The first house I lived in was on the Salt River Indian Reservation in AZ, just a wooden cottage raised up on concrete footings. Some years later - my Mom and Dad bought a brand new rancher in Phoenix- this was late 50's when the 6 story Westward Ho Hotel was the tallest building in Phoenix. Our house, as most were in the area, was a pink cinderblock built on a polished concrete slab. No two story homes or basements. The older areas had a few 2 story homes but that wasnt the norm,that was old Phoenix money or the Wrigleys! We had vinyl tile, popcorn ceilings and wool avocado wall to wall in the living room.Later shag rugs in the bedrooms!( pink and red for me!) When I was a teen we had a decorator that chose traditional furniture with a mediterranean Spanish flair and used pecan wood tables.All of the windows had WTs that would keep the sun out. Some people used to foil over their windows.I never heard of a roller shade until we moved back east to MD. Also never encountered stairs, except in the old Montgomery Ward store which was a story and a half balcony! I think we leaned traditional with a Spanish flair because my Mom grew up in a huge Victorian with land in the Maryland countryside and my Dad grew up in a big house in Mass,in a clapboard center hall colonial. I still live in MD in a small colonial revival house built in 1923. My taste has changed from Colonial Williamsburg to "cottage whatever". I think it is more comfy for us. and vintage thrift stuff mixes well with family pieces -the real colonial antiques and the victorian antiques. My neighborhood is mostly colonial revivals, quite a few Queen Anne Victorians as well as some gothic victorians. There are also quite a few 4 squares. Most all of the houses were built in the 20s with a few in the 1880s. Traditional decor seems to be the norm and seems to be age related- Potterybarn-esque for the younger crowd to Wiiliamsburg traditional and a couple -make- you -gulp Victorians( and not in a good way) Unfortunately the trend here in the last 10 years has been huge great room add ons- so you have many houses built in late 1880s early 20's with monstrous things sticking out the back. Definitely not in keeping with the vintage of the house. Inside, these rooms are beautiful but lack the charm that is found in the rest of the house.Crossing into the great room is like entering another country, one that has little to do with the rest of the house.Looks like they all use the same floorplan. Predictible. Talk about stereotypes, Aunt Jane and Lynne no offense, but when I was growing up, to us Arizonians ya'll were Easterners to us! Bit of snobs we were. Still am as far as Mexican food! LOL I equate the Kokopelli Southwestern style of decor with the big hair of the 80s! Never saw any of it growing up in AZ, just in the East and thought who are they fooling with that fake stuff?

Is there any reason to have both a microwave and a speed oven? What do people use steam oven's for? There are so many "oven" options... its a little confusing. thanks! I have three ovens, a full sized "regular" oven, an Advantium speed oven, and a combi-steam. I do not have a separate microwave. Is there any reason to have both a microwave and a speed oven? Yes. Besides the reasons Hvtech gave, there's the price difference between a Costco countertop special and a built-in speed oven. As you use a microwave the magnatron degrades. If you use a microwave to do heavy lifting, daily, you might want to save the speed oven and use a cheapie. You'll know if this applies to you if you've ever had to buy a new microwave. I mostly use my microwave for quickie heating on a sandwich or other grab and go food, and occasionally for a quick defrost. It does get used several times per day, but not for very long. By the time I get to where all ovens are full, I'd better not need a microwave! I don't use it for cooking/steaming, or making hot water, or anything like that, so overlaps aren't a concern. I put the Advantium in in such a way that it's in the position a countertop microwave would sit in, and there's no room for another. Be sure that you want the speed features. I did when I planned and installed it, but shortly thereafter I really lost the need for speed. There are some things that are best accomplished this way, but the main reason for speed really is to get it out faster. What do people use steam oven's for? There really isn't anything that you can do with a steam oven that you can't achieve another way in the kitchen. People use steam all the time, whether it's wine in the roaster pan, a squirt of water under a dome on the griddle with the burger, a petal steamer full of vegetables in a pot in the microwave, a pan of ice under the bread baking in the main oven, the bamboo box in the water filled wok with all the veggies inside, the colander over the stockpot with the towels and tamales, or the garlic bread wrapped in foil in the warming drawer. You can do all those things in a steam oven. The one thing that's easier the "real" way is the burger, which only wants a blast of steam at the end. You can get some Modernist Cuisine aficionado to come explain "wet bulb" vs. "dry bulb" cooking. I don't care. I just cook. Oh, and the combi-steam is the best for blanching and poaching. Several times a month I have a blanch-fest of asparagus, green beans, squash, etc. I'm allergic to fish, but I do poach chicken for chicken salad. If you don't have an automatic egg steamer, the combi-steam is the perfect way to make hard "boiled" eggs. Maybe soft ones too. Almost every week, I do a roast chicken and veg in it. Today I made custard bound strata in it--layered in a double ramekin, somewhere between a quiche and a casserole. Turkey parts for the holidays. Dim sum. Crusty bread. It goes on and on. The best trick, found on the Gaggenau and maybe others, is "regenerate". You can do this is a regular oven, too, but not so elegantly. Plate up a meal, put in on regenerate mode, receive perfectly warmed meal with none of the bits gone funny. My big test on it was leftovers from a restaurant: slab of potroast, broccoli and mashed potatoes with potroast gravy. Everything was pleasantly heated through, nothing was overcooked, hard, charred or even additionally browned, etc. I've also used it to reheat casseroles, especially small ones. They don't dry out and get hard. This is only the very most obvious stuff. There's lots and lots more. You don't need a combi-steam to do it, but it's oh, so convenient!

We have a stack of a Miele CSO and a Miele SpeedOven in a tall cabinet. The SpeedOven is at about eye level. I love the combination and would absolutely recommend it, if you have the space and the budget. But I am sure I could easily adjust to having the SpeedOven under the counter. We have a traditional gas range, and it comes with an "undercounter" oven, of course. We use this oven quite frequently, because of its very powerful infrared broiler. And that requires close inspection of the food while it is in the oven. Only takes a couple of seconds to go from barely brown to catching on fire. If I can handle staring deep into my oven, I am sure I can handle a microwave at the same level. That placement is maybe not ideal, but every kitchen is an exercise in compromises; and this seems to be one of the less annoying ones.

I have the 24" E series Wolf Speed Oven. You'll find some negative reviews here, but 6 months in I've grown to like it a lot. Once I learned how to use it, I've found it works really well both as a micro and as a convection oven (I've used the combo mode a few times and it's fine but not a mainstay for me). The only real negative was that the glass platter cracked about 3 weeks in. Wolf shipped a new one for free and even reimbursed me for the purchase of a temporary microwave while waiting for it to arrive. I posted a longer review here: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6319311/kitchen-before-and-after-with-thanks