I, too, had more than my share of problems with my 36" DCS all gas 6-burner range, purchased back in 2003 or 2004 (can't recall exactly which year). We have since moved and sold the house with the range, but during the sale of our house, I had to disclose any big problems with the major appliances for the new buyer of the house, so unfortunately, I had to detail the litany of repair issues we had with the DCS range (many of which were similar to those listed above by Arthur). As my husband and I dug out our repair records and recounted the history of issues, even we were surprised at how time-consuming and costly it had been. The people buying our house were quite concerned that they were being left with a lemon of a range and almost made us give them a credit for the cost of a new range before we closed on the sale of our house. Fortunately, we worked it out, but I have to say that I will never buy a DCS range again. As Arthur says, when it worked, it worked great, but there were just too many times it didn't work as it was supposed to. The worst thing was that although it would frequently work okay when I was using a single burner or the oven, when I really needed many burners and the oven together, such as during a big dinner party or Thanksgiving or some other chaotic time, that was when it most often let me down. There were many issues, but the most common problem was a constant clicking and no ignition on the burners, especially if the oven was on. We cleaned the orifices, had the repair guy replace everthing, etc. To DCS's credit, they eventually sent a factory technician down from their shop (they are about 2 hrs away from us), and he re-plumbed all the gas lines, among other things. At that point, he even had a conference call with one of the engineers back at the shop to discuss several options and even they admitted that there were several design/engineering fixes that needed to be made. Although we were appreciative of the extra service, all of his work was for naught, as we continued to have numerous problems. Now I have a GE Monogram 48" dual fuel and I have to say I love it. I thought it might be a step down in terms of "real" cooking power, but it definitely is not - it has super high heat as well as a fantastic simmer capability (probably copied from DCS since DCS made the GE Monogram ranges until a couple years ago when - I've been told - GE was dissatisfied with the DCS quality control and took manufacturing of their Monogram ranges back in house). Anyway, that's my saga, and I am sorry to say that, if asked, I tend to steer people away from DCS based on my experience. I'm glad to hear that not everyone has the same problems, and I know some people on this forum, such as weissman, love their DCS. Just my two cents.

Ooooh! More great advice! I LOVE the idea of Easter Brunch at the Kennedy Center! It is special enough for the occasion and unique to DC. Plus, I checked it out on Chowhound (thanks for the link!) and the reviews are very favorable. Oh, I'm getting excited now! I've also arranged for a Capitol tour with my Senator's office and requested a tour at the Bureau of Printing & Engraving. I passed on the White House tour because it seemed like a lot of security hassle for a short tour. Did I make a mistake - is it really not to be missed? Emma, you are not alone in your enthusiasm for Air & Space - I will go with an open mind! I booked our hotel at the Embassy Suites near Dupont Circle, but I'm not totally sold on that idea. It is a 5 block walk to the Metro which sounds kind of far to me. I'm wondering if I should change to the ES at either Chevy Chase (Friendship Heights) or Alexandria. Both have Metro stations very close by, and it sounds like lots of restaurants as well. Alexandria sounds very charming, I'm leaning towards that way. Will we miss anything if we stay too far out? (Are those places too far out?) I need good restaurants and shopping, don't need nightlife. We'll be there for a week. (I did check out the ES at the Convention Center but it is coming in at over $350/night including tax. I just can't bring myself to go that high!) Thanks again for the great ideas - keep 'em coming! Nicole

LG washer WM2016CW reqd replacement of spider...spider is the suppprt arm that holds the tumble stainless drum built in with shaft assy..if u can replace brake pads and spark plug then u can don this washing machine..if it makes a lot of noise or smokes during high speed spin..possible bearing or spider..So I open up then the inner and outer bearing and seal are all in good shape except cracked spider arm...the spider is the one that cracked....the outcome of dirt on spider arm is so bad even we are cleaning every 5 times of use.. but anyways I did replaced shaft seal and gasket for the tumble drum, spider and bolts ..expenses is 95.50 US and heavy cleaning like new..front loading is not really recommended. .better to buy top loading.I am going to explain this later....all of front loading design have the same principle..every brand of washing machine will last for 25 yrs if they can supply parts, so easy to fix and very basic..front loading use less water ..this is one of the reason why the spider arm gets dirty so easy..not like top loading always soak with water...

Most RTA companies out there only sell the most used sizes in cabinets. For what ever reason the easy reach wall cabinet does not sell much. Fabuwood is about the only large importer of cabinets that offers an easy reach corner cabinet in all three heights in their more expensive series of door styles. Down side to Fabuwood is the Ready to Assemble part is not user friendly to some one who is not mechanically inclined, or does not have all of the following an air compressor with a staple gun, bar clamps, glue, cordless drill, and some patience. Most urban areas have a dealer for Fabuwood somewhere. I think it is better to pay the local person slightly more then buying off the websites. The websites all are so shady saying they are factory direct when not. The only exception would be Lilly Ann they have the business model of importing and selling direct. I saw their cabinets in their Vegas location a while back. I was not impressed with their quality. Of course I do cabinets every day so I may notice things others do not. No RTA company out there is really anything to brag about for overall quality and flexibility of sizes. I say that while I have the door samples to 6 RTA companies on the wall of my showroom. I do sell something in RTA every other month or so. I am not totaly biased against them I have worked with every major RTA company out there. They all have their good and bad days. I have an account with Wellborn Forest and because i do apt sales now and then they set me up with the Americana line which has 9 door styles and 350 cabinets to chose from. They offer easy reach wall cabinets for example. I had a guy ask me the other day if I could match or beat Lowes cabinets on the shelf. With the Americana series on the lower priced door styles I could match the price of the cabinets on the shelf at my local Lowes. I had 30, 36, 42, microwave wall and base cabinets, pantrys up to 36" wide, drawer base 12 - 36" wide even. Many RTA cabinet lines only go to 30" wide drawer base. I can change cabinet depth add matching interior and glass doors on anything and a lot more. Lowes for example only has 30" cabinets and 84" tall cabinets on the shelf not to mention the semi custom modifications I can do. My orders must be in by monday mornings each week and the cabinets are at my shop the following Wed - Thur. Most RTA cabinets take at least Mon - Mon. Since I have gotten set up with the Americana series of cabinets I am leaning more and more towards taking my RTA samples off the walls of my slection room where I have a door sample of almost all styles of every company I work with which is currently 12 from stock and RTA all the way to custom. Every one is all about the plywood construction. To me plywood in an of itself is over rated as the reason to go with RTA over something american made. The Americana series has twice the cabinet choices of any RTA line. Each door style has 4-5 stain colors, there are 3-4 glaze choices on top of that. I can also add blum tandem undermount soft close guides to the drawers. The only thing I would change of the americana series is they do not offer butt doors on cabinets 30" or wider. Most RTA cabinets 30, 33, or 36 will have butt doors. As a dealer to compensate for that you need all the RTA companies out there to offer a selection of color. No RTA company has all the same cabinet sizes available as the next company so generally you can not compare one to the next without a different design which is time consuming to re do every time. People want you to price all of them to see which will be the lowest cost. Once a cabinet is installed to the wall it generally will stay there! Plywood is more durrable for shipping and man handling before it is screwed in place. If you buy the matching plywood panels you can skin the exposed sides of the cabinets and have the colors match on a particle board cabinet. I can add blum soft close to the drawers and have the same lifetime warranty of any semi custom line with Blum. To me the overall flexibilty out weighs the benifits of plywood from an RTA cabinet. The lower cost american cabinet lines offer particle board box only. Lets face it RTA cabinets are being bought by individuals who think the cost is less then the semi custom route. TSG, IKS and JSI for example assemble their cabinets for dealers for approx $20 each as a flat rate. Fabuwood, River Run,and Interstock change the product cost which is usually an increas of 5 - 7.5%. It does not cost that much to have the assembled for you. Now wether the dealer tries to make more money on top of that is a different issue. People buying cabinets on line in some ways are not well educated on what they are truly buying. For example most of the replies to this post named the website names of companies selling cabinets. Most of those individuals have no idea who actually made the cabinets.I think in terms of the name of the importer of the cabinets as that is the brand name of the product for the US consumer.Even if you know the name of the cabinets from my posts on Garden Web you do not know what online store is selling what as most change the name of the door styles and do not give the importer name to be able to say it is a direct sale. Of course you are buying direct from someone like me who made a website. Lilly Ann is the exception. They sell direct at close to what the comperable dealer cost would be of the companies I get my cabinets from. The supply chain of RTA cabinets selling on the internet does not want you to know where the cabinets come from so you can not compare prices. The online marketing tries to create monopolies by limiting your true product knowledge of the cabinets themselves. J Mark cabinets are sold all over the internet for example. There is a guy in DC who sells them as 10 x 10's where he buys a random list of cabinets, assembles them, and puts pictures up on Craigs list.He sells the original set and then orders what you need to make it fit. I sold J Mark cabinets to a friend a few years ago where now the cabinets exposed to a lot water around the sink no longer have a painted finish left on the wood over all the drawer fronts and the doors. The paint did not stay adhered to the wood after exposure to the water. To be fair they are not the best house keepers so I imagine there is a lot of water all the time from being care less when using the sink with the young kids. I have never had that happen to any of my American products I have worked with thru the years. Of course J Mark cabinets only come with a 1 year warranty. I am buying him new ones to replace what needs to be done. Of course it is bound to repeat itself over time. Dealers with Debut or Legacy cabinets sister companys have a line that is similar to the Americana also. I looked into Debut last year and after messing with it a bit gave up on it.