I drove around until I found one to look at. Personally I was not impressed. Thought they looked alot better on the web site. Quality of construction just didn't feel up to par. Oven doors felt flimsy and the racks did not operate smoothly. I was truly disappointed since I was hoping it would fit my needs. I drove even further to find a Capital Precision. Now that range did impress me. Of course it was pricier however even comparing it with other pricier ranges it was nice. Let me put it this way, I was so impressed I ordered one. Have not gotten it yet and it will be even longer before I am ready to install it but it is on order.

Again, thank you all for your advice thus far. I'm posting the final two plans of the day, incorporating many of your suggestions. First is Live Wire Oak's U-shaped plan. I really like this plan. I would sacrifice one set of French doors but not much light. I gain a lot of counterspace, an island prep sink and a very large main sink. My main next-to-water prep space is the island minus the sink, about 3', but I have lots of counterspace to rest mixing bowls, etc. I took the general consensus about aisle widths and am allowing the full 48" at the range, 45" by the fridge, and 36" by the French doors, which would be the less-traveled passageway. Would probably drop the wall cabs to the right of the range all the way down to the countertop for my 'china cabinet'. The second plan is my original Plan 1, updated with some of the features from the U-shaped kitchen: I'd lose the full height super Susan between the pantry and the range but, again, gain lots of counterspace as waiting area (salad to be dressed, pans to be put in oven). I'd have more prep space, 32" on one side of the sink and 24" on the other. I took Lavender Lass's suggestion and tried to line up the range, island and banquette. It will not be perfect, as the chimney breast is not perfectly centered, but it will be close. I should have enough counterspace under either plan to move DH's coffee pot to the countertop, probably that deep corner to the left of the range. Have lots to discuss with DH tonight. Once again, I cannot thank you all enough for your guidance and assistance.

In general: I have had open and closed burner gas tops and closed are 100% easier to clean, I would never never get open unless I had daily cleaning help. The BTU rating on the highest burner is important, as well as a very small BTU simmer burner. I also need continuous grate to slide a pot over, and prefer mechanical knobs to electronic keypads. There are some cooktops where the grates are too high off the burners and there are complaints of a feeling of under-powered burners despite the BTU rating. I think this whole open burner for the home thing is nothing short of ridiculous, it is more of a high volume restaurant issue, but his is gardenweb... I do not like the performance of gas ovens. I like electric and I love the functionality of convection. I would never buy an oven without convection. So I would vote for closed burner gas cooking and electric ovens.

staph culturing often takes longer... i had a severe, life threatening staph infection that took more than 10 days to finally get typed exactly and all of those samples were done in hospital. i was furious to say the least as i used to teach medical microbiology to medical students at IU. next to my expertise in plants comes microbiology. after they finally ID'd my staph type i calmed down (internally as i did not want to make anyone mad lol) LOL as i knew culturing gram-postive rare types has to go thru multi stages of testing :-) do some research on what the possibilities of what you might have is and how it is cultured and tested. in my case i was soooo sick sooo fast dr's immediately started treating me w/ different antibiotics (while waiting for tests) that only added to my susceptible immune system. my system was soooo taxed from the staph that treating me w/ something for strep sent it into overload, taking immune strength away from fighting staph to working on what little strep may have been around. BTW basically everyone has almost all bad infectious bacteria in their systems, just not at levels high enough to be harmful or often even detected. because of that when you are treated w/ incorrect antibiotics (for an undiagnosed bacteria) your immune system puts up a fight, albet a small one often, but that creates a energy diversion adding to the severity of a real, undiagnosed, infection. i would also like to add that right now in this country there is a very big problem causing a panic at the CDC involving 4 patients who brought a particular variant of drug resistance into this country from India called NDM-1. medical personnel are supposed to be watching for patients either on or getting new scripts for antibiotics as these people are the only ones getting infected. do a search on NDM-1 and decide if you want to even get antibiotics for something if it's minor. this particular variant is our new superbug and if it doesn't kill you and they can save you w/ drugs used during the 50's & 60's that were banned, you will need new kidneys and a liver after treatment (the reason for banning). this is a common problem in India because believe it or not they abuse antibiotics even more than the US does because of their lack of potable water! ~ liz