Thanks for all of the compliments and good wishes! I owe a lot to GW, so I wanted to show what can be done by "seeing" the layout function first. Also I used the new SW alkyd cabinet and trim paint. It is soap and water clean up when wet, but scrubbable after it cures. It levels very nicely. We used it on kitchen cabinets, bathroom cabinets, and whole house doors and trim. (painters sprayed it on the areas they did. I laid on with a brush and laid off with a foam roller on the projects I did.) Tinker, the original back splash was very basic 4 x 4 "bathroom" style tiles in the same antique white as the formica. So they are kind of hard to see in the before pictures. The installer had to remove the old counters and lay down a new plywood base for the install on the counters. He removed the wall tile and I believe he only had to patch drywall in a few spots. There were also some drywall patches behind the stove area, as the 220 outlet had been removed by the electrician, and in the wall area where the original cabinet had been. It took the tile guy and plumber a week. He was a true pro and knew that the drywall patches needed to dry, that the tile needed to be set up before grouting etc. He was very proud of his cutouts by the electrical outlets, and we showed him the tiles we had to work with and asked for his input on the details. He came up with the diamond behind the stove. We like that because that tile, and the half round liner bar were leftover tile from our previous kitchen, so that made it feel like home. So the backsplash is the same porcelain as the counters in the main field, with the sesame colored liner bars, and the black running bond horizontal tiles.

Do you think I should go with the 48" wide x 27" deep hood over the 36" range? That run of cabinets has a 24" wall oven tower on the right and the range to the left of center so the prep island is not so much a barrier island. I can control the length of the run by changing the opening from the kitchen to the keeping room. The plans have it as 12' into a 13.5' room. When I played around with it, I reduced the opening to 11' and the range fit nicely with a 42" hood. The cabinet maker reduced it even more by the way he shifted the range down while maintaining a 48" hood. I don't know if he realized it, but he shut the opening down to 8'-8" which is unsatisfactory. That is the one place in the house that we want a really open feeling. I'll work on it over the weekend & post a layout and some renderings. I did a quick look online & really like this corbel style if I could get it in the right proportions:

This forum has been brought to my attention and I think I can add something useful. I'm Milton, and my wife Amalia and I are architects and interior designers with our own firm archspaces (archspaces.com) We have worked with moda cucina, as well as water and fire, as well as Weston kitchens, metropolitan, and others. We did two water and fire kitchens, and also three moda cucina kitchens. The water and fire kitchens ended up being beautiful, but were long agonizing ordeals to complete. The parts kept coming damaged, incorrect, wrong size/finish, from Canada and Italy. It was one excuse after another from water and fire and their suppliers who I ended up calling directly. Paul got a group of investors and partners together to buy into his moda cucina concept of locally made premium kitchens that can do not only traditional, but true european finishes. My wife and I loved the idea, if you look at our website you will see we are modernists. Each moda cucina went off almost flawlessly, with two minor exceptions, 1 kitchen which was somehow incorrectly measured. An entire 17 foot run of cabinets was re-built within 2 weeks and delivered before we even had to break the news to the clients. And one kitchen which had custom backpainted glass, the glass imparted a green tint to the paint and the client rejected the glass. The glass doors are being remade with starfire (crystal clear) glass. The response time has been fantastic, better than we've experienced anywhere, and the freedom as designers is tremendous, we've been able to think much more creatively with their custom work. I don't want to take away from the validity of what the disgruntled water and fire customer had said, it sounds inline with what happened there. The first few years we heard nothing but good things about them, then as they grew, and their suppliers got busier and moved away from small specialty producers, things fell apart. I gave Paul another chance, and we've been very pleased thus far. I've been to the shop and it is very impressive, it takes a lot of guts to put it all on the line and say enough is enough, and make your own factory. If anyone has any questions please feel free to email or call us through the contact information listed on our website.

Do you have the stainless steel work surface in one area? You must with a 5 burner. That would make the burner surface around 42" wide. In general, I don't understand why (except for looks) installing a hood over just the surface that contains burners wouldn't be ok? This range, tho, I'm thinking they spec non-combustible materials for the wall behind it. They are kinda peculiar about installation. So I think I'd call the dealer and ask about that. Plus a fair number of localities ban range installations in front of a window. Here we can call the building inspectors for an opinion in advance - maybe you can too? I'd do it and ask about both things before I got too committed (i.e. fell in love) with the layout.