I have the 36" Miele with the wrapped edge. I can attest that it does NOT catch crumbs or anything else, and it wipes clean as easily as the rest of the cooktop does. This is not a concern, I assure you. It was one of my top priorities as I lived with a crumb catching edge for years. It drove me nuts. As to putting in a drawer under the unit, Ginny20, I'd like to know where you read that you couldn't. I see where the manual says that it is "not recommended" due to heat radiated, but "not recommended" is not "you can't". There was one under the cooktop at the Miele showroom, and the owners manual I have discusses what may or may not be kept in a drawer beneath the cooktop (nothing that would melt, nothing small and light that would get sucked into the cooling fan). There needs to be 4.5 inches from the protective base to the top of the counter for ventilation. An oven may be placed beneath it as well, as long as it has a built in cooling fan. (per the manual). I've seen it posted here more than once that you can't put a drawer under a Miele, so I wanted to address that--it's hard enough to make a decision without having misinformation to deal with. :-) I haven't looked at the manuals from other brands lately, but I'd guess that there are the same/similar rules for all of them. As the the +/- controls, I'd have preferred direct access as well, but at the time, this was not an option without getting a 'crumb catching frame' so I made that concession. For me, crumbs and crud were the bigger annoyance. My Miele turns on at power level 6, and I don't find it annoying to go up or down to my desired level. I can change the default to another setting if I want to. I use the shut off timers frequently, so this has been a feature that's worked out as I'd hoped it would. That said, if you're looking to save money, I am not sure that the Miele works "better" than any other induction cooktop. Most folks that have induction love it no matter which brand they've chosen. I chose the Miele based on the size and configuration of the burners, the power, and the feature set, as well as their reputation for quality and reliability. I wanted it, so I shoehorned it into my budget by finding stellar deals on some of the other appliances. :-) Others may make a different choice. Cj

Gardenpixie, I just looked at your layout and actually your island is basically in the same place as mine. My cooktop is where your sink is. Where your patio doors are is where I enter my kitchen area. That is my doorway that I reduced from 6ft. 10 in. to 5 ft. to make my kitchen a little wider. Where you are putting your pantry wall cabinets I have a bumped out sitting area. Any way, I think you will like the new layout but maybe you should make you're sink dishwasher aisle a couple inches wider since you will do more work on that side of the kitchen/ island than the pantry side. I think you will like having all the drawers in your island. I have drawers across the aisle from my dishwasher and it's great to have one of those drawers for dishes. Makes loading and unloading so easy. Today I copied breezy girls idea for a spice storage drawer and I really like it. Just wait til you start using those drawers, you will wonder what you did without them So good luck on your kitchen remodel.

Ditto Fori verbatim on the cabinet decision! I can barely see the difference between them, and if one will save you $800, go with that one. My kitchen has a 45-degree angled wall just like yours does, and I have frameless cabinets as well. In the entire kitchen, I only have fillers in the corners of the 45-degree angle space, and by the dishwasher drawers because we needed to fill up that space. The fillers by the 45-degree angle are about 2-3". Part of that is because they needed to be sure the drawers/cabinet would clear eachother, and part is because our cabinets were not custom and we had to conform to the 3" increment restraint. The fillers were no bigger than what we would have needed if we chose framed cabinets with full overlay doors. Far and away, we gained MUCH more space by using frameless cabinets than we lost to fillers- especially because almost all of our base cabinets are drawers.

It is so hard to catch all the nuances and the real beauty of granite in a photo, but you did a good job. I like the first Typhoon Bordeaux the best (the second one, second). I find the Golden Beach too busy, but of course it's up to you. Since it seems like your kitchen is made up of several small sections of counter, you may want a granite with some consistency, so that it actually looks like the same granite throughout.