Ruthie, I'm not new to GW, but fairly new to the Vegetable forum, so I didn't know about your illness, but I am so very glad to hear you are doing well. I too have found that gardeners are some of the kindest people, and have met many good, kind people here on GW. I'm not surprised that someone here made that wonderful offer of help to you, but it so great to hear about it. Continued best wishes to you! :) Dee

I had also had enough of the fried motherboards in ovens/ranges, so I went low-tech. I got a Bertazonni in all gas. I had planned on buying the Electrolux Icon DF but the oven was really low ... My cat would have no trouble checking if cookies were done but I would have to bend inhalf to do it. Now, I love my Bert BUT ... I wish the oven could go lower in temp (it can't go below 275F). I knew that going in, and looking back I would still make the same choice today. It's just the one thing I would change, if I could. I love how accurate the oven is, though. I love how evenly it cooks trays of cookies. The burners are great and for a stainless steel range, it really stays clean well. Having the top made from once piece of steel with no seams is great. The woman who cleans my house 2x/mo even commented that its really easy to clean (unlike many of the stainless steel appliances she hates to deal with). 2 last thoughts: I also love that it was made in Italy (as opposed to a country with lax environmental standards). And - I know it bugs some people that the oven throws heat into the house, I like that the oven door stays cool ALL the time. That feature, BTW, is what throws so much heat into the kitchen. It pumps air through the hollow part of the door so the front panel doesn't get hot when the oven is on. So, yes, I do really like my range and like the price (half of the E-lux Icon, the money we saved let us replace our fridge when it was sounding like a dying herd of antelope). I feel like it was a very good product for the price, and it looks pretty, too :) However, if you are short (or very flexible) the Electrolux Icon racks were on ball bearings and darn, that was tempting. Plus the interior is a pretty blue. All in all, though, a Bertazzoni might be worth looking at if you have sworn off the electronic-laden ranges.

I got on Twitter when it came out for the news aspect of it but REALLY stuck with it because of airlines customer service help on it. I fly mostly Southwest and you can get AWESOME service by using their twitter to get help in airports etc...I have friends who use it for that too and swear you can get better help and better upgrades on it. there are also lots of deals from companies just on twitter. Pinterest is a wonderful addiction when I have time. I found that as soon as they opened and for about a yr used it alot. Since summer thou I have not had much time, of course that was after I kept bugging friends to get on LOL. again you can get deals on things, find cool craft ideas, find decorative things to buy etc... It is the equivalent of tearing out magazine pic's and articles, a hobby i used to have LOL ;-)) ~ liz

Wow, thank you all so much. Lavendar_lass thank you for posting that layout, I really am liking it (thank you Buehl as well, yes I have two growing sons and a huge husband, never thought of leg room!). Rebunky thanks for posting the pics I'll have more to say on that later because I love love love that buttery black counter with those pretty white counters and am guessing you are deciding backsplash? :) I am dying to see your kitchen. Excuse my absence, we've been in heavy duty talks. Thanks to the so many of you that posted, each and every one of you has given me something to consider, that's what I was looking for. I was dragging my feet on ordering cabinets (which is about to delay us), and I realized it was just that I wasn't really happy with the kitchen layout, but couldn't figure out why. I am really starting to get a better grip on the issues, challenges, and space requirements. I am embarrassed to admit we just didn't re-visit the issue of expansion of living space vs. screened porch, and I think this has to do to the evolution of our project. Which has been less than ideal. We spent months and months thinking based on one contractor) that it was out of reach. I think we just let that dream go, and didn't go back to it. DH who I thought might kill me, based on yet another design change, just loved it. Of course it comes down to numbers, for my interior contractor, I'm approved. I need to verify with the framers the true cost difference. He was talking additional baffles (?) and flooring framing (it's not over heated living space) however we wonder if treated vs. untreated wood and some other things may just really offset it. We will see. This has gotten me actually excited about the kitchen. Finally. This is the whole reason I love to have other eyes on a project, sometimes you just really gain a fresh perspective that shakes you up and lets you think out of the box. I'm notorious for getting stuck in that box, so I try to compensate. Main Line, I appreciate your opinion, I agree that professionals make a difference. I did go to a professional for the original design. She did know my thoughts, and designed accordingly without critique, so I see the downfall. We did buy our bath vanity from them ( it fell in budget). There were a few bath drawings with all this extra cabinetry. My husband said from the start, her job is to sell cabinetry of course she is going to add additional pieces in. Hmm, never thought of that. Good point DH. I certainly thank you Main Line for the point that this could've been designed in a similar but more efficient and more inexpensive way. Perhaps I got a bum designer. That's a shame, I really like working with her. But, I wouldn't know, unless I went on a board like this. As I said, I like to have FRESH eyes. I'm trying to learn A LOT to be an educated consumer, in a short period of time. This board has been truly sanity saving in the amount of generous people willing to share. Some of the best features in our previous home, and this current home, have been due to our own design work. Now there are code and clearance issues, as seen in this kitchen example, that we aren't educated in. And I did have a professional KD. So I like to get more than one opinion. I have more to say on this, but I won't here. I am going to post some pics, which show our floorplan. Again, we hired a designer, but honestly I gave him our window dimensions, and I don't think he drew them correctly (even after a prelim revision). Whole point was to see how the big windows would look placed in the space. This was an expert recommended by a neighbor who used him on numerous home flips and had known him for years, and I had visited her home he designed. So I'm sorry Main Line, maybe I've had some bad luck, but when I base work off of recommendations and it doesn't work out, well there's problems. And I'm the one stuck, so I prefer more than one recommendation on design. Thanks to you all, pics in follow post.