Range: The Wolf AG and Culinarian are about the same amount of money. $400 more if you want a color for the Culinarian. The Culinarian is based on the Capital Precision. This range has an excellent reputation;first rate. Some of the previous models did not have a first rate reputation. Then again Wolf has had to recall ovens in the past for being dangerous. Wall Oven: IMO 1)Gaggenau 2)Miele 3)Wolf. Love love love the side opening door on the Gagg. Also has an air catalyst that cleans air before exiting to your kitchen. So no grease from your wall oven gets to your cabs or ceiling. No smells either. This can be good when cooking fish;) or bad when baking cookies :( . Also no flavor transfer so you can bake multiple items if they happen to bake at the same temp. Ability to hold even temperature is second to none. There is no significat differences in MW or warming drawer. The Culinarian self-clean oven comes with a rotis and is Gas. I think this is preferable when using the rotis to roast meats. Dishwasher: Miele. Diamante if you just want it to clean well. The Optima is going to be quiter and more energy/water efficient with sensor dry/sensor clean. Excella has eco sensor and load size sensor which calibrates water/energy consumption further.As you move up the machines get quieter too. Fridge: People here can have takes about reliability,food preservation abilities, temperature maintenence but it seems your difficulites choosing a fridge come down to layout. Only you can figure out which layout works best for you. If you are going with the 42" KA I would rather get the 42 Jenn-Air. The 42" bulit in French Door Jenn Air has the more sophisticated variable speed/capacity compressor plus the diamond cut pro handles. These are my favorite fridge handles. IF you have not opened and closed fridges with these definetly check them out.

The attached layout I did days ago but didn't post it because it didn't seem applicable to discussions. Here's my thinking. I would run the countertop all the way along the top wall, around the corner, and down to the fridge. Cabs underneath. You could easily bring a 15"or so wide x 12" deep cabinet all the way down to countertop height on the far left of the stove. That space is not prime work area. I really like the idea of a glass-fronted area there that is shallow enough to find things easily--which your present 24" deep pantry is definitely not--and which would be a lovely accent that could be adjusted to the colors you prefer and even seasons. Center the range on the top cabinet run as I sketched it here, not between the two walls. The area to the right of the range will be the main cooking area. The cleanup will happen to the right of the sink, opposite the island. The island will be your work area, as you say it now is. I squared the island and slightly enlarged it. I really urge you to put in a prep sink. I know it seems redundant so close to the cleanup sink, but it isn't. Mine, like this one, is very close to the cleanup sink, but I use both, piling dirty dishes into the cleanup sink and keeping the prep sink clear for work. Of all the changes I made in my new kitchen, I think the inclusion of that sink was easily one of the most important. I think your cleanup sink should be large enough to hold your biggest frequently used pans. It does not, IMO, need to be as large as it presently is. Making it smaller will leave you room for more drawers. If this is an idea you can consider, you can solicit input with a query thread here on GW. I am not sure of the size of the window on the sink wall. I would love you to have 15" cabinets on that wall and on the left corner. On the range wall, 12" cabs will be fine, and will leave easier work areas. (Although I find no problem with 15" cabs flanking my range, because most work on that wall is really done ON the range itself.) Finally, I played with the idea of moving the fridge toward the sink, putting a shallow 15" or so wide cabinet facing the kitchen on the right of the fridge. If this is 8" or a bit less, it will be wonderful for storing your baking goods, spices, and cans. Then, behind it, facing the family room would be a 15" deep, 20" or so wide pantry for whatever you chose to store there. Hey, among other goodies, it could hold the ladder you will need to access the top of your ceiling-height cabs! This is just idea playing--not a hard proposal. Actually, all of this is just playing with ideas, of course. As I have said before in other links, this is like playing with paper dolls as I did as a child. Just plain fun. This post was edited by Bellsmom on Wed, Mar 26, 14 at 22:28

lol. Ok, the island was a bad idea. I got carried away and forgot that I'm design-challenged. But if anyone has a counter height table to sell, I'll take 2. bmore, I get the message. I'll take a few pictures of the space and try to post them by the end of the weekend. To answer the questions: The little piece of wall only juts out about 2 1/2" so it's not to scale in my drawing. It's actually one wall that runs the entire length of the living room and the kitchen. It juts out that way to create a small alcove where the large window is. A picture would definitely help :o). The slider door opens from the left side, not the right. Yes, it would be possible to switch out the slider for a French door and window if we decide to include walls and windows in the remodel. No dining room, unfortunately. The fridge swings the way angie drew it in her layout, which I like for the reasons lavender mentioned. It follows the rules so DH will love it. Thanks for your layout, angie. lavender_lass - thanks for the advice. We've been slowly renovating over the last 10 years and last but not least is the kitchen. We're happy here but DH thinks we could use an extra bedroom, which is why we'd consider moving. DH and I will firm up the scale and budget for this remodel now instead in January. It'll be so much easier to choose the direction we want to go in with these layout options. I'll have an update real soon....

I like a lot about it...the bedroom door in the hallway, the bathroom as a buffer against the noise in the public areas, the openness between the kitchen and other rooms, you get a nice entry area, and hallways are kept to a minimum. The only thing to think about on the exterior is you want to make the front door the most important part of the front facade which is more difficult since it is recessed behind the bedroom. So think about porch/landscape to keep it important. I'm assuming the driveway is on the left. If so, you can angle the front door toward the left and make that whole corner into a porch/front entry which will make the bedroom bump out less important.