drsvelte: Many thx for yr feedback. I really love the look of the Thermador (it's a good buy right now & hubby's pressing me to make 'the decision'), but am wary too after reading some of the reviews here and on epin/consumer reports especially, about repair issues. I too am confined to 27", so it limits what brands I can consider. Was leaning towards Dacor (love!) & Thermador and have heard some great things about the new Electrolux wave control; problem is, it's not avail. yet in my neck of the woods, so I may have to wait a few months if I do choose to go Electrolux. Honestly, you'd think manufacturers would understand that people are more than willing to pay reasonable $$; they just want something to be well built & WORK!!! Doesn't say much for a $4000 product does it when you have to buy an extended warranty as guarantee against major defects/repairs and lo' and behold, after the warranty expires, $500 every couple of years for repair jobs. Feels good to sound off!!

The built in vent fan in ovens should provide adequate cooling. The electronics should withstand whatever the resulting temperature is. Everybody should be nice to each other so we would have world peace. In many cases none of the above seems to be true. Reading the reviews almost every brand has it's horror stories. And the horror stories generally involve overheating. My 30" oven will be installed in a 33" cabinet. The cabinet has an open back on the oven cavity and is pulled 3" out from the wall. There are two 50 CFM fans mounted on top of the cabinet that are ducted to either side of the oven cavity and operated by a 110 deg thermostat in the oven cavity. All this may be completely unnecessary. It may not be very effective in reducing the temperature of the electronics inside the housing. But the total cost of these modifications is about $75. and a few inches of cabinet space. The oven cost considerably more. If this helps even a little bit, it's money well spent.

Also, cpartist, dining room only used on major holidays 3-4 x's at most a year so no worry. So if you only use it 3-4x a year, why are you building one in? Wouldn't it make more sense to combine the kitchen/dining into one space with room to expand at holiday times? I'm in the same boat as you. Mostly I do buffet style parties and with the exception of holidays, we don't sit down to dinner so I have one dining area that is part of my kitchen and can extend into the living area if needed. Why build something that will cost major bucks and only be used 3-4x a year? Guests will access front door and not garage door so no powder room there to see. On the small area you showed, it looked like the front entry since it says entry. As far as pathways,good input. I think I will have to really think my new furniture as to make sure the new stuff isn't overly large and overstuffed to maintain those thoroughfares. It will be mostly just us two at most times but I will really have to plan for furniture so thanks. Make sure your house has an organizing "spine" to it because when you have an organizing "spine" it helps make it much easier to move about and have good flow throughout. I've been in builder open houses where my friend and I were constantly guessing where to go next and what would be behind door #1. When a house is laid out well, with rooms only 1-2 rooms deep, one doesn't need to try and figure that out. It seems to lay itself out in an orderly flow. I'm excited to have kitchen so close to master. Dogs get up early and nice to be so close. I don't have an issue with it being close to the kitchen. That's personal choice. I have an issue with you having to walk through your work zone to get to the kitchen. That is not so good. The best homes I've seen with the kitchen near the master either have a path between dining area and kitchen to master or the master is off a separate hallway. In either case one doesn't have to walk through the kitchen to get to the master. Again this speaks of good flow and natural flow. The pantry will have a hidden entry (will look like wall cabinetry but will have a concealed door.(look like uppers and lowers but the "cabinet" pulls will open the one large door on either side) I like a hidden entry but I absolutely would not do a double door entry. And in this case I'm not sure it's the best use of space. Also, what do think about swapping the fridge and wall oven placement? Since cpartist said its roller skate distance, maybe I should. Yes that will help but your kitchen will not work for aging in place and that should be a consideration. I realize you're healthy now, but stuff happens. The best is to have an L shaped perimeter so you can slide your food stuff from sink to cooktop. That's what I did with my perimeter. In fact, I bucked what is commonly done by putting my cleanup sink on the island and my prep sink on the perimeter for just that reason. My Mom had Parkinsons and used a walker. She could easily wash and prep her food stuff and then slide it over to the cooktop because the sink was on the same counter run. However she needed help for carrying stuff. Roller skate distance can also indicate a barrier island and/or a kitchen that's overly large. You can have a smaller, efficient kitchen, esp with a large pantry, and you can have a large, inefficient kitchen. My parents had the latter at their retirement home, which influenced us greatly for our new house. So very true. Do yourself a favor and in your mind try making a meal in that kitchen. You'll quickly see it's very inefficient. And the other comment about where we would eat, BeckySharp, we sit at the bar mainly all the time. If you had the dining table as part of the kitchen and not so far away, you'd use it more often. Especially as you age in place you may or may not find the counter height stools harder to maneuver onto. Hence my suggestion that you build the dining room as part of the kitchen. We've had a formal dining room and basically hardly used it but when we do have the larger gatherings it's nice to have. So you're willing to spend what is possibly $20k-$30k for a space you'll use 4x a year when as mentioned you can combine the two spaces to make it much more functional for now and the future? How many can I seat comfortably on that size bar? Is the rule 24" or 36"? 24"

We have both the 36” Thermador rangetop, and the Bosch 800...both now a bit over 4 years old. Both are terrific. Love the rangetop. Has a great simmer, and is so easy to clean. As far as closed burner ranges go, the star burners make it the best at even cooking. Make sure you get a good ventilation hood. Nothing from a big box store will do the trick for this rangetop. The hood should be 6” larger than the rangetop. After much research, we chose a Vent A Hood. Here’s ours: As for ovens, we took the advice of this forum (actually, the old GardenWeb, which Houzz took over), and got a Miele CSO (combi steam oven), over a Miele regular/convection oven. Really wonderful cooking!