For stir-frying, burner shape is as important or even more important than burner power. I test drove the Miele and Dacor cooktops as well as the BlueStar rangetop we chose. (Not an apples to apples test but at first I was hesitant to give up the space to a rangetop - then when I found out how much better the BlueStar performed for stir frying I changed my mind.) The 15K BTU burners on our Bluestar that are about the same power as the Miele and Dacor burners stir fry much better because they are much more efficient at delivering heat to the bottom of the wok and they do it very evenly. The 22K BTU burner on our BlueStar is even better. When I tested the Dacor and Miele with a chicken stir fry, I put in half the chicken at a time to sear to not overload it and it still wasn't a perfect sear. When I tested the BlueStar, it was a hot day and my DH had packed the ice chest so carefully that the chicken was mostly frozen when I took it out to start cooking. But if I was going to sacrifice my drawer to the rangetop it better be good so I put in all the chicken at once and the BlueStar immediately had it sizzling and seared perfectly. The food really tasted different cooked on the BlueStar. I highly recommend calling around the appliance stores to see if you can find one with the types of burner you are considering hooked up so you can try a stir fry recipe on the burner. I took the same wok and recipe ingredients to each cooktop/rangetop I was considering and learned a lot by doing that. If Bluestar offered a single burner version of their rangetop, that is what I would recommend to you. If you don't have a chance to do that, what you want to look for is a burner that has a shape to deliver heat efficiently and evenly to the bottom of a wok. An example of a bad type of shape is the sealed burner like on the Dacor and Miele cooktops. These have a flat circular top and flame comes out of the side of the circle. The higher you turn the burner up, the more the flame shoots out to the side; no flame goes up in the center of the burner. An example of a type that works really well for a wok is the BlueStar burner shape where the flame comes straight up out of the burner. The burner shape has a circle of flame at the center of the burner and 8 star rays of flame coming out from that circle. The center grate comes off the burner so that the wok sits right down into the flame and heat is delivered to the whole bottom of the wok. This is very similar to the wok arrangements I saw in China. A friend has the DCS wok burner and that does a very good job. We have the Miele oven. I'm very happy with its cooking performance but I find its controller kind of annoying at times. Its heating is very stable and accurate. It cooks bread well. Things I don't like: Maximum timer setting is 59 minutes and 59 seconds. I'd gladly give up the seconds to have a timer that times longer than an hour. If you put in the time and then forget to hit the button that starts the timer, it waits a bit and then cancels the timer. Too many modes - for example they have a proofing mode that only allows two temps (both higher than I would usually want to proof at) and a defrost mode with a wide range of temps (which is what I use for proofing because I can set it to 80 or 90 degrees). One ends up having to learn little tricks like which baking mode lets you set the temp up to 550 degrees (most of the modes stop at 500). If the BlueStar ovens had been available when we were choosing, I'd have been very tempted to choose them. I'm short and the side opening door would be easier for me. The one downside is that they aren't self-cleaning and I'm rather addicted to not having to clean my oven. How is your breaker box occupancy? Ours is full. If you want to add that other oven at a later date, will you have a 220 V breaker spot open? That might be one reason to choose between gas and electric ovens.

Thanks for the input, all. Some answers to posted questions: nhoblitt-- interesting idea, but I think the labor investment would be substantial, as would the associated delays (would have to be disassembled, brought back to the shop, drawers cut down, refinished...). live_wire_oak-- island is 4' 2" wide, with the cabinet portion being 5'10" long, and the open portion being 7' 2" long. There was ample material in the slab to work with, as shown in this templating photo, which I will try to post, to follow. The fabricator recognizes the error. Joseph-- There's no steel, but there is a lot of wood support underneath-- a bunch of joists, effectively, running lengthwise. Can't remember how closely spaced they are, but there's a lot of support there. lapsangtea-- I think my main concern is functionality. Most of the prep in our current kitchen is done on an island that has an overhang of 1/4"-- enough to get a hand or paper towel under the edge to brush debris into, but we had consciously kept the overhang minimal due to much more constrained spaces than we will have in the new kitchen. It would be nice to have a bit more than 1/4". I can probably get used to the look. I think it's frustrating because it is such a huge investment; we've jumped through a lot of hoops to make it happen (eg the original search and patient wait for slabs, the scramble to find replacement slabs under the gun to keep things moving, while juggling work, a toddler, an infant, the rest of a huge remodel, etc); and now a seemingly silly error that leaves it less than the very well-thought out space that we (including architect and contractor) have planned. barncatz- yes, we've talked to the contractor and the fabricator (at least the guy doing the work; the bosses are out of town for the holiday). Everyone recognizes that it was an error. They've put the ball in my court to decide what to do next.

Hi Indigovenice, I would say your plants are grown from seed from what I can see. It is very unlikely that the Kruger National Park Nursery, where you bought your plants would bother with cuttings. Although your plants are young, you can see the making of a caudex/base in my opinion.... Cuttings tend to look more like a stick in a pot until they grow older, where they may develop a thicker stem/base look. Seedlings have a taper from base to top. Here's a photo to help explain better. The pot on the left, has cuttings from some of our plants. Notice what I call the stick in a pot look. The pot on the right with the pink flower is a seed grown plant, notice the taper of the trunk. (These are Adenium Obesums) Also here's a close up photo of our soil mix that we use. It is a cactus/succulent mix. It is a bark style soil mix. This mix drys out well in our heat within two days, giving our plants moisture, but yet not staying wet for too long. (The soil is wet in this photo, from the storm we had last night) We do not use a gritty mix in our heat, as our plants would cook in our heat with a gritty mix. (Our plants are in full sun all day.) You said, that your plants were bought in black plastic bags and that they didn't have many fine feeder roots. It's possible that the black plastic heated up too much and either cooked the fine feeder roots or that the excess heat may have stopped the plant from being able to grow feeder roots. Although these plants love heat, they are still vulnerable to excess heat as seedlings. If you think about it, all plants need a healthy established root system to flourish. This is especially important in seedlings. It is abit of trial and error to learn what your plants need in your environment. Most of us here on the forum have struggled while we were learning, so you are in good company. Many of us have killed a plant or two. :)

Will you be doing a glue down floor or a floating floor? Mannington Adura has some pretty vinyl tile in glue down that can be grouted and also a floating locksolid product. There are installation videos on the Mannington website if you are going to DIY your flooring. I would look for something that will look good with your oak cabinets and oak color flooring in the living room. There are some in the Adura and in the Mohawk that have the golden color along with shades of brown and gray. I would not put down a wood look floor since you have the wood look laminate in the living room. Armstrong and Congoleum also have some pretty vinyl as do others that have been mentioned. Only you know what your budget will be for new flooring, and you may have to have subfloor replaced if it's plywood. If it's concrete, hopefully you won't have much to do since you have had laminate there. Is your kitchen laminate glued down or floating? You might also consider sheet vinyl. I know Mannington has some pretty ones, and I'm sure the others do also. My suggestion is to go to several websites and look at what's available, and then see if any flooring dealers near you carry what you like.