If you read through the messages in the forum you'll find a lot of discussion of various induction cooktops. Most of us who have them absolutely love them, and those who don't usually want to have flames of gas. Induction is highly responsive, efficient, easy to clean, and fun to use. There aren't huge differences in quality between the various makers. The differences are in power, element size and layout, and how the controls work. The makers all have their own controls. Besides the physical controls, there are differences in included features, like "true timers", which, when included, let you set a time for the element to stay on and turns off at the end. The downside is that you need cookware which has an iron content (inc. steel) and is flat on the bottom, and your cookware will handle differently, so there's a little learning curve. You can see if your pans will work by trying to stick a magnet to the bottom. If it doesn't stick but the pan is stainless it might still work, but if it does stick it'll almost certainly work. My own preference is for venting up. It just works better because of the physics involved. And I love my induction. :)

@rlrelocation - we are considering all options. The cabinets are in good condition but everything is 17 years old so we can completely start over. I’m definitely going to take out the fireplace as the footprint is enormous, and we will redo the floor to a slightly darker color. Not sure if we will refinish or replace...probably the latter.

@Ron Jennings Pro-style gas ranges often do have burner spacing more in line with what you want. My 30" wide NXR range is something of a knock-off of older Wolf (and DCS) designs, particularly in burner layout. The front and back burners are about 10½" apart (center to center). Side to side the burners are about 17" apart (center to center) and 6½" in from the sides. My recollection is that the distances were similar when I measured a Blue Star range. If you want to more precise measurements, I believe Wolf, Blue Star, and other brands have downloadable CAD files on their websites.

Hi Raimondi. I'm not sure I follow your comment. Are you saying getting a personal recommendation from a local designer is the best place to start, or gutting your entire home to update it with current trending materials is always the best route to start? Also, I'm not sure which layout is atrocious. Our kitchen layout is pretty basic, and no one has ever suggested any major change to the layout (if that would even be practical). The one photo above with no countertops is from someone else's kitchen, where the cabinet company recently installed the same color cabinets I am considering. I just used that photo to try to visualize those cabinet colors with my existing red oak floors, and I found it more helpful than the color rendering from the cabinet maker's visualizer tool. Their kitchen layout is irrelevant. When we started thinking about updates, almost a year ago, we paid a designer for a consultation. So yes, that was our choice for a starting point, as we are most definitely NOT designers. That designer is also a salesperson at a local flooring franchise, so we remained in contact and had them bid on flooring & countertops. The designer's input was invaluable at narrowing down the vast selection of materials at the flooring store to recommend materials that would coordinate with our existing features. At the time, I resisted the idea of replacing cabinets (budget reasons) or painting them (preference for natural materials), but we eventually decided that a cabinet update would have the most significant impact in updating the home, so we are now essentially following one of her first recommendations. Her company's cabinet person never got back to me (perhaps we weren't close enough to taking action to be worth her time?), and we subsequently realized one of our friends is a cabinet designer at another local business. So we are working with them at this stage, but we may still return to the first designer for flooring and/or furniture/design guidance. We are definitely not going maverick homeowner mode, ignoring professional advice. But we do expect a designer to consider our needs and values as well. It's hard to imagine many customers would have the funds and inclination to tear out every cabinet & floor in their home for purely aesthetic reasons, and with no consideration of which changes will have the best ROI if/when we sell the home. (We consulted with a realtor on that question, and he would be confident taking out home to the market with no changes whatsoever!) The designer also advised us to visit open houses and browse designs on houzz to get exposure to current design trends. That, too, has been good advice. Perhaps it was a mistake to post a plan for community feedback. Social media being what it is, perhaps I will just get a bunch of different opinions/reactions (or none), with limited basis for weighing one opinion against another. I suppose my main question has to do with options, and how much the busyness of the red oak floor might drive cabinetry choices. We could do all white cabinets throughout the whole space, but that feels a bit boring. We could do all stained bases (and maybe the tall "pantry" cabinet), but that may be too much. So I'm currently leaning toward a stained island and white perimeter. My cabinet designer had one idea to put a stained cabinet above the range & microwave (where one might put a range hood if not keeping the microwave there), but he would want to make it a bit wider and sacrifice some cabinet space to pull that off. In my mind, I realize the countertops & backsplash selections can/will help "pull together" and balance the overall aesthetic. We just haven't gotten to that stage yet, so I should probably just pull myself out of kitchen remodel mode and find something more productive to do with my time while waiting for the sample doors to come in!