Well, you sure offer lots of differing opinions! I've cooked w/electric all my life and understand all its eccentricities; however, for a brief period I did have a gas stove and found it far easier to manage the time. You're right....it's not easy to clean unless you do it right away but then the smooth top requires the same thing.
Judas! The comment about blowing the house to kingdom come has always been my biggest fear since I saw my mother light the gas oven and blow in her face when I was in 4th grade. The canning is the biggest factor since we can at least tomatoes every summer. The manual declares not to use a canner because it won't get hot enough to boil since it's so much bigger than the burner itself. It also says you can't use a cast iron skillet because of the uneven heat and I love to cook fried chicken, etc. in cast iron. See the dilema?
Barry, you had great ideas and we'll look into them; we have a couple of months. We're going to have to build out a bedroom, hopefully w/a walk in closet and 3/4 bath (shower) as well as a kitchen/dining/great room and since it'll be our last house, it'd be great to do it "right", wouldn't it? I'm heavy into simplicity and places to store stuff and not have it sit out on the counter, like a microwave so any suggestions you guys have are well worth the time to sit here and read them. (I guess you've figured out the computer has me by the throat when I sit down and I just want to run out and start digging in the garden to get free of it, so I'm entirely grateful that you all took the time to give your opinions)
Bob loves you all to pieces and I can see why...I just can't spend the time here since he doesn't do the cooking, cleaning, washing, blah, blah, blah.