1) Fridge

All refrigerator lines have lemons. Having said that a few years ago E'lux had a quality problem with their refrigerators in general and FD in particular. French door with ice in-door being the worst. Recently it seems to have climbed to average. The best right now of the mainstream brands is Samsung. The best overall is Liebherr. Expensive German luxury brand. Three years ago when they first came out with a French Door model they had a problem with the seal between the french doors and the ice-maker. Resolved quickly and some people who bought the very first of the line got brand new fridges.

2)Elux Wall Oven

Best bang for the buck out there in ovens. Made in the USA now. Some old stock is made in Candada.

3)Convection/MW wall oven.

No worse than anybody else. Matches standard wall oven. Good to go here.

4) Gas Cooktop

BlueStar RBCT304BSS is far superior and made in the USA.
It is a few hundred dollars more. Someone posted they were selling one on here a few days ago. Maybe you can get a deal?

5) Miele DW

If you have a whole house water softner or get soft water directly from your water company(4 grains per gallon or less) then you should consider the entry level Miele dishwasher,the Classic. If you have hard water you should look at the Crystal or higher. You can check water hardness with a test strip or sometimes on the water company's website.

Bonus) Farmhouse Sinks. Many threads on this in Kitchens Forum

All have pros and cons.

Fireclay. Very traditional looking. Can crack if garbage disposal is not installed correctly. Can crack if you pour boiling water on it on cold morning. And it can chip. Some people are extremely happy with theirs. These people are ok with trading some practicality for beauty.

Cast Iron. It can chip or scratch and leave those marks you are talking about. But they will remain functional forever. Well almost :)

Mitrani Quartz Farmhouse sink. On paper ideal. Not quartz as in the countertop/mineral way but in some sort of high tech plastic sort of way. Looks great in pictures. In person it looks "plasticky" to me. Some people are ok with the looks,love the functionality and the price.

Stainless Steel farmhose sinks. More modern look. They can scratch,show water spots,they can ding, and cheap ones sound funny with even a slight bump from dishes. Functionally they pretty much last forever too.

Copper farmhouse sinks. Unique look. Usually rustic.
Sinks with hammered interiors can be a PITA to maintain. They collect water in the divets and some manufactures recommend waxing from time to time. Cheap imported ones can have toxic metals because they are made from third world recycled copper.

The nicer domestic/European copper sinks can be pretty much maintenance free with no divets and good contruction. If you get a natural finish any scratch will patina over in a few weeks.Acidic foods that sit on copper sinks for a while can remove natural finish but again patinas over.Does not show water spots.A good one is ding resistant but if you do get dings they are hard to spot.

I love reading deeageaux's well thought out reviews. If your plan isn't for an open burners, I do have a 36" Dacor cooktop and have been pleased for years. I might move to open burners next time-partially depends on ventilation, makeup air and cost.

Gig- I have the elux FD fridge and love it but would not recommend the ice through the door. I planned on Samsung but there were some fire issues at the time-so looked at other options and everything fit in the elux. Yes, I brought test items to the store.

I was also leaning towards the elux ovens. - they might be the best eye candy out there with the blue interiors and 2-3 gliding racks depending on the model.

Love my Miele - I had a lemon on round 1 and got a full refund at 4.5 years. Didn't plan to buy another one but I looked and read reviews and went back to Miele. Glad I did

Everyone thanks for the help! Just trying to sort everything out and the personal experiences help. What doesn't help is that the appliance salesperson just sent me a quote for Elux Icon pieces when we stated that we just wanted the regular line. Also priced the the refrigerator with the water dispenser on the door (we said we didn't want that). In addition he left out the dishwasher!

deeageaux, thank especially for such a thorough breakdown. I really appreciate the comments on the farmhouse sinks. I'm going for a cottage look and would probably lean toward the fireclay. Are these more resistant to the black marks?

If you aren't familiar with induction check Miele, Thermador and others. Your ventilation requirements will be reduced, as will makeup air. Induction doesn't throw off waste heat btus or other combustion byproducts you need to remove.

I think Shaws English fireclay sink owners fall into two categories.

A) Don't use kitchen sink very much or

B) Those that have sink protectors like this one below made exclusively for Shaws sinks.

I know you don't see these protectors in High End Kitchen Magazines.

Then again you don't see Victoria's Secret Angels with curlers on in their catalogs.

You can do more research in the Kitchens Forum.

Sparkling Water,

Thanks for the kind words.