Joining the party a bit late - but going through the same issues on our kitchen redesign. Should be easy as I am only dealing with cooking. After a month of reading reviews and playing with ovens and cooktops, I think I decided on the following: Wolf e series oven (was very close to the elux icon as I loved the racks). Final decision - size of the oven, 2 convection fans and on sale! Wolf 36 inch induction cooktop - Ann Arbor building inspectors are following the make up air handling very strictly and need to keep the vent under 400cfm or would have to add a make up air system - which outweighed the benefits. Also considered the miele, thermador, and a late addition - JennAire - but the sleek look of the Wolf won plus it is on sale. GE Advantium Monogram speed oven - This will be over the Wolf oven and I think it will look OK - similar handles and overall appearance. Also considered the Miele and Elux. I have a newer Elux French door fridge and love it - it has the LED lighting.(but no ice/water through the door) It cost a bit more than some others but it has saved me $$ in less wasted food. When I headed out of town for 2 weeks urgently and returned with the milk and lettuce still usable - need I say more? Also, I took my favorite serving dishes and tested the various units -the elux was set up best. I also have a Miele dishwasher. It is several years old and I will re-use it. It is so quiet that I have to put my ear near to verify it is running. The door pops open to assist in drying at the end of the cycle. I also took my favorite dishes to try in the dishwasher - I can put 14 place settings in the dishwasher and run my china and crystal in the dishwasher! Hope I made the right decisions on the new appliances - the posts have been helpful!

forget the south, even that's too cold for me LOL i have to have FL weather to be warm! how about 60's at night, nice humid warmth w/ daytimes in the 80's and sunny...that's for me. no A/C right now, we run that almost 11 months out of the yr, i try to have the windows open now as much as possible. daytime highes in the mid-90's are just around the corner and the windows will be shut for the rest of the yr after that... we went surf fishing all day last tue at playalinda beach & my DH is there again today...wish i was LOL and not here at work. ~ liz

Sorry that the day didn't end better for you. I'm in Silicon Valley--San Jose, where lots of people work long hours. My dh worked longer hours and traveled a lot when my kids were younger; I would be extremely disappointed when he came home from a trip because instead of throwing the kids at him and heading out for sanity, he had to sleep and I had to keep the kids a little quiet. I think the girls got used to that, but then again they had each other and me to drive crazy. May I ask, are you from India? If you are not, you and I are not very common. In 26 years of marriage, I've only met two or three other couples with the same backgrounds as we. It surprises me, in this day and age, especially in the big melting pot where we live. Were you able to tell your dh how disappointed you were?

Thank you for all the well wishes! I did Zumba and TRX class at the Y to start, then Drybar in the afternoon, and dinner at night. I had 6 oz filet and lobster tails. We brought a decent amount of our dinners home to have the next next. So good.