We love our Samsung CD FD fridge (water and ice through the door). We have the RFG238 which has an additional ice maker in the freezer section. The RFG238 might be a Lowe's exclusive - that is where we found ours. We do a lot of sports during the week and especially on weekends so lots of filling water bottles and we haven't run out of ice yet. I don't know if it meets your flat front criteria, but it is definitely one of our favorite things about the kitchen. It took a little while to get used to the new layout (but that would be the same with any FD fridge) and now I don't know how we survived without it. Added benefit of CD - the shallower depth means it is harder for things to get lost in the back of the fridge until they go bad.

Jrueter, my fridge and ovens are arranged exactly as your plan. And what a timely question since the ice maker on my 4 ½ yo 36” KitchenAid SxS CD was replaced today. I didn’t pay enough attention to the selection of a refrigerator during my remodel. I was working 55 hrs/week at a start-up at the time and didn’t devote much time to the search. I originally wanted to keep my previous refrigerator… it had a drop-down “deli shelf” that meant drinks could be removed without opening the door. Cavernous interior. But I allowed our GC to talk me into a CD model so it would present a sleek profile with the rest of the kitchen. We were moving walls and I should have opted for a recess into the adjacent room where I could have built bookcases around it. Oh, well, he was a great GC (good friend of DH) and highly recommended the KitchenAid CD refrigerator… had the same one in his own home. I finished my kitchen in 2005 and have hated the fridge ever since. Let me count the ways:
*Fridge shelves are necessarily narrow due to the SxS design. Constantly shuffling things around to accommodate any large item.
*All interior space is cut into little chunks, especially in the freezer.
*One door shelf is actually only 1 3/8” deep and 8” from the floor. Deep knee bend required and the only thing I have found to store there is butter. Not exactly a bad thing, I suppose, if I remember to look there.
Very limited possibilities with shelf adjustment since everything has to mesh with the door shelves.
*Freezer is 13” wide. And only 9.5” deep on one shelf. I have to think twice about buying frozen anything or storing a load of chicken stock.
*Ice maker frequently spits out the last cube onto my wood floor, but I think this is common with all ice-on-the-door styles.
*Ice maker died over 4th of July weekend… replaced today for $245. That’s 4.5 years of service prior to its death.
I do like the three bins at the bottom of the freezer. They hold a lot and glide well and it’s easy to sort items for finding them later.

I see you have 42" devoted to the refrigerator. Maybe you'll avoid the negatives I have experienced. Our kids are grown and only DH and I have to contend with this refrigerator. Otherwise I would have admitted my mistake, returned or sold it and replaced it with something else within a few months of purchase.

I didn't give a second thought to the oven door handle matching the fridge's. I chose a side-swing oven door and LOVE that. To address your interest in the French door freezer-on-bottom style �" if you don’t choose ice-on-the-door you will need to pull out a heavy drawer to get to the ice that is toward the back of that drawer. An LG I looked at had another shelf that had to be slid back to access the ice. Way to complicated for an ice cube. I am into the ice all day and don’t want to do that. Guess I am hard to please! But you said you were into the ice all day… think about getting ice from below knee level each time. I am over 60 and this was not a good option for me. I see you have 42" devoted to the refrigerator. Maybe you'll avoid the negatives I have experienced.

Since DH plays golf frequently with the GC, I get to rib him about the fridge all the time. Small satisfaction there. Live and learn.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ovens adjacent to fridge

Chefwannab,

Have you looked at the different refrigerators in person?
Pretended to put food away, pulled, pushed etc.. ?

I thought I wanted an LG freezer drawer on the bottom until
I saw it in person. It was TINY. And I could not fit
a frozen pizza in there. Seeing the different appliances
in person really helped. And the double freezer drawer on
the bottom. IMHO waste of space.

I wanted quality before looks. I love the JennAir or
Bosch. My DH is a fan of German cars so pushed me toward
the Bosch. I love it. I wanted functionality and efficiency
and I found that in my choice. I also wanted my
handles to match. My DW and Frig match but everyone is
differnet and you can get what you like. Lowes gave us
an excellent deal. I believe Sears also sells Bosch
and you might check out their factory outlet for the
best price. Then bring that price to Lowes and see if
they will match it. (Shhhhh don't say it is the outlet
price)

A great place to search features and opinions is
Epinions.com
This site helped me find exactly what I wanted and
read reviews of people just like me. I learned so much
about my choices. I hope it helps you too.

Hope you find your favorite, I love my Bosch appliances.
This was the best choice I made in my entire reno.
~boxer

Here is a link that might be useful: Epinions

Why the dead space in the pantry? I would utilitize the whole thing.

Thanks for your posts and insights!!

houseful - dead space in the pantry is actually the other side of our stairs. Our pantry is definitely a small one - if you can believe it this would actually be an increase! The saving grace is we have extra food storage in our garage that is very close to the kitchen.

jrueter - we are also looking at the samsung model, but when I went to look at it at Sears the middle seal door thing didn't close right and the salesman actually said that it can cause some problems if the kids slam the door when it isn't lined up right?? I pictures my crazy kids breaking it within a week. Have you had any problems with that?

boxerpups - did you get the Bosch built-in? or side by side? If so how much was it. That looks like a great fridge but may be out of our price range.

We love our Samsung RFG238 - the one from Lowe's. Double the ice, great layout, can't say enough good things about it. I haven't noticed any door issues like you wrote about. The manual explains how you can adjust the doors initially or have the delivery people do it upon delivery so that everything closes smoothly and from there on out there should be no issues. I've never heard of that being a problem though, and I did extensive research on the Samsungs before getting ours. But at least there's a quick fix should there be a problem. As I write this, I'm drinking from a huge tumbler filled with big wonderful half-oval shaped ice cubes and iced-cold filtered perfect-tasting water. :) I'm still in the honeymoon phase w/ all this cold water and ice right at my fingertips! Our whole family's drinking much more water in fact, which is so important.

chefwannab,
we haven't had problems with the door seal either- theresse may be right that with the proper install adjustments (GC did them, but they didn't look complicated in the manual) that may not be a problem. Maybe at Sears they didn't do the adjustment? One thing I specifically looked for was a center seal that would allow you to open either side independently and close in any order and we have really liked the way it has functioned for us (we have been using it since mid-March).