A day never goes by when I don't at least once, usually several times. I hate em. Lots of folks on here love em; I don't. This time it was bits of eggshell -- can't sweep it into the compost bucket. They get stuck, hide, on the little swoopy edge. Someone mentioned that also not-standard may be the angle of the ogee. Another had probably tighter curves and loved theirs very much; it could be that mine are very "lazy" and better catch stuff. It is the one thing I regret the most about my kitchen (which means I'm overall as happy as a clam; I admit this is not exactly calamitous). But I do want to mention, that I felt this, dunno, "glamour-pressure" to sex up the counter edges and yet, function is the most important thing to me and for some reason I just glazed over that consideration. If you're a stickler for function, you might want to consider skipping the whole countertop edge thing. Wish I had! Oh -- except I would, given the ability to choose again, ask for mitred edges, as opposed to standard. Both wind up straight but the mitred blends the swirls of the stone's pattern and the sandwich has a random-looking join - with very happening stone it can make quite the lightening streaks. Not sure whether this was depicted in the posted options.

First, you should consult your local code inspectors, preferably talking to a real person who can tell you what is required in your jurisdiction. If you decide you must have MUA, it is probably best to hire an HVAC company, who has experience in these kinds of installations. There have been a lot of home-brew DIY type systems discussed, especially over on the Appliance Forum, but whatever you do must be acceptable to the code guys. Don't expect the appliance manufacturer or sales person to give you adequate advice - they will never risk killing a sale by admitting that a MUA system is required which may be more expensive than the range and vent hood combined. The capacity of your vent hood is generally determined by the type of cooking you do, and what you can afford. In my jurisdiction, the code guy looked at what my range's manufacturer recommended for venting. If all you do is simmer, poach, roast, or reheat take-out, the 100-200 cfm recommended by that GreenBuildingAdvisor may be enough. But if you want to stir-fry, sear, or grill indoors, you will need every single cfm you can afford to clear out the smoke and grease from your living space. I really don't think you can grill indoors unless you have a hood that extracts much more than 400 cfm - probably requires 1000 cfm or greater. As for the size of the vent hood relative to your range, the 6" wider recommendation is for optimum performance. But in the real world, many of us have to compromise due to space or budget issues. My particular work-around is to do my high heat searing or stir-frying on a burner that is centred under my hood - at least my cook top affords me that choice, with several burners of the same output. Hope this helps.

I think it depends on your personality and the personality of your guests or hosts. I visit some friends and it feels just like home, no issues. Others rarely host guests and I can tell that they are not into it. My goal for my home is to try and make my guest feel comfortable, and to have a lot of people around often, but our house is pretty small and unfortunately the guest bedroom has to serve double duty as my office . . . I know for some that would not be great. I for one don't mind a pull out couch in the living room but that's a horror for hubs. His son lives in HIS house, and it really bugs me that they can't be bothered to buy a nice pull out couch for the living room, and we oldsters have to sleep in bunk beds in the kids messy rooms. But then my grandmother had to sleep in a double bed with me when she visited, so turnabout is fair play I guess. We didn't have a guest room growing up, and it was a while before my brother was old enough to have twin beds in his room so that eventually my room became guest quarters. We finally got a proper family room with a pull out couch when we had our garage turned into a family room. But I can see why that would not be ideal for a lot of folks. My husband swears is it untenable to try and sleep on a pull out couch, and no one in his family is social, so having guests is practically unthinkable to him. We stay in a motel when we visit. I guess being a camper and living in communal quarters at camps during the first part of my young adulthood conditioned me to tune out of lot of situational "noise" when it comes to accommodations. I think some of this is introvert/extrovert stuff. I'm an extrovert, people being around does not bother me necessarily. Depends on the people and what they are doing. I have more tolerance for stuff than hubs. Does not mean my tolerance is unlimited, it's just that I hardly notice certain things that drive him batty. Noise bothers me, but he can hear someone breathing three rooms away and it will keep him up. Even a faint light stream and that's the end of his night's sleep. He doesn't like most accommodations, even motels and vacation rentals, he usually has some feature he zones in on that bugs him. Being a carpenter who builds houses, he can always find the flaw . . .