I have a Jenn-Air french door, counter depth. It's about 4-5 years old. I can't remember the height (68 or so inches I'm guessing) but it's almost the largest they made at the time other than the sub-zero size. I wish I had held out for another brand, but I wanted the model with the ice and filtered water dispenser in the door as I am a total water drinker, as in all.the.time, so it's an important feature for me. At the time, KA and JA were about the only brands with this feature. Now there are several. My old refrig died and this one was in stock; I would have had to wait almost 2 weeks for the KA. I should have stuck it out. This thing has cold spots leading to ice chunks in the milk. Several times a year I have soggy, frozen lettuce in the crisper. Those may have been due to an inadvertent movement of the crisper setting but I don't think so. I think the dang refrigerator just ices up and thaws at random. Sometimes we have to take the ice maker out and shake it to get the ice to dispense. It's a wimpy size ice maker too, so I'm glad I don't rely on it for large amounts of ice.

Thank you mj! I do love to bake and even though it is only the 2 of us I get carried away and then freeze for later :) My soapstone has one tiny chip in it from dropping a glass out of the cabinet. I forget it is there except when I wipe the counter. I have never oiled my stone. It has darkened naturally over time from all the use. I can see the difference as there is a piece of the same stone next to the ovens for a landing zone and it has remained very light. The stone in my sunroom has also remained light w/o oil. My soapstone is Green Mountain and looks exactly like the example on their website. Not many veins . It has proven to be very durable. I love it for kneading bread and rolling out dough as well as pasta etc. I think it is a perfect countertop choice but there are lots of threads here with differing opinions. I do believe that you have to have a quality product/install. Makes all the difference. I hope you will post pics of your baking soon !! c

For a complete Kitchen remodel you will need to update the following at least to comply with the NEC 2011 electrical code. New kitchens use 7-9 circuits unlike old kitchens which may have only 2 circuits. If you install an Island that is where you get up to having 9 circuits. Hopefully you don't have an old small main service panel that doesn't have room for 7-9 new circuits, because then they will need to update that or add a subpanel as well to get more spaces. I personally had my tiny 100amp panel with only 20 slots updated to a completely new 200amp panel with 42 slots for circuits. From section 210 of the NEC 2011 referring to Kitchens: (1) Minimum of 2 -20amp circuits to supply small appliances on counter. These will need to be GFCI protected - usually one gfci is installed for each counter circuit and that protects the rest of the outlets on the counter for that circuit. (2) Refrigerator can share counter circuit or be on a separate circuit. It is not a good idea for the fridge to be on a GFCI circuit so often people separate the fridge in a remodel. (3) think about if you will have under counter CFL lights. if you want them to be direct wire or the linkable plug in type. If you are getting the plug in type, have an outlet installed in back of one of the cabinets so later the plug can go up in there. You might even want an outlet at very top wall above cabinets for rope light accent. (4) Lights must be on a separate circuit from counter circuit. Pretty much nothing else is allowed on the small appliance circuit except the fridge. (5) Gas range ignition (120v) outlet allowed on small appliance circuit, but in my area of California we usually put the gas range and hood on a separate circuit together. If you have an electric stove - that is a whole different problem b/c you need 40amp 240v sometimes - some people choose to have 240v outlet installed behind the stove at rough-in "in-case" they ever get a future electric stove or a dual type range that requires it. I didn't opt for this. I just got the normal outlet behind my gas range. (6)Under the sink you will need 2 more 20amp circuits (typically non-gfci protected). One is for the dishwasher and one is for the garbage disposer. They allow you to have one circuit if the combined rating of both appliances does not exceed a single 20 amp. However, because the electrician typically doesn't know what model DW or GD you are buying during wire rough-in, 2 separate 20amps are best to be run. My DW is almost 10amps max and my GD is 7 amps which is 17 already. So you see why it is better to have 2 separate circuits. Plus we may get a future Instant hot water dispenser (11 amps). Sine I have 2 circuits under the sink, I will plug that in to share with the GD to stay under 20amps. The DW will stay solo on the other one. (7) The island is minimum 2 -20amp circuits. I have one circuit supplying the outlets on the side of the island (gfci protected). I have a small sink in the island as well so under the sink, I have outlets on a separate circuit (not gfci) supplying the GD and the Wine chiller fridge. Summary my Kitchen remodel has 9 circuits: 1 - 15amp AFCI all lights in Kitchen & Dining room 2 - 20amp for Island (one required gfci, other for wine& GD) 1 - 20 amp for Refrigerator (not gfci) 1 - 20 amp for Range/Hood (not gfci) 2 - 20amp small appliances circuit on counters (gfci) 2 - 20amp under main sink for separate GD & DW (not gfci) I hope this helps. If you are in California don't forget title 24 and the need for CFL in the Kitchen. This is why I went with Fluorescent under cabinet, but used also Low voltage dimmable LED puck style in upper cabinets, and CFL 2-pin island pendants, and for main lights CFL 4-pin recessed lights (IC & AT rated). There are a lot lot more rules. I suggest buying Code check Electrical guide for a "mini" overview of the requirements. It has about 85% of what you need to NOT forget about in remodels. For example the Kitchen & Bath are two of the few places that do not presently require any circuits to be AFCI type. The rules are a little ambiguous. In one section it says the Dining room outlets must be on an AFCI circuit and in another section of the code it says that the Kitchen small appliance circuit can serve wall receptacles in the dining room. For confusing situations like this you have to call your local Electrical Inspector since they have final say. I know this problem first hand because I have an open style Kitchen/dining room area. Because the code 210.52B1 says that the small appliance circuit could serve exposed receptacles in the dining room, we thought we were good. But at rough-in the inspector said NO - dining room must be on a separate AFCI circuit per 210.12. We had to run a new circuit (AFCI breaker) for the dining room outlets. I actually don't understand why the code is ambiguous in this area. One part says Dining room must be AFCI, another part says the Kitchen small appliance circuit can serve the dining room receptacles. Can anyone shed light on this? In my case there is no wall between the dining room and the Kitchen and my counter runs straight down the wall from kitchen through the dining room, since we use the same base cabinets in the "dining area" for dishes/built in buffet so to speak.

I also heard that one of the Korean companies was making microwaves. Sharp and Panasonic for sure. All microwaves degrade from the jump. The magnetron (is that what it's called? Too early for me..) degrades with use. Search the forum, and you'll get good explanations from Kas about this. Investing a ton of money in a microwave, therefore, doesn't make a lot of sense. OTOH, that part will last a heck of a lot longer than a few years, if you get a kitchen grade microwave (as opposed to a desktop cutsiepoo unit for which I have no data at all). The thing that makes so many microwaves "disposable" is wear and tear. If you have family members who SLAM the door, PUNCH the buttons, etc., and constantly fiddle with it, starting and stopping and opening and closing, and just using it a lot for one mug of hot water, the box is going to wear out long before the magnetron. If you're nice to it, and use it a couple of times per day rather than all day long, it could last 20 years or more. One of the things you can get with a more expensive unit, along with looks and snooty badge, is potentially a sturdier housing. It is also potentially possible to have a built-in unit repaired (I can't imagine it being worthwhile to repair a freestanding unit). There are people who do microwave repairs and they do make replacement magnetrons. The only situation where that seems like a possible good idea, however, is when you have the beautiful built-in that matches your beautiful kitchen which still looks like new. Re convection: The initial convection microwaves didn't work well as ovens, and also didn't meet the expectations of the buyers. That was before convection ovens themselves were well understood in the US. In the time I've been researching appliances and hanging out here (coming up on ten years), the general tone from users of them has gone from not worth the money to acceptable second oven. Again, I don't know if that's a change in quality or in user expectations. Convection ovens cook with circulated hot air. They do a good job roasting. Great for "cooking" or "baking" a casserole. Even baking a loaf of bread. For small things, like cookies, a lot depends on the pan, the cookie and whether or not it really wanted bottom heat. For most, it'll do an acceptable job. Some outliers really do better with a proper baking mode. Egg rising things like angel cakes and soufflés really don't like being blown about. If you can arrange the angle of the pan to the blower just right, it's possible, but still iffy. The heated air can also bounce off the surfaces in unexpected ways leading to uneven cooking/browning, contravening the evenness that you otherwise get from the movement of the air. It's likely that there are still poor ones out there, especially at the lower end. There must also be good ones. Just familiarize yourself with the features and abilities of the unit, and use that to sift through the consumer reviews to know whether it was the oven or the user, and make your judgment from there.