I am well into a major kitchen remodel and have the new stove and fridge in place. New stove because I have wanted gas for a while. House has gas heat and hot water and both are immediately behind the kitchen wall. Fridge because it is going into the old stove space, 30" wide. The old was a 33" side by side. New is a 30" freezer under with a left hand door. It will work far better in the new layout.

But back to that stove! Wow! It's "just" a Sears Kenmore freestanding range with convection oven. But what a nice stove! Everything is very well thought out. Easy to install. Hookups were logical. Plenty of space allowed so it can be pushed flush against the wall with no issues with the gas hook-up. Leveling - easy. I haven't installed the anti-tip bracket, but that loks very straight forward and nothing has to be done when the stove is pulled out for access behind at a later date.

And cooking! Well,. I've only used about 5% of the burners and features so far. Cooked my pre-long ride pancake this morning in a 14" iron frying pan on the "turbo" burner. Nice! Don't really have a feel for the heat yet, but there is plenty! Haven't used the oven yet except to preheat it before broiling but it warms up fast. Broiling is really good, both without preheat and better with. THe part of this unit I really like (and granted this has nothing to do with how well it cooks food) is the layout and logic of the controls. Burners are standard gas burner knobs. The oven controls are the very usual push screen. The logic is so straight forward. To set the oven for 425 (well, this a confusing example as there are 3 approaches but all are easy) push either "Preheat", Oven" or Convection Oven", then "4", "2", "5", "Start". 7 minutes on the timer - "Timer", "7", "Start". Exactly what I would expect. (On my old oven that came with my house, I had to scroll through the numbers for everything. It would accelerate twice. It took my three tries on average to set my times and temperatures.)

And the rest of the kitchen? No walls are moving, but the change will be big. It was a standard rectangular kitchen, counter on 2 1/2 walls, exits to front hall, dining room and 1/2 the house. Stove and fridge were approximately opposite each other on long walls. Sink on the short wall in front of the window. Inside corner, opposite the 1/2 house entrance was a breakfast nook, further from any window than any other place in the house.

Now - two "windows" have been cut into the walls of that nook. A large one into the dining room looking out to the biggest picture window in the house and a small one into the living room.. (The dining room wall from 4' up is not just a post at the doorway and another at the living room corner.) There will be a "U" shaped counter under those two windows then coming out into the room. A birch plywood "bulkhead" will support the free leg of the counter and be the back of the stove. The "U" counter will then wrap around the side of the stove. (When in front to the stove, you will be looking through the new "window" into the dining room and out the picture window. The bulkhead will be open between the stove top and the range hood.)

The goal here is to do several things. 1) I want a gas stove!, 2) two of us are often independently working in the kitchen at the same time (I have a renter). We are curretly in each others way all the time. He has been here 8 years and we now do the dance like a married couple; it's really pretty funny sometimes but still, it gets old. With the new layout, both of us will be able to use the stove at the same time and working the stove from the side will be very easy. Fridge access and a place to put food going in or out will be excellent for both of us. We both have access to water. (There will be a small food prep sink in the outboard leg of the "U".) 3) Lighting and views will be far better. 4) The kitchen will not be cut off room the living room and dining room (and the stereo will be heard far better). DIning room and living room paint colors and theme will be carried through he kitchen. And 5) guests can hang out in the kitchen and still allow two to cook. One guest can hang out in the "U" (there will be a stool tucked under the counter) and another at the front hall entrance. There will be counter between the stove and the long wall running to that entrance, then swing out into a small peninsula. Another stool will live under that counter.

I guess when this is all done, I might have to learn how to do digital pictures!

Now I am off for my ride; a flat 70 miles to burn off that pancake. (A proper "pancake" should cover the full bottom of one pan, should it not?)

Ben