SO, there was no word from Mr. Appliance today AND Miele was also unable to reach him ??? Did they not offer to put you on their in house guy's sched. at that point ? Do not disagree with you about EXPECTING a working DW - floor model or not. However, you didn't get that and there is no going back to square one. It's like a wrecked car - it's not EVER going to be unwrecked. You chose to pursue a remedy and that's what has turned into a fiasco! I'm not convinced that if you had gone in on the 9th ( which makes it only 20 days, not a month) that FL Builders wouldn't have stonewalled you then too. Perhaps they would have convinced you to have it repaired and they would have sent their "guy" who just may have been from your favorite: new york minute - then how much agro would you be writing about. Additionally, your first contact with the actual manufacturer who underwrites the warranty was on the 15th or 16th making it 5-7 business days depending on how you count em. Now 7 days doesn't exactly make me feel all warm and fuzzy but it's not an eternity either. I'm more concerned @ MR. Appliance going AWOL and Miele's inability to get movement. The svc. cntr. is still open the left coast crowd - maybe another call to them for an explanation @ Mr. App. at least. Maybe they'd bump you up their guy's list - though the person to make that happen won't be in until tomorrow on the East Coast. "What silly things have I done? " Not exactly silly , but going back to the unhelpful , and stonewalling dealer to expedite the repair and alter the terms of the deal ( xtended warranty refund ) was not your finest moment. I understand you wanting to be rid of this mess, and I hope you can get you $$$ quickly - but prepare yourself for another battle with FL. B and your cc co. If it (battle) doesn't happen, great - but you'll drink less and have fewer grey hairs if in fact it shakes out that way. Remember the dealer experience when they wanted your $$$ - think about how they'll act when asked to give it back to you ! Be sure to get EVERYTHING IN WRITHING from the dealer when returning the DW.

Let me suggest a couple of possible choices that may work for the short term while still being re-usable when you do your kitchen remodel. First, that OTR microwave. I do not know what you mean by having a "long run" of venting, but older OTR units tended to have pretty wimpy fans. There are numbers of more capable units including a model by LG that has a 400 cfm fan as well as a panel that slides forward over the front of the stove to catch more of the heat and steam from pots on the front burners. Several folks here at GW have posted on using this unit with some suceesss (Nunyabiz and Luv2putt being two names that come to mind.) Second, when you have chosen a new stove, it seems you have a concern about heat from the stovetop going against the adjoining fridge. Something I might try as an interim solution that might help deflect cooktop heat would be fixing a sheet of frosted tempered glass to the side of the fridge. Give a glass shop the dimensions between your stovetop and the OTR-MW for height and the side of the fridge (for width). It will probably cost around $50 to $70. (I'm basing this on my recent cost for making a tempered glass backsplash behind my stove up to my range hood). You want the frosted side against the fridge. You could use silicon kitchen caulk for mounting it to the fridge. That should hold it until you can do whatever remodeling you eventually plan. It also eases some concerns about trying to get a gas stove with weak burners on the right side. (If you have a bit of space between your MW and the fridge, you might even be able to just slide in a framed, tempered glass shower door.) Third, it might help if you could be more specific about what did not impress when you looked at the LG, ELectrolux, GE Cafe and Bosch. Was it that you did not care for the stainless steel finishes r styling? Or that, maybe, the stoves have a lot of electronics and that is something you want to avoid? Something else? Spelling out your preferences will help us give you advice on stoves you might consider. For example, maybe you want something with a more "pro-style" look than you get with the stoves you mentioned, and, at the same time, you want something with minimal electronics, like your old Tappan. In that case, I might suggest that you look at the 30" NXR all gas stove. It has a design and stainless steel finish with a more industrial look than you get from GE, LG etc. While it has 15k btu-hr. burners, you do not have to run the right side burners at full blast. They run very well lower heat levels. (Some people claim to be able to melt chocolate on paper plates without burning the plate, though it is beyond me why you would want to do that.) It has a convection oven and an infra-red broiler. It has a very simple design so no problem running the stove-top during power outages. (BTW, there is practically nothing in the way of modern gas stoves whose ovens can be run without electrical power, though. The few that are available with that capability do not seem to be very highly thought of according to postings here at GW.) The NXR is carried by several major east-coast retailers from Phildelphia to Boston (including AJ Madison which was mentioned by SparklingWater) so you might be able to go look at one. The price is usually around $2k, so right in there with the stoves you were mentioning (and about $500 less than the GE Cafe.) Now, without knowing more about what you like and dislike, my recommendations might be helpful or completely useless to you.

Yeah, you're right. Its a very long time for a DW. I never thought to ask about it. And we had it replaced and then went out of town for a week and then we had a bunch of other stuff going on...basically the first month we weren't home as much, so I didn't really think about it. Lowe's was actually going to let me return it outside 30 days, but my friend just bought a Bosch and hers runs about 2.5 hours or something with no heated dry, so I figured why bother. (I was going to have to pay another install and delivery fee too). I guess if I found a great deal on a suite, I could have them yank that Whirlpool and I could sell on Craigslist. As far as local appliance retailers...its pretty much big box places...Lowe's, Home Depot, Best Buy. We have JCPenny but they are pretty new in the game. And then there is Sears, but I'm not totally convinced they will be in business the whole life of a new appliance. We have 2 local places I am aware of. One is high end stuff that is way out of my league. The other is a mom and pop type place, where I have gone in and e-mailed a salesperson back and forth (once about 2 years ago, and again a few months ago). Both times, they would respond to a couple emails and stop responding. And these were e-mails like, "I really like, X, Y, Z...what is the price if I buy all 3?" etc. I was a motivated buyer! (my financial situation was a bit different at the time..we have a pretty ill dog). Anyhow, they have a big selection, but we are not in a large metro area, and its the type pf place that has been around a while...I figure it would be easy for the owners to retire and close the place.

@Andrea C Nothing about the windows, or any part of this idea, is set. The utility of the prep sink being on the island is that it forms a triangle with storage (fridge and pantry) and stove, while providing a work/landing surface (island counter space) between. Using just the clean up sink would mean running around the island from storage/prep whenever I need the sink. @Lisa Dipiro That was a big part of my questions: what is the practical benefit of putting a prep sink between the work/prep counter space and the stove? Your idea, a la Design #2, would mean I'd need to maneuver around the sink to get from my prep zone (island counter space) to the stove. I don't understand why it's desirable to have prep sinks immediately near a cooktop. It would also mean my family would walk around me while I'm working on the long side of the island and plant themselves in front of the prep sink, right between me and the stove. Also, there was my note about squaring the fridge and prep sink together. If you have experience with a fridge being opposite a sink and how that's worked out and not been a problem, I'd love to hear. @vinmarks I'm not stuck on anything at the moment. This is a rough idea stage, but every idea is going to have its pros and cons. There is no perfect solution for everything. That said, I'm mostly curious if the placement of a Design #1 prep sink and fridge would possibly cause problems I can't see, because the cons(?) I listed there are more about what I keep seeing come up in kitchen designs rather than what bothers me, i.e. is the fridge too far into the kitchen and is it truly a problem to have a prep sink closer to the outside perimeter then close to the stove? Your idea doesn't really answer that question, because I also see pretty much everyone who's considering that same design still say they want their prep sinks close to their stove, wherever that is. I like being able to transition straight from my workspace to the stove. @Buehl I think I'm not understanding you right? Based on what you've written, it sounds like you're suggesting the first design below, which would make the island one huge barrier between the fridge and stove! Even if you meant to move the fridge to the same wall as the range, as with the second pic below, with the wall ovens elsewhere, that would just direct my family's flow further into the same space as mine, because everything they linger around (MW, toaster) would have to be directly next to the stove as I'm working, and both sinks would be directly in the deepest/base part of the kitchen work area.