Based on what you said, I think you may want to go with Side by side? I have the pro48 and I absolutely love it. I'll do it again. I have two kids. I don't' think water dispenser should be an issue. I never like them too much because water usually taste a little funny from the fridge based on my experience. If you are doing remodel, add a hot/cold water dispenser on your counter. Here is a list of pros and cons for the Pro48 Pros: - Commercial look, heavy duty contruction - Glass door is great for adults/ cook. It shorten the time the door is open because you see everything inside - Big drawers on the bottom for vegetables and other things.. so you are only opening part of the fridge. - lots of space to but "big" things on either side because of extra depth you get Cons: - you need to keep your fridge organized all the time - it can be challenging accessing some things if your fridge is full. (think about a deep cabinet you put your spices) Things in front will block things in the back. - There are only 5 shelves in fridge, so with the best settings i have, we can't put tall things standing up (soda bottle is too tall). If i make one shelf taller, the other one will be too short. If you get door shelves (in side by side), you can get more configuration for tall things. - Pro48 doesn't have the "air purification" filter system.. I don't know why and I don't know if they have something else to do that job instead.

Not all folks panel a fridge to make it "Disappear", at least we did not. I've had fridges with painted surfaces, copper, white, black etc. Our last fridge before the one we have now was Stainless, man what a pita to keep clean, same with the SS DW! Both our Fridge and dishwasher are paneled and upkeep has never been easier, an occasional swipe, and not all that often on the wooden panels, is all that's required. One can tell we have a fridge in our kitchen and also a dishwasher as we chose the semi integrated dishwasher which proudly displays the Miele name, the controls and the readout so we know what the thing is up to. I see a lotta folks on House Hunters and other programs complain when they see a house with either no fridge or no dishwasher, so now we spend a ton of extra money to hide them????? Well why not hide the faucet, the sinks, the lights and PLEASE hide those freakin Islands!!!! I do agree with the advice to skip thru the door ice and water thou. Had it in the GE before this fridge and it was always broken. I do have an icemaker in the built in JA I have now, in the freezer thou, not thru the door. The icemaker lasted about 5 years and then the heater in the ice maker went out so it would not drop the cubes. New icemaker cost me about $135 (in stock on many internet sites) and took me about 10 minutes to change. If I wanted cold water or crushed ice , then I would buy a machine especially for that, but we just don't need it. Gary This post was edited by dodge59 on Sun, Apr 7, 13 at 22:16

Are your cabinets going to be stained or painted? That might make a slight difference in the look in terms of massiveness, depending on color and context? Mine are simple shaker 38" with 6" of crown with an 8' ceiling, for what it's worth. They're stained cherry; if this is at all relevant for you I can get a pic up here. But I think there are a lot of GWers with white painted kitchens with similar proportions to what you're going for. I believe that the maximum a carpenter or cab company are usually willing to go with one door is around 50" for the sake of stability.

The fundamental problem with this kitchen is absolute lack of 3-drawer base cabinets. A base cabinet with a shallow drawer over a door is only about 54 percent effective in terms of readily accessible ergonomic storage suitable for everyday or frequently used items. Refacing the base cabinets without converting most of them to drawer bases is purely cosmetic and does nothing to improve storage. The cost of conversion + new doors and drawer faces + cost of refacing would be similar to comparable quality new cabinets, which is why new cabinets are a better choice. And while extending uppers to the ceiling can eliminate the dust issue, anything taller than 77” is not readily accessible ergonomic storage suitable for everyday or frequent use items. In short, you are paying for marginal use storage. If dusting the top of the existing uppers is a pain, accessing taller uppers will be too. Focus should be improving functionality of base cabinets.