Asthetics vs Mechanics

Isn't it fun to to browse through the latest design idea magazines, come up with what you think you want, and insist someone else put the pieces together? Reality check, folks! Those lofty ideas remind me of congress..who needs to read the directions? And the magazine designers have budgets riviling the stimulus package.

Our apartment is just under 700 sq feet, and the kitchen area has an island with a breakfast bar.

Dream: Let's put the the cooktop in the island and I won't have my back to the room when I'm cooking.

Reality: It has to be vented somehow.

Dream: I didn't want a vent hood over the island...it would take up so much room visually.

Reality: That, boys and girls, means downdraft venting.

Dream: I can store stuff in the island cabinet.

More Reality: The motor and stuff for the vent eat up the entire cabinet space.

Nightmare: I'll need an oven..somewhere..

Reality: Better start doing your homework.

After a foray into the internet world of appliances, I figured out that the only folks that make a slide-in downdraft glass topped electrical unit with an oven is.....Jenn-air.

I show Ed all the stuff I found out and he says, "Great. Jenn-air it is. Where do I put the cutout for the vent?" Um..... I dunno. Can't find a schematic on the website to tell me, and finally we realize they provide a template in the box, which means we have to buy the unit before we make the cutout.

So after another bit of searching, and printouts in hand, off I went to Lowe's.

Now we could have ordered this unit from a company in New York and saved $300. and that's nothing to sneeze at. Shipping was free, and the website didn't look fly-by-night, although the weird thing about the internet is...you never can tell. So being the cautious creature that I am, I decided to go down to Lowe's and see what they would do. I took my printouts from Home Depot (a $100. less than Lowe's) and from the east coast internet place ( a lot less) to see if they would bargain. Well, they did! They didn't match the east coast price, but they did go about halfway between the Home Depot price and the east coast price. I was pretty happy, and ordered the range unit. We'll pick it up in about two weeks.