I have owned the Breville800XL for 2yrs. Purchased at BB&B w/20% coupon. It is used almost daily, not one problem yet. 4kids, my mom, husband, father n law and myself. I have baked whole chicken, pasta dishes, pizza, all types of frozen kid foods, scratch banana/pumpkin breads, scratch pound cakes, cookies, bundt and cupcakes the (6 muffin pan). It toasts sliced bread and bagels just fine. It is digital, has a timer, convection, warming feature. During rebuild, it was used as our primary oven for months. I have a friend that loved my breville, purchased a less expensive $80 and has thrown it out, "piece of junk". Some people would never spend 200 dollars on a toaster oven. For us, it was well worth it!

The trouble with Electrolux. I have had my Electrolux oven for 4 years and 10 months. It was replaced when it was brand new because of shedding enamel. I love the way it bakes and all the things it does. I have self cleaned it 4-5 times and never a problem with the circuit boards and have recommended it many times on this forum. I can no longer do so. As I was cleaning it, I noticed what looked like rust in streaks on the bottom and looking with the flashlight the enamel was coming off. I contacted Electrolux and they basically said I need to call a repairman and they would do nothing. I told them that I would like assurance before I called someone out that it could be repaired because I had read that it couldn't be. I called a couple of times and got conflicting info on whether it could be repaired or not from CS at E-lux. They said the only way I could find out for sure would be to call the repairman out and he would have to call the tech support to see. I could not talk to them myself, to see if it could be repaired. Luckily I have an extended warranty and they will take responsibility. Luckily the techs have had experience(yes, they have!) doing this as it is basically rebuilding the oven. It is one thing not to stand behind your product any better than that and yet a whole other level of massive failure in customer service not to give you information that they have as to whether you can in theory at least replace the liner without paying for a service call. The cost of installing the liner is also so high that it may not be cost effective to do for the appliance company that has the extended warranty. If I were paying for it myself, I would junk it and get something else rather than risk the enamel going bad again in a few years.

I went to see a house last night- its not even on the MLS yet. My aunt lives on the street and saw the sign in the yard. I called the realtor for information and she told me that the house was 4 bedrooms 2.5 baths and had a huge living room. Said the house was 1600 sq feet with an updated kitchen. I asked if there was off street parking (there is no garage) and she said yes. She told me she'd toured the home personally and it was beautiful inside. I was very interested in seeing it and my expectations were pretty high (thanks to the realtor and all her gushing about how beautiful the inside of the home was) After seeing the house I seriously wonder if the realtor had it confused with another (but I doubt it since she tried to point out how "beautiful" everything was inside. First the house is only 3 bedrooms (very small bedrooms at that, one of which was painted hot pink, purple and lime green with the daughter's name stenciled all over the walls (ok not a big deal, a few coats of paint would cover it). The "huge" living room was about 10X13, I certainly wouldn't describe anything that size as large. The kitchen was NOT updated in the last 20 years and the wood floors in the living room needed refinished badly. The carpet was stained everywhere (owner had two large dogs and a 3 yr old) and the owner admitted the furnance wasn't working and they hadn't had it fixed yet. The realtor had never mentioned this. The basement must have been included in the 1600 sq ft measurement because the rest of the house was no where near that. The basement floor was covered in about 6 inches of mud. I asked the owner if it had flooded recently and she said she didn't know as she never goes down there. Oh and the walls had soft ball sized holes in them (owner said her kids did that) ANd the house did not have 2.5 baths. There was a full bath on the 2nd floor and a toilet in the laundry room stuck beside the washer. I don't think I'd even call that a half bath. And the off street parking was a lot next to the house (that belonged to an apartment complex next door. So legally, you are not allowed to park there. It was horrible. We almost fell through the porch when we were walking to the front door (loose rotted boards). It was a huge waste of time and if the realtor had just been up front and said this place has a lot of potential but it does need some work I would have walked into the house expecting the dirty carpet, holes in the walls, and I wouldn't have viewed everything as negatively as I did (after expecting so much).

Interesting how people looking at the same picture see something different ... Take away the doorway and this is the classic U layout. Maybe you could call it a Broken U, but a U is uninterrupted and keeps everything within reach of a single cook -- that's the strength of a U. An L is better for shuttling traffic through /allowing multiple cooks, and that's the functional style we have here. The hood should be six inches wider than the stove below so that it really catches all the odors and grease rather than allowing them to be deposited onto your cabinets. I know this is common advice here, but I've never found a need for a wider hood /never had a problem with odors or grease -- maybe my hood is stronger than average? A related issue: When your stove is on an interior wall, you have to figure out how you're going to vent. It's certainly not an insurmountable issue, but it is one that you need to address. Like others have said, you probably want all drawers in your lowers, rather than a mix of drawers and cabinets. Yes. Inventory your current kitchenware, then assign everything a spot -- that'll allow you to accurately determine whether you have an appropriate number of drawers and cabinets. Personally, I'm planning for my base cabinets: 3 cabinets, 3 three-drawer stacks, 1 four-drawer stack, and 1 pull-out behind a cabinet drawer. I could not have predicted these specifics without having "assigned" items to specific places. The island looks very large. Will you be able to reach the middle of it to clean it? Always a concern for me. A prep sink in the island would do a lot for the layout, that's the biggest change you need if you want to keep the basic layout here intact. I'm not a big fan of repetitive items, but I agree that if the OP's going to keep this layout, a prep sink on the island would be helpful. Realistically, though, adding a prep sink is expensive and would eat prime island storage. I'd rework the plan rather than do this. Other thoughts: I agree with the idea of moving the oven(s) to the side near the sink, and I agree that this area appears to be a potential clutter magnet -- perhaps go with a tall cabinet here instead of countertop? You need to flip the pantry door. Imagine you bring in groceries, set them on the island to organize them ... you have to walk around the pantry door. Best would be a pocket door, but I'm not sure you have the space. You're going to serve beverages from the area near the refrigerator ... but the dishwasher is on the far side of the room /with the island in between. Since you wash so many glasses, it'd be better if the dishwasher and beverage area could be closer. The dining room looks fairly far away from the kitchen; plus everything's going to have to be carried around the island. Any possibility the family room could go into this area (if you rework the mudroom, it could have windows on two sides) and place the kitchen directly in front of the dining room? Overall, it'll be a pretty kitchen, but it could massively improve in terms of function, work zones, placing things in convenient places. "Walk through" mentally and imagine yourself doing everyday chores: Putting away groceries, making your favorite casserole, fixing coffee or a soda, cleaning up after dinner, etc.