I have a bg86 blower that has lasted me eight years of regular use. I had to tighten the muffler bolts and repair the wires to the ignition shutoff...took ten minutes. I'm a fan of the stihl products as a landscaper. I like the two stroke fs94r line trimmer for regular yard maintenance but the "four stroke" fs111rx with a duro cut head for the really overgrown grass and weeds. The two strokes are more versatile and responsive at all Rpms the 4strokes are a little harder to feather the throttle and like to run all (3/4 throttle and above) or nothing but really have torque to tear through tough stuff. I personally think that if you break in a piece of equipment properly and do the maintenance any of the top brands will last years and years of hard use. I stick with stihl because they all use the same mix, I can fix them and get parts locally and they have been very dependable for me and my business.

1929 Model A Ford, 4 dr with window shade, roll-up, style curtains on rear side windows. Color black - was there any other color? 1949 Plymouth, 6cy, 2dr, 3-sp manaul, column shifter, Blue, the last of the fast back designs. (Horrible rear visibility) 1954 Dodge, 4dr, w/ Red Ram V-8, 3-sp stick. This one was not a large displacement engine, rated only at 140 hp, but was the smoothest running engine that I have ever owned. Color: White top over Blue bottom. 1960 Plymouth Valiant, slant six, 100 hp, automatic, 4 dr, blue. Low torque engine - couldn't get out of the way of itself. Good fuel mileage. No power steering - didn't need it - very good handling. The next year, a longer stroke engine was offered with much more torque. This one was very driveable and became the engine of choice. 1964 Dodge Dart, 273 cid V8, 4 dr, automatic, white w/red interior. This one was a good compromise between, power and fuel economy and room. I wish that I had another similar car today. This one was well liked. The engine was a thin wall cast version of the 318, but with a smaller bore. The bore centers were the same as the 318, thus it was manufactured on the same engine line as the 318. Many engine parts were interchangeable with the 318. 1969 Dodge Coronet, 4 dr, 318 cid V8, blue Just an ordinary sedan to hold my growing family. EPA fix-ups began to appear and degraded performance a bit without any fuel mileage increase - lower compression and a low ratio rear end ( 2.71 to 1) Though I put 115,000 miles on it before moving on. 1974 Dodge Sedan, 400 cid V-8. EPA had struck this engine hard. It was based on the admired 383 V8, an engine upgrade option for station wagons and police cars. To meet EPA requirements, Chrysler lowered the compression ratio and installed a very mild cam. The resulting power was so embarrasing that chrysler bumped the displacement up to 400 cu in to gain back a bit of performance. (An earlier 383 in good tune would run cicles around it.) 1974 Oldsmobile Cutlass, 4 dr, V8. Bought used for a 2nd car and commuter. Had to put in a valve job after 1 yr ownership. As it neared the end of its life, sold it to a junk yard. I didn't want to see this on the road again as it had become dangerous. The body metal holding the rear body mounts had corroded away. The best part of this car: The radio. 1975 Buick Apollo, 270 cid V-8 (Oldsmoblie engine), 4 dr, Yellow. The smallest V8 made by GM. Not a good car. Was purchased as 2nd car for a winter-beater and comuter. Let my kids learn to drive with this one - they were not going to win any stop light drags with it. In fact, they were lucky go to get across a big intersection before the light changed to red. I bought this car during a period of runaway inflation. It was 3 yrs old and loosing value at a lesser rate than my hard earned cash in the savings account. That became part of my rationale for picking it up for a 2nd car. 1976 Buick Estate Wagon, 4 dr, 455 cid V8, Clam shell rear gate and window; 19 ft long! This one was the family land barge and vacation machine. The family had now grown to 5 and this station wagon held us all in comfort on long trips. This was the first year that GM put catalytic converter on all of the Buick line. (GM had put catalytic converters on a few select models the year before as a field trial.) With the converter, Buick put in a better cam and iginition advance curve and got better power plus 2 more miles per gallon. I garaged this one every winter taking it off the streets just before road salting began and it stayed off until next spring after a rain had washed away the salt. I kept this one 13 yrs and it was in very good condition the day I traded it in. It was showing signs of a catalytic converter plugging up, otherwise, the engine was in fine shape. 1980 Chevrolet Citation, V6, 4dr + hatch back, green, my first front wheel driver. A fair car. Had a very good useable interior layout and driver visibility - wished there was a car with those features today. Had too much braking on rear wheels compared to the front - gave the car a tendency to swap ends while braking on slippery surfaces. Over- sped the engine one time when the tranny failed to catch 2nd gear on a downshift - it went all the way to 1st gear at 45 mph. Loosened a rod bearing. GM got the steering geometry right on this one - no torque steer. The Chrysler K-car was plagued with torque ateer. 1983 Chevrolet Citation, V8, 4dr, white Engine was de-tuned a bit, but otherwise the same as the 1980. 1981 Pontiac Phoenix (twin of the Citation), 4 cy "Iron Duke", 4 dr., Brown. A dog. Served as a commuter. When climbibng a grade, engine vibration could be strongly felt in the steering wheel - each firing of the cyliners were perceptable. No. 2 son, a new driver, burned the engine up while driving home from a days outing with the guys. He had not been watching the oil level - it ran out. 1989 Dodge Dynasty, 4 dr, V6, Light blue 1st yr for Chrysler's new computer controlled transmission. It had issues - shifting algorithm should have been revised. It was programmed to give good results on the EPA fuel mileage test, but otherwise, was bad for commuting traffic. Car was too softly spring - people riding in back tended to get car sick. 1992 Dodge Dynasty, V6, 4dr, White. A much better car. Better handling. Held front alignment very well. Shifting algorithn improved, but still had glitches. I put 90,000 miles on it and sold it (cheaply) to my daughter. She moved out of state and later sold the car to her friend. By then, the rocker panels were holed out. I saw the car two years ago and it was still running with upwards of 140,000 miles on it. 1992 Jeep Cherokee, inline 4.0 L 6CY, 4dr, with part and full time 4-wheel drive, Red. Really liked this one. Gas mileage wasn't great, but it took us all over the lower 48 states and into places where an ordunary car could not go. We photograhed many interesting scenics using this vehicle. This one was my prime winter time driver - great in snow - can't beat it. 1998 Dodge Stratus, 4 cy, dual overhead cams, 4 dr, red. An OK car - not great, but OK. Its gets very good gas mileage on trips and that is what I bought it for. Runs great. I beem garaging this one very winter and there are no rust spots. 1998 Jeep Cherokee, in-line 6 cy, 4 dr, again with part and full time 4 wheel drive, Deep Amethyst Purple (appears black under many lighting conditions). Replaces the red Jeep which was getting body rust, but ran well - had 190,000 miles on it.

Trying to revive this thread... So a couple of days after funkycampers last comment, Thanksgiving 2015 to be exact, I found out I was pregnant! So my little guy kind of derailed our plans and my extended maternity leave has derailed our budget as well. Plus with a baby I just can't fathom the idea of doing all of that structural work and being without a kitchen for that long. Rather than save it for later (this isn't our forever home), we still want to redo the kitchen but we will be working with a lot of limitations so I need your help more than ever! The only structural work we will be doing is to remove the rest of the partition wall between the kitchen and dining areas. This will give me 2 extra feet lengthwise. We would also consider closing off the entryway from the foyer, although it's not preferable. You can see the floor plan of my home above in this thread. Here is a layout I've come up with. It breaks a lot of rules but I'm just so very limited in this tiny kitchen! In my original post I was planning on bumping the kitchen out into the family room 2 feet but that is no longer on the table, either. I've read all of the "read me first" type threads and attempted to embed links to the pics. I'll also post a drawing on graph paper of my latest layout idea later today. Notes: Aisle between peninsula and fridge wall is 48''. Fridge is counter depth. Built in oven next to fridge, separate from cooktop. I put 2 intersecting 36'' cabs to simulate the size of a corner sink cab since IKEA doesn't have one, hope that makes sense. I'm eager to hear your ideas, TIA! Cutest reason for a project delay, ever: http://imgur.com/8EDBrz3 New layout, general dimensions: http://imgur.com/ix5Kc34 Birdseye Rendering: http://imgur.com/WtCKvfn View from dining: http://imgur.com/lwbnvS2

freeoscar: Thanks so much! We've never purchased any extended warranties on the various appliances replaced over the years, but this is our first reno and appliance overhaul (if I had it my way, I would've just reinstalled my 25 y/o, tried-and-true, still-going-strong Whirlpool oven -- no electronics!). $1,404 seems like quite a chunk of change. Thankfully, at least for now, Bosch has their own crew of service reps in the area (Houston), and the technician (factory trained) assigned to us earlier this year seemed to know what he was doing. A Bosch CSR confirmed that the original warranty begins on delivery date, not installation date. (This is why I was confused, too, about why Bosch was contacting me now/August....am curious to know when the clock starts ticking on the 4 years.) I mentioned that, due to reno delays that were beyond our control, the cooktop + vent may not be installed until January -- which meant we had only three months to run them through their paces. She said technically that was true, but if we did happen to encounter issues early on (but beyond the original warranty), Bosch would/might take into account the installation date. She did make note of our conversation (we'd called on other occasions to confirm installation specs, and they'd documented those calls/conversations). I'm hoping that if they have a track record of issues with an appliance, they'll take care of their customers...fingers crossed, anyway.