Donna. thanks but there is a problem with its blooms, which is that the rod does not grow high enough. Dan I would love to have that kind, in fact most of the hippe I have are from seed, grow it is very nice from the beginning. I have several species but few pictures of flowers, here are some. crinum

I had the Bosch 500 series single oven installed about 2 weeks ago under a raised counter (but not under a cooktop). While limited, I already have some service and use experience! I purchased the oven with all of my other appliances for the remodel through a local appliance store that is known for service and helping to coordinate manufacturer service calls. Half of the display panel went out within a day of install. I contacted the store, who coordinated a Bosch authorized service call within 2 days. (I get the feeling that if I pushed to have a new oven delivered they would have done that as well, but since it was already in and wired, I preferred to avoid that since this seemed like a simple âÂÂbad boardâ type issue.) The authorized service rep was friendly, thorough and gave me a lot of tips about my appliances. He had to order a part that was in within 5 days. I asked him about the issues that I had heard about (on this board) from using the self clean mode on ovens (all brands not just Bosch). He told me that had been an issue a while ago, but Bosch seems to have solved it with a better vent. He pointed out the vent along the top of the door and advised me to put a heat resistant towel over it when taking something liquid or messy out of the oven so it doesnâÂÂt spill into the cavity between the glass. I used the oven for the first time this weekend. While I have a learning curve to get used to the convection modes, the regular bake worked well (bakes evenly, unlike my old Whirlpool range). ItâÂÂs a nice big oven. The vent fan does a great job of keeping the oven cool, which was set between 375 and 425 degrees continually for about 4 hours. While the fan was running the granite over the oven and cabinet sides barely became lukewarm, and the oven itself and drawer underneath were only slightly warm. Although when the fan shut off (probably when the oven got somewhere below the 200 degree mark), the front of the oven did become more warm. So far so good. I couldnâÂÂt justify the cost of the Miele oven or Wolf, so the Bosch seemed to be the best compromise for me. The only thing that the 800 series had that I wanted was the full extension rack, and the appliance store happened to have an extra that they threw in with the package. Plus I liked the look of the knobs. I researched to death as well, and came to the conclusion that every appliance has problems, and every manufacturer has some service issues. So I picked based on my budget, features important to me, and then the overall frustration level I sensed in various reviews of the specific appliances. I also have a Bosch induction cooktop, and Miele dishwasher and warming drawer. Only time will tell if I made the right choices.

If someone is trying to sell you a dryer, for long run applications, that is not a true statement. Beware of of that. All dryers are made to dry clothes at a cirtain speed, and to a spec sheet. If they were to change the speed of the motor, it would just use more energy, and get less drying as the speed and the finns on the impeller are disigned to move x amount of air at a speed that the heat will dry your close in a specific amount of time. For instance, it will move 135cf per minute, more than that your dryer is running long times and not drying properly. Now that I have said all that, what you need to do, is contact a venting service, that can come and look your system over, and you said you had only 2 90's and 50 feet, I have had them over 100' and 8 90's, and we installed on inline 4" fan/housing in the duck, and had a power line connected to the dryer, so when the dryer started up it also powered up the discharge fan/housing installed down line to help move the air, but also you have to install one that will not change the speed of the dryer motor discharge. Your local venting installer, some of the furnace firms have people that are fully experienced in this sort of addition, or long venting problems. Hope this helps you. Brent@CanBC

Just a thought: the lack of wall space in the newly designated kitchen area (due to removal of walls, lovely windows in bumpout, choice to have an island, etc.) isn't really going to get you "increased counterspace". Nine and half feet, in four sections, is pretty minmal considering you're not in a tiny apartment. Are you sure you want to swap rooms and take down walls? The much-admired island cockpit style kitchen in an open plan requires a lot of space to pull off. Where do you eat your meals, now? Would seating at the island supplant that? It looks to me (without benefit of floor plan measurements) that the existing kitchen is bigger than the space with the bumpout you're proposing to assign to the new kitchen. If you don't use your DR for every meal, then allotting it more square feet just doesn't make sense. If the existing kitchen is too small, then steal some space from the DR to enlarge it, but plan on eating at the DR table and cooking in the kitchen w/o more than a simple cook's perch type seating. Where do the sliders lead to - is that how people are entering the kitchen space? HTH, L.