Forgot to mention that we also intend to have a piece of stainless cut to go between the stove and hood on the wall.

It's refreshing to hear positive feedback once in a while, it seems many post to complain about something. I've had my RNB36 with griddle for just over three months, and absolutely love it! I paired it with a Prizer Hood, and am equally as pleased with that decision. BTW, thats quite a faucet you have there! Then I saw your user name, and thought well of course... Enjoy that new range!

That looks great! I just bought the same range last weekend. My cabinets and countertop look very similar to yours - I hope mine looks as nice once it's installed.

One question -- instead of cutting a piece of stainless steel, did you consider getting the stainless steel back panel from BlueStar? We got the 6" back panel but I think they sell one that goes all the way up.

Beautiful kitchen! I am considering the BS RNB36 as well. Do you feel like the 42 inch hood makes a difference? I am waffling between that and the 36 b/c the 42 will mess with my upper cabinet alignment.

Oh, that kitchen looks so nice! Love the gray counters and the hardwood floors.

I got my 36 inch Bluestar about 1.5 months ago, and it's been wonderful. I have a 36 inch Vent-a-Hood over it -- seems fine to me, although I don't know if I'd notice a difference with a 42 inch hood. I know that a hood is important, and I've been using it religiously, but I don't really know if I'd see a difference this early. (That was directed to kam76.)

firemedic -- I'd love to see more photos of your kitchen!

Also @ kam76, I have a 36" island hood over my 36" range, and I mounted it is up at the maximum suggested height of 36". It works fine, although occasionally I've seen a small bit of smoke "escape" the sides when cooking something very smokey. Not enough to bother me though, or make me wish I had gone with a 42".

We did consider the back panels from Bluestar but the taller ones all have shelves (which I like - but my wife didn't - you can see who won that battle). They are also kind of expensive. A guy at my firehouse does metalwork (he made the stainless backsplash for the faucet) and can cut me a piece of stainless to fit behind the stove for much less.

Everything I was able to find about hoods said it should overhang the stove to better catch fumes. We went with the 42 for that reason. Also, the "X" in the model number means that we also got the deeper hood (27" vs 24") for that same reason. During the stove "burn off" there was a decent amount of smoke that came off and you couldn't smell it in the house at all. I'm sure a 36 would have done it just as well but it wasn't too much extra for the slightly bigger hood. I've done a little bit of wok cooking so far and it seems to grab all of the smoke and odors really well.

I did another post today about our faucet (http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0512143230887.html) and the countertops. The long term plan is to put in concrete countertops but I knew I didn't have time to do them during the renovation of the home (my wife's grandparent's 100ish year old farmhouse - totally gutted and redone). We tried to pick a color as close to concrete as we could but they're a little more green that we thought. When they put them in I told them not to go crazy with the screws and glue as I planned to replace them before too long.

The floors are the original pine that, in the kitchen, were covered with 2 layers of linoleum and luan and eleventy billion nails and staples. Took me 3 or 4 nights and about 4 cases of beer to remove it all. Uttered every swear word in the book while doing it. All of the floors on the first floor were pine. Sanded and finished with 5 coats of Waterlox (I need to do a post with photos for this as well since I discovered Waterlox on GardenWeb as well).

I'll post photos of the kitchen including one "before" as well. I also added a picture of the flooring. I really need to sit down and make a post detailing what all we did with photos. Learned a lot during this process. We did some of the work (mainly gutting and painting inside and out) and the contractor did the rest. Can recommend an EXCELLENT contractor if anyone has a similar project near Indianapolis. Couldn't have been happier.

This photo is the before. Looking at the wall where the stove is now. Maybe there is a way to post multiple photos in one post but I dont know how. I'll have to do multiple posts?

During construction. Floors were in the process of being finished at this point.

Kitchen. Again, during construction. In the earlier picture, you'll notice there are no doors on cabinets. Cabinet guys messed up and put handles instead of knobs. They fixed it though.....

Floors. Highly recommend Waterlox.

Fridge. It's a beast. Barely fit in the door.

Also, regarding the faucet. It's the same one that is in the firehouse I am at. If it can put up with the abuse it takes there, it should last us forever.

Beautiful floors! I bet that was a ton of work. What farmhouse sink do you have?

Sink is Whitehaus WH3018 ordered from Bluebath.com. Best price I could find.

Sink is Whitehaus WH3018 ordered from Bluebath.com. Best price I could find.