Can you take off some of the door trim as well as the door? Disassembling a washer can be tricky (not to mention it might void a warranty if the manufacturer wanted to weasel out of some future problem.) The tops and backs of many machines come off readily, but the sides are much more complicated, I think. Still if you have access to a machine you can look at, see how far down you could strip it before getting to welds. I think my Miele and Asko machines are narrower than 27", but they are older models. Have you checked both those manufacturers' websites for dimensions? Both of mine look small (about the size of a dishwasher) but do full sized, large capcity loads. Don't let the smaller size of some FL's deceive you, most can hold surprisingly large quantities. HTH, Molly

Hey, Fori, the repair guy called! At a reasonable time, and I was already gone to meet the cabinet maker and contractor. We had a very productive session. I'll call Mr. G. tomorrow. Meantime, I'm going to post about the cool factor in Appliances. I got 2" of countertop on both sides because the cabinet maker was making pretty frames around the ovens and Advantium. Instead there will be 1" nice frames. The ladder is too tall for the right of the ovens, and I wan't still more counter, so that's going to be a tall pullout like Gizmonike's, only with trays for spices, etc. The little cupboard over the ovens is only going to be about 8" tall anyway, so will have a flip up door rather than swing doors. Should be good for oven pieces. He can do rails and stiles with the bamboo, so the stemware cupboards in the butler's pantry will have inset glass (probably pebble) in the uppers and glass shelves. I think this will cure the bamboo forest problem, because it'll draw the eye away from the slabs. The only view I was ready to go all out Gumby for was standing in the prep area of the island. That, and my mother's jazzy hardware. :) No gumby ;( Glass would be too heavy and unsafe. There will be a message center with an 8" deep flip down writing surface in the center of the pegboard cabinet (on the right from the pantry. We also hashed out a lot of drawer depths, etc., and things look good. I came away feeling very good about the whole thing. I even might have found a top for the island. BTW, sorry for going off on the dye. I'm a fiber artist with respiratory issues so I took that literally. :D RIT's a different story. ;)

This is our first remodel project and we've certainly learned some lessons. We interviewed 4 companies - 2 design build firms and 2 architects. DH's uncle is an architect in another state and he was our sounding board as we went through the process, and gave suggestions on floor plan. Ideally, we would've had him do our house, but we couldn't afford it. We liked one architect's design portfolio, but decided we didn't have the money to do what they could've designed to really take advantage of their creativity. One of the design build's firm work was more in line with what we knew we could pull off. The floor plan they came up with is a good use of our space. If we had unlimited money, we would've gone a different option. Be prepared to consider options. We were dead set against touching the 2 bedrooms as we needed the space to live in, but the weird walk-in closet in one bedroom was the perfect location for the master bathroom. There were 2 closets in this room and it was minor change - building a 5' wall to close it off from the bedroom and creating a doorway in the other wall for access to the master. This one change made the entire layout work. We did consider minor changes, but they didn't fix underlying problems with layout. That's why people are suggesting you consider relocating kitchen or opening up some walls. Yes it is more to do that, but it costs so much to do anything in the first place and it may be worth it. You won't know until you check.

I think Saypoint's railing is exactly what I'll have to do and remind the carpenter who installs it that I need to be able to unscrew the brackets (using a drill screwdriver) when moving. The inset handrail would unfortunately, be at least a $10,000 expense. Those are load-bearing walls, so the studs can't be notched out. We'd have to open up the wall, install a new beam to hold up the 2nd story floor and attic, etc. Then, in the basement, we'd have to add another beam, open up the stairwell down-- and add new footings to fit the weight distribution. It could even involve removing the stairs and reinstalling. I saw what's involved when my dining room doors were widened. An engineer had to specify the correct beams for the door and under the first floor, along with these huge iron footings/jacks to hold up the new support because they couldn't dig new footings in the crawlspace. I'll have to add the rail on the left because the right side has two 1939 -era HVAC ducts going up through the wall. I'd have to have one of those punctured. On the left, there's the closet at the front, and the pantry at the back. Thanks for all the creative and thoughtful responses!