Hi All

We are currently building a new house and I am started to look for a pro-style appliances. Given our current design, looking for a 48" range, a 48" refrigerator, and a DW. Below are some of the aspects specific to us:

1. Do a fair amount of (messy :) ) cooking. Ease of cleaning important.

2. Don't particularly care for low heat performance.

3. Great room: Kitchen and family room - low noise in important since it will be the primary family gathering and TV viewing area

4. We plan to live the the house for about 5 years before planning to sell it. Houses in our do command a significant $$ but lots of buyers are move up buyers who are likely to be first time user of pro-grade appliances.

I have spent a couple of weeks reading through all the reviews and am concurrently enlightened and thoroughly confused :-)

Below are our thoughts and would appreciate fellow forum members feedback:

1. It looks like CC and Bluestar are current favorites among the forum members but we want to balance the brand recognition ( Wolf/Thermador) with bang for buck/performace ( Bluestar/CC).

2. It looks like Wolf provides the best balance of cooking performance and brand recognition and Thermador seems to be second in brand recognition, among masses (not necessarily forum members and cooking aficionados.).

3. We are interested in a wood panels covering our fridge. So, options are - subzero ( old technology, good/great cooling/freshness), Thermador ( Freedom collection) and ??

4. Hoods: Vent-a-hood seems to have the best balance between noise performance , ease of cleaning and cost.

Current thoughts:

1. It looks like if we go with best balance of performance ( read: both functionality, cleaning, service) and brand recognition: Wolf range and Thermador freedom refrigerators seem to come ahead.

2. If we throw in the packages, it looks like Thermador comes ahead of Wolf/SubZero.

Are we on the right track ?