kmcg: "We just returned from a trip to Japan, and my husband thinks I'm a little nutty to want one of these." Your husband will come around. When we are sweaty, we take a shower with water; we do not dry wash our bodies with paper napkins. The same considerations apply to cleaning the nether regions. Almost all of our family are Japanese, and most of them live in Japan. We are the only family unit among our extended family who have not had an advanced toilet seat in our bathroom for at least 15 years. The impediment in our home in the United States has been significant wiring issues to hook up an advanced toilet seat in either of our bathrooms, but we have bitten the bullet and overcome that obstacle. Next month -- finally -- we will be the last of our family to have an advanced toilet seat toilet. But we will not be getting a Toto Washlet. As twice-a-year returnees to Japan, we have constantly monitored the state of the art in Japan, and what we will be buying here for our own home is an Inax Clessence (for use on a Toto Vespin II, which it fits). We prefer the Inax two-wand design to the Toto one-wand design, and the wand flushing and cleansing system on the Inax looks better to us than the wand cleansing on the Totos, also. It does not hurt that, among Japanese, the Inax brand name carries a higher prestige value than does the Toto brand name. (Prestige always should be subservient to function, but, try as we might, we cannot ignore it.) You may come to a different conclusion, but we offer another data point for you to consider.

You can get a whole kitchen full of perfectly good appliances in your range, especially if you're careful about getting whatever deals and discounts are out there. The problem is that the response Antss gave to Bob is about the same for any maker, though the details differ. If you want all appliances from the same line you're getting an average across the kitchen of good function, rather than across all lines. A lot of appliances nowadays have complicated electronics whether you want them or not. They need them to meet conservation goals. That makes them a lot trickier to design and build and some companies do better on one thing than another, and others have higher failure rates than others. For instance, you want your oven to get hot, and might adore to have self cleaning, but did they do a good enough job shielding the electronics from the heat? Or will using the self-cleaning wreck the enamel that's supposed to protect the interior? I have no first hand knowledge, but names that get the least overall disapproval seem to be KitchenAid, GE, LG, and Bosch (no particular order), though they all have knocks against particular pieces. Like the others, I'd suggest you'll be happier if you go to the store and choose the appliances that suit you best, instead of settling for something inferior just because it matches.

I have had gas and electric ranges over the years, but for the last 30+ I have cooked on electric until I moved and our new condo had a gas range. Everyone was all agog over it and told me I would LOVE the gas range that it was so much better than electric. For the last 20 years before our move, I cooked on smooth top electric ranges and loved them! But everyone kept telling me gas was better. Turns out, I DO NOT love the gas range. It doesn't boil water as fast as my electric one did and seems to take forever to preheat the oven. And I've had a hard time adjusting to the fact that if I don't use hot pads to remove my pans off the stove top, I'll burn my hands. And don't leave your stirring spoon in the pot for more than a second if you don't want to burn off a finger or two. My cookies don't rise -and they're either not done enough or too done, can't get it just right like before. AND the worst part is cleaning it! That's the main reason I switched to a smooth top all those years ago - they take a little getting used to the different cleaning method, but when you learn the tricks, they're a breeze compared to the old coil or this gas behemoth! It takes me a good hour to clean around all the burners and try to be careful not to get cleaner or food down those little slots around the sides. And even using a degreaser detergent, it still looks greasy after going over it several times. Give me my smooth top back! . . . where I can just scrap off the burnt on food with a razor blade - or if there isn't anything burnt on, I can just wipe on a little cleaner and polish it off with a paper towel. When wiping down the countertops with a little dish soap, I can include the stovetop and keep it sparkling clean on a daily basis. I have severe arthritis in my hands and moving those heavy grates off the top and then the cleaning around all the little places is just a little too much for me (not to mention getting gunk off the grates). That is why, after 2 1/2 years of trying to get used to it, I have decided to replace my gas range with a brand new smooth top electric range. People tell me I must be CRAZY because I'm the only person they know who prefers electric over gas. The only thing I will miss is turning off the heat immediately when something boils over. So I will have to get used to moving the pan off again. But it's worth it to me to clean up a boil over on the smooth top vs. the gas burner-cover-slots thing. AND I'll have my wonderful convection oven back and maybe my cookies too!

Buehl, the reason I went with drawers was remembering getting down on the floor to dig into the small dorm fridge I had in college and thinking about how much I enjoyed having to dig into base cabinets for something in the back where you can't easily see it or reach it -- the bases I couldn't wait to replace with drawers and don't miss at all. Ours are in the breakfast room -- between the kitchen and the family room as part of a hutch coffee/breakfast bar. Not a reason for the choice, but I also like that the drawers look more like furniture.