If you have a family of 4 and cook enough to warrant a 48" range I would strongly suggest 24" dishwasher. 18" dishwashers are for San Francisco/Manhattan singles. If DW noise is your primary concern there is the panel ready Bosch SHV7ER53UC for about $1200 that is just 1DB louder than the TOL Miele. Miele is a better bet for long term durability,cleaning with hard water,and superior service.There is the TOL panel ready Bosch SHV9ER53UC that is about 2 db quieter than the TOL Miele but you are looking at $1800. At this point I would spend $1749 for the Miele Futura Dimension Series G5570SCVi even though it is a little louder. I would have a salesman show how to clean a VAH. It has to be done more often than a baffled hood and is a PITA IMO.If you are looking at one of the nicer VAH I would look at Independent,Modern Air,and Prestige.If looking at lower end VAH Kobe or Zephyr are good alternatives. This "our Magic CFMs are more powerfull than their CFMs" is BS IMO. If you get one get one where the nominal power matches your needs. Most poeple don't turn on their hood when their gas oven is on. They do turn on to remove heat and maybe effluent when baking something smelly like fish. I don't recall anyone having a problem with gas toxic byproduct sufficient enough to require venting. Therefore making an electric oven/dual fuel a superior choice for this reason. I suppose if you have one of new uber-Green and uber-airtight LEED homes gas oven byproduct may be a concern. Ranges. I would look at all the Capital Culinarian and Bluestar threads in the Appliance forum.

Your home is just so lovely, I don't think you should remove all that architectural detail. What are the dimensions of the laundry room? I'm wondering if there is opportunity to turn that into an efficient office space (not legal bedroom.) Maybe you could leave the living room and dining room alone and put that part of the budget into an efficient shower bathroom with stackable laundry so the laundry can become office space or guest space if there's room for even a daybed?

SUper low budget, go for the $28 fixture! The other fixture will give better light, and last longer but not at that price difference. Use an LED lamp in them, that will solve the ladder issue. You should be able to find a bowl or some glass pendant that puts out light like a chandelier, that will fill the room with light and solve the gloom issue. The rule of thumb with track is to not exceed the power limit on the control device. If you put 15- 10 watt LED's on the track that is only 150 watts. Good Luck Jim

We did the same - cooktop side 36” and sink run 38”. we do have 55” aisle between them but you would really have to be looking to notice that they are at different heights.