I have to agree with Brick on this one. The main issues that arise with Heil,tempstar,goodman and many others is that pretty much anyone can sell/install them or the majority of them which means you sometimes get the short end of the stick on the installation. I will also say that the refinement isn't usually up to par with your Rheem/Ruud,Lennox/American standard,Carrier/Bryant and a few other brands. What I mean is the cabinets and fans/blowers tend to be more noisy. I had a tempstar heat pump and ICP (company name that makes the tempstar) air handler 3.5 ton with 20kw heat strip 13 seer 8eer. If the blower came on while watching tv you had to turn it up cause of the vent noise and this was even after rebuilding the air ducts on a new home. I replaced it with a Ruud 3 ton 15 seer 10.5 eer and 15kw heat strip and we can watch tv with the air handler running and can't hear the outside unit inside the house. The old one used to roar if you went in the 2nd bedroom and it was on. I nicknamed the original installer flat line because that was his brainwaves. I did rebuild and seal the ductwork with mastic like it should have had in the first place which helped TREMENDOUSLY on comfort and noise but it was still obnoxious. The new system is so much nicer but if the old system wasn't t-totally bare bones I would probably be satisfied with it also. No matter what you do I recommend at a minimum Demand Defrost which will pay for itself quickly. TXV (thermal expansion valve) which will keep the humidity much lower than a non txv and allow you to be comfortable at a higher temp in the summer which saves $$$$ also. If possible a variable speed blower motor. On top of these things.. the highest seer/best numbers you can get for your money. OH and find a installer who has a brain and don't just take it out and play with it. I am very happy with my Ruud.

lynn2006 - I'm not necessarily handy, this is my first time trying this stuff, lol. I just watch a lot of how to videos, and then take my time. The cabinets are from Cliq Studios in Dayton White. I searched a long time, and saw the positive and negative reviews for them, but they were the best option for us. They just arrived yesterday, and I do have problems with a couple of them which will need to be replaced. A couple of the negative reviews dealt with the shipping situation from Cliq, but my experience was fine. They scheduled the delivery for 3-6 PM, but the driver arrived before 2PM. I wasn't home, and he waited for me until I arrived at 2:55. As for color, I had my sample color matched at Sherwin Williams - it's very close to SW Alabaster, which is a slightly creamy white. The walls have one coat of SW Creamy (over the old green color), but I'm not sure I like the two different whites together. I'll wait for the 2nd coat on the walls until the countertops are installed. Speaking of countertops - I was originally planning on Silestone, but changed my mind to get soapstone on the perimeter. Here is my slab (it's not shiny, just the reflection of my camera flash where they sprayed it with water to show the dark color) Closeup with green veining:

Thanks for the comments and things to chew over, everyone! To answer some of the questions-- We can't do a wall oven further to the right of the current stove location as that's a relatively small entryway, due to the fact that the fridge is on the opposite wall and can't be moved or recessed. Unfortunately we are locked into our configuration, so trying to do the best with what we have. At least either way I know we'll end up with a more eye-pleasing setup than we've have now! (I must admit though I'd really love to have seen what the setup looked like when the house was built in the 50s.) Buehl, actually we're both quite short, 5'2" and 5'4". But even though I've seen some setups with the wall oven below the cooktop, I hadn't considered how low the oven controls would be. Do-able for us, but perhaps a little bit annoying. And then conversely because I'm short, I don't love the idea of having knobs along the side as the ones towards the back might be a bit of a reach for me. I'll try to find a setup in person before committing, though currently seems like we're leaning away from the idea at this point. We're not interested in moving to induction. I don't have a huge thing against it but my spouse does most of the cooking and put a foot down. I'm getting my biggest desires in this kitchen in almost every way, so I'm happy to stick with gas for that reason alone. ;) wdccruise, it's almost the researching separate appliances and finding two separate things that will go together that both have good reviews that kills the idea for me. It's hard enough trying to find one appliance. I also can't get the nagging feeling out of my head about how much more something truly built-in feels limiting if you run into issues down the line and need to replace. Whereas the beauty of a slide-in range is that it's just that, slide-in. I can change it out easily in the future should I have to. (Not that I want to! But I know nothing these days will last like the older appliances, which is the literal only reason I'm slightly sad to get rid of the 90s tank of a range we have currently. But good grief after almost 8 years in our house I hate looking at that ugly thing.) Beth H. it's this comment that really has me thinking: Since this is prob the last time you'll be redoing it while you live here, spend the extra amount and do it the best you can and exactly what you want. in the long run you'll be happier. Ultimately I think if we're going the extra mile, the extra mile and the thing we really both would be happiest with wouldn't be the wall oven/cooktop setup, but in actuality a pro-style range. As wdccruise noted it's really only a couple extra inches off the face of the cabinetry, even in a small space. I'm probably worrying too much about that area. I still love the idea of the sleekness of the look of a wall oven, though my spouse loves it less than I do. And even still, when I picture things in my head that will make this our perfect kitchen for this space, I'm really picturing a range. It's been really interesting the thought processes you go through in a kitchen reno. We did our bathroom several years ago and that was a complete gut job, but a much smaller scale obviously, and so many less things to think about. Phew!

@wdccruise @cheri127 Did some investigation and "user testing" last night based on what you guys said, and it seems like I still have enough space to load the dishwasher with the door open (I just have to stand way off-center, which is not ideal!). To make my life easier (and avoid tripping on the open dishwasher door), I should be able shift the sink to the right slightly. The plumbing won't an issue, thankfully, since the current kitchen also has the dishwasher "catty-corner" from the sink. All that being said, based on @Sara S's suggestion, it's still a viable option to put the dishwasher next to the sink-- I think if I crowd the dishwasher cabinet with the top of the sink, I could eke out a couple inches and make it work, and still have a big enough sink. Alternatively, I can shift it to partially into the corner like in @cheri127's picture. I'll just have to play around in my design software to see how that looks! @Buehl the fridge would be in the same location as it is now... the saving grace there is that it's a single right-hinged door, and the wall is on the left side, so there's no interference. That said, I think I'll get a slimmer fridge anyway, since I might end up putting a tall broom closet to the left of it. @latifolia Definitely thought about the 24'' range, and it would run be about $800-1000 less than price of the combo I have in there (even for a nice one like the Bertazzoni below). My only hesitation to doing that is that when I was buying this place, my realtor made a big deal about how "full size appliances" are sought after in our market... I'm downsizing the dishwasher and the cooktop, so it might be better for resale value to at least keep a full-size fridge and oven.