Rangetop vs gas range- please help or I will have to flip a coin!
jrdee
51 minutes ago in Design Dilemma
To make a long story long...

We decided to remodel (and by that I mean gut) our kitchen as part of a larger remodel. We purchased our house in September 2013 and are yet to spend a night there... Estimated completion now pushed back to February. The previous owners had upgraded their appliances about 6 years ago to a 48" Dacor 6-burner range and 27" Dacor electric double wall ovens. I knew we would eventually change the wall ovens to 30" so I has our custom cabinets made to house a 30" double wall oven. Now, we have decided that we are just going to go ahead and change out the wall ovens at this time to avoid any unnecessary work later. We are installing Viking electric double wall ovens which are on the same wall as our fridge which is also Viking.

At the other end of the kitchen is the wall that housed the rangetop. I wanted to move it to another wall but due to the gas line and ventilation headache we eventually decided to leave it in it's original location. The upper cabinets have been completed and we have a 48" ventahood going in.

Now to the dilemma:
Do we replace the rangetop with an 8 burner/ 6 burner with griddle, OR do we put in a 36" range with 6 burners?

To complicate things many of the cabinets have already been built including the units that flank the cooktop/ range, and also the cabinets for the cabinets under the cooktop...yikes! But we rather deal with modifications now prior to actual installation and be happy with the end result in terms of functionality of equipment and storage/ organization than regret it later. Currently, the under range cabinet has two cutouts in the face frame intended to house 2 cabinet doors. Regardless of whether we decide to purchase a rangetop, we would switch the doors to drawers of some sort for improved utility.

So... Here are the options ( should be ~ to scale but I hand drew these so please excuse their imperfections!):

1. 48" rangetop with 4 good sized drawers underneath. This allows us to use the current face frame and replace the doors with drawers. This would be the least disruptive.

2. 48" rangetop with 2 humongous drawers (likely two drawers mounted behind each drawer front). The faceframe would have to be modified somewhat.

3. 36" all gas range with 2 slide out fillers (6") flanking it. This would mean we don't use the 48" cabinet at all. The slide out fillers literally get installed in between the cabinet box and range and have a full face panel that will sit flush with the face frame of the adjacent cabinets.

36" RANGE:
PROS:
- separate gas and electric option is appealing
- taking something off the the burner and placing it into the oven directly beneath - taking something out of the oven and placing it on the burner (to cool) and not having to walk across the kitchen
- gaining functional slide outs
- gaining counter space
CONS:
- throw away the cabinet unit already made
- have 6 burners, which if you use large pots means you realistically can use 4
- does anyone really need 3 ovens?

48" RANGETOP:
PROS:
- keep cabinet unit already made (although would throw away doors and have to modify cutout and order drawers)
- slightly less expansive
CONS:
- takes up a lot of precious counter real estate
- does anyone really need 8 burners
- cooktop and ovens at opposite ends of kitchen
- organization of cabinets less ideal than with slide outs (i like everything hidden)

Please help me make an informed decision. . . otherwise I will have to flip a 3-sided coin! Thank you in advance for your comments!