Many thanks to the wonderful folks on gardenweb for helping design my kitchen. Some who helped overtly by making suggestions on the layout -- Rhome you probably don't even remember but I'll be forever greatful to you! And some who helped without knowing it by just influencing my choices -- buehl whose upper tray storage idea I used and who I think first introduced me to the sharp mw drawer, thynes who influenced by backsplash tiles, and many many more. Before gardenweb, I'd never even heard of some of the things we ended up putting into our kitchen, e.g., the refrigerator drawers as one example. I just love this site!

Prior to remodel, our stove was on a far wall across the aisle from water, while fridge and pantry were behind the island ... totally bass-ackwards and I felt like I was running an obstacle course every time I took a boiling pot of water from the stove, navigating over the dog and around hubby who was likely at the fridge getting cream for his coffee. The biggest change our remodel was switching the fridge and stove runs, and putting a second sink/beverage area which my husband can use while I cook and we aren't in each other's way now. Yay.

Cabinets: Local Custom Cabinet Maker (in GTA, Canada)
Fridge/Freezer: Kenmore Pros with risers & top/bottom trim kit
Range: Monogram ZDP484GPSS
Hood Insert: Monogram ZVC48LSS
Fridge/Freezer Drawers: JennAir JUD248C
Microwaves: Sharp 24" drawer KB6014MSC and Kenmore cheapie
Coffee Maker: Miele CVA4066
Trash Compactor: Kitchenaid KUCS03FTPA
Dishwashers: Kenmore Elite tall tub & Kenmore Elite drawer
Main Sink: Kindred couble offset (forget the model)
Bar Sink: Nantucket NS20
Faucets: Delta Waterfall & Delta Addison
Other Faucets: Insinkerator Hot at main sink, Insinkerator Cold at bar sink
Other Gadgets: Insinkerator Garbage Disposal, Hot Tank, Water Chiller
Backsplashes: Saltillo Tile las vegas and alaska
Tile floor: Astor 18s and 12s in hopscotch pattern
Chandelier & Pendants: Rona cheapies

Favorite things:
-- Coffee maker (I would marry it if I could, I love it so much :))
-- The workflow!! Finally, a kitchen that works!
-- Grill: took me a while to try this out, but have just used it 7 nights in a row now and it's fantastic
-- Remote mount hood control (it's just fun every time I turn it on)
-- Dog food drawer
-- DH's vitamin drawer (it looks a mess inside, but they used to get left all over the desk in our pre-drawer kitchen ... now everything stays in the drawer and the mess gets shut away, it's magic :))
-- Too many other tings to mention so I'll finally shut and post some pics now

Finally, a couple cool little extras our cabinet maker did for us:

Put niches in the back undersides of the island so we can keep our laptop cords there:

Made us these little 'shelf boxes' to raise smaller items in our glass uppers so they can be seen from floor level -- he stained the boxes dark or yellow to match the respective cabs, and it was a nice surprise for us as we weren't expecting these:

Did custom, movable drawer dividers - after the kitchen was installed he asked us which way we wanted dividers to go for each drawer (horizontal or vertical) then came back a couple days later with drawer dividers custom cut to wedge in tight, but we can unwedge and move them depending on what we want to store:

I love my new kitchen. Thanks to everyone on gardenweb for helping to shape it!

Was that a deliberate goal from the outset, or did it just happen?

Congratulations!

Enjoy!

pipdog & beekeeperswife, it's so nice to read your lovely feedback as I admire your styles so much and I know my kitchen is so different from your beautiful classic and clean lines. What a great community when we can all support each other no matter the style.

35ftcabo, you will love the stove! The simmer is great, the small oven fabulous, and the full extension racks are the bomb. Don't be afraid to use the grill -- I thought it would be a lot messier or smokier than it is, but it's not at all. It cleans up well with a wire bbq brush, and we haven't had to have the hood fan on higher than 2 out of 4 when cooking t-bones or pork chops. (which is just as well because 2 is loud and 4 is deafening on this hood!)

gr8day, thanks so much for your kind feedback. The counters are Caesarstone Chocolate Truffle ... knew I forgot something!

cat_mom and fouramblues, thank you, you made me smile.

honorbilt, what a kind comment. I didn't set out to have it glow, but the finish on the yellow cabinets does have a really nice sheen to it. The cabinet maker did a few different yellow samples, and I loved this color and finish. The lighting helps (and maybe my slightly-blurry picture taking technique, lol).

ayerg73, motherof3sons, blfenton, and darbuka, thank you, I really appreciate your thoughtful words.

ayerg73, the dog food drawer has a stainless steel liner. The cabinet maker had it made from a steel shop he works with. It can come out for cleaning, but we've already emptied it of dog food once and found it's easy to just wipe down in place so I don't imagine we'll ever take it out. It doesn't have a lid, we just close the door on it like that. (Our GSD hasn't complained of staleness yet so it must work.)

blfenton, thanks for your comments on the range wall - I agonized so much over that it wasn't funny but I like how it turned out too. Yes for sure you have to paint your blocks of wood! Even though they aren't often seen, it's nice when the cabinets do get opened to see them all finished like that.

Cj

What an elegant space! So much thought and care went into your new kitchen. The little extra touches and storage ideas are awesome. I'd totally steal the dog food drawer if I had a dog.

I'm so greenly envious of your Miele! Especially since my Gaggia super auto is on the fritz. Have a cup for me!

Congrats on a beautiful and functional space!

Congratulations!

Congratulations and happy cooking!

Everytime I see a GW finished kitchen portfolio, I think how GW contributors could put together the BEST kitchen remodel picture book - better than anything I've seen in stores.

Thanks for sharing.

codymaxx the planning is at least half the fun! make sure you post back with pics when you're finished.

plllog thank you for your kind wishes. :) And breezy, lol on totally getting a dog food drawer if only you had a dog! Ha ha ha.

mmhmmgood, clarygrace, mobydog, hsw_sc, legallin, kfhl, angel41, shelayne, bostonpam, laxsupermom, AnnaA, and lazydaisynot: thank you all so much for your lovely words, I appreciate you taking the time to post, and can't wait to show my husband tonight.

deb52899, lol, now I'll be craving pistachios every time I feed the dog.

aokat15, that means a lot coming from you with your fab drawers. Green with envy over your tray storage (and plllog's platter storage too!)

Kat3kits, OMG thank goodness our dog can't open drawers -- I never even thought of that. He actually can open our lever-handled doors but never did figure out the pull drawers. Whew!

And I'm so delighted to see that you used the Saltillo metallic glass tiles. They look absolutely beautiful in your kitchen!

Great job!

jterrilynn, I just saw your beautiful yellow cabinets on 2littlefishies thread -- they are gorgeous!! I am in awe that you could do those yourself, wow, wow, wow.

lynn2006, thanks, and the counters are Caesarstone Chocolate Truffle. Not the most 'chic' look going but I really like them. Plus they camouflage spilled coffee droplets and coffee cup rings and other messes perfectly. I wipe them at least twice every day and am always so surprised that the bar counter is as messy/dirty as it is because it never looks it!

thynes, I just love the backsplash! The one little bit of modern in what would otherwise be such an overwhelmingly traditional kitchen -- it just makes me smile. Soooo glad I saw your beautiful kitchen and your totally stunning range wall! I don't actually know what colors the cabinets are. For the chocolate ones he had a stain made to match the cabinets from our ensuite (where we added some of his additional cabs as well). For the yellow I started from a couple of BM chips and he had stains made from those, then played off one of the colors by lightening it a couple of shades I think. So I don't know what it ended up being close to. Also it wasn't just the color of the stain it was also how it was applied. The same yellow looked completely different when lightly sprayed vs. more heavily sprayed. So it was sort of trial and error until it was the color I liked in our lighting.

dianalo, thanks, and you are right that I should post about our cabinet maker. I don't think angie's list is a toronto thing (?) but there are a couple of sites including one called homestars that a lot of people up here use so I will post on those for sure. Thanks for the push!

By the way, my dogs (a Great Dane and a 75 lb mutt) are not nearly smart enough to open a drawer....

Did your cabinet maker do the range housing too? It looks fantastic. May all your gatherings flow as smoothly.

labpa, the insert was done by a steel fabricator in our (smallish) town. Our cabinet guy just gave them the measurements and they made it from that. It cost $200 so with a lid it might be a bit more, but that's not ridiculously expensive for the convenience of feeding a Dane AND and his 75 pound buddy. :-) Man how hated those big bags that always spilled kibble everywhere -- this is WAY worth it.

alaris, the range hood housing was done by the cabinet maker. I just showed him a picture and asked him to make it look like that ... and he did! He was so great to work with.

I found your link by searching for Jenn-Air fridge/freezer drawers since unexpectedly that is what we're considering for our new kitchen.

I was hoping you could share how you're liking them so far? How is the insulation (do you notice a lot of cycling) and also the noise factor?

I had planned on going with the 27" subzero but was disappointed today to learn at the showroom that the inner dimensions on the SZ are very small. . The lower SZ freezer drawer is so shallow (6") as to make it practically useless.

The showroom had a JennAir also on display and it was pretty shocking how much more space the JA had in both drawers.

Also did you have any problems making your cabinet panels flush with your other cabinetry?

Thanks!!

One thing that gave us some pause was the lack of movable dividers. Since we keep bags of milk there for smoothies I was initially against these drawers since I figured the milk jug would tip over. But function (the deep freezer drawer and ice maker) won out and I just bought little container/dividers to go inside the drawers to keep it organized. Works perfectly.

We haven't noticed much cycling and the temperature is good. I'm not sure about the noise. It's not something we've ever noticed but that's not saying much as we usually have the TV or stereo going and appliance noise isn't something that usually bothers us. I don't think they're loud though; I notice the dishwasher but have never noticed the fridge/freezer drawers.

No problems making the cabinet panels flush; they just took the exact same drawer front thickness as the rest of our drawers.

One thing I really like about these drawers is that they give a loud beeping noise if the drawers are open more than about 60 (I think?) seconds. That has saved us I don't know how many times! The rest of our drawers are soft-closing, and many times we've just sort of pushed these ones lightly and walked away, unconsciously applying the same pressure as for a standard drawer. Of course that leaves the fridge or freezer ajar, and instead of coming back to melted ice or sour milk, the beeping saved us countless times. That might be a standard feature on all fridge drawers, I don't know. It wasn't something we checked out in advance but it's definitely something we appreciate now.

Good luck and have fun with your remodel.

madeyna, the stain is a chocolate brown but not sure the exact shade. The cabinet maker started me with a some door samples to take home and we went from there. He custom mixed his stains so didn't give the names of them other than that they were chocolates.

a2gemini, yes I am still totally loving the kitchen. Can honestly say that if I had a blank slate today I would pick all the exact same choices ... except for one of the dishwashers. Okay, and *maybe* I would be tempted to try a silgranite sink since everyone raves about them so much, but that's it. :-) So happy with everything.

sanjuangirl, audreyamelia, and rikerk, thanks for your nice comments too! You guys have all totally made my day!

rikerk, the ceilings are 9'. LOVE the island sink across from the range. The aisle width is exactly 42" from counter overhang to counter overhang (about 45.5" from cab to cab as the overhangs are 1.75"). The range oven handles & dw drawer handles protrude out a bit as well so it's 37" from handle to handle at the narrowest point. The aisle width works perfectly. Just enough to have the appliances and opposing drawers open without touching each other, but not too wide that a pivot from prep to range isn't comfortable too. A couple pics below so you can see the width better. (and good luck with your remodel!)