Sounds like the best solution, if you want the microwave off the counter, is either just have an open cabinet for it or use the hinged door linked above.
Countertop microvawves are like hammers - pretty indestructible. Easy to find the right size, too, because so many are out there. If the new owner does not like the trim set up, she can replace it with a hinged door etc.
“Our kitchen was built with everything customized and built in. It has been incredibly difficult to replace appliances as they wear out, involving tearing out and rebuilding to gain a half an inch here or there because nothing is available in the original size, or nothing affordable, anyway”
^^This. We are also dealing with appliance issues. Bought the house new. not a whole lot of customization, but still have sizing issues. Builders of new homes are notirious for putting in high end appliances that are on close out (read - odd sizes). Those are hard to replace without some creative thinking. We are quite handy, so for us it is just a hassle (we replacing the oven and saving the face trim just in case we need matching wood in the future).
We have also had a LOT of issues trying to replace built-in appliances. H has to research for many months to find the appropriate replacement so we don’t have to do a lot of cutting into the Corian to replace appliances as they break–microwaves, oven, cooktop. UGH!
The place is really quite a gem! Congrats on having all your hard work come together so nicely!
We have been without a working oven for quite a while. Existing one is built in to a brick wall. It is an odd size (27"). You can buy them that size, but they ars higher prices than a standard size one. Can get a much nicer and larger standard widths for the same price. Our choices are pay more for a crappy little built in that will fit in the hole, buy a nicer freestanding standard size oven but have to cut cabinets out (would also mean I could kill 2 birds with one stone and replace our much hated Maytag cooktop who’s knobs we’ve given up on replacing after they continuously break), it (my son in laws suggestion), buy a larger built in and cut the brick ( so not doing that).
Back to this house - I am so impressed, it’s wonderful what you have done with it. The stairs would be a dealbreakker for me 
, but it is lovely.
@swimcatsmom – we are dealing with the same 27" oven problem. Luckily it is the microwave unit of the microwave/oven setup that died on us, so at least our oven still works. The price for a replacement set of ovens is mind-boggling, and yet to go to a less expensive (and much more useful) 30" oven set would require removing and replacing a wall of cabinets. Ugh.
I really love seeing what coralbrook has done – it has given me so many ideas. And that hinged microwave cover might be just the thing next time for us.
swimcatsmom I am sure you can find some one to fix the oven, and I think Microwave is also repairable if you put money in it. arabrab,
^^ so annoying isn’t it. We just can’t decide what to do. I think it’s been over a year since the oven finally died (microwave dies years ago). I hate to pay so much more for so much less but the thought of messing with cabinets. Ugh. I’ll just have to live vicariously through CB’s wonderful projects.
I just put a countertop microwave into a nook created by not putting a door over a small cabinet (an 18" deep upper). Didn’t see any need to make it appear flush-mounted or hidden behind a door or whatever, and it looks ok to me.
Yea, it took us a very long time to figure out what to use to replace built-ins. H is much pickier than he will admit. 
Well, if you look the following photos, you will find higher end kitchens are all built ins from the same series. It doesn’t matter if it is GE, Wolf or Sub Zero, but it had better not be Amana.
http://www.geappliances.com/products/brands/
I learned this by selling my mom’s high end condo. Our realtor is an experienced high end home seller, she normally has listings in the 5 million range. She was doing me a favor to sell my mom’s condo with a discounted commission. Based on her, if you want to sell above the market, you need to upgrade the appliances as that is the first thing wife will examine and she had handled many demanding ladies, as you can imagine.
The first thing she will look at was if the handles are the same, second, she will examine if all the trimming is in place, third, she will check all the functions of the appliance to make sure they all work, you cannot have an oven that does not have lights, lastly, she will make sure they are all clean without any grease hidden behind the doors. to get top dollar, you need to pay attention to details. That is the name of the game.
Very long day and I got a little grumpy today. In order to put on the kitchen cabinet handles you have to have a clear head, stay very focused and not get interrupted every 3 minutes. It involves a lot of math and perfectly drilling the holes so that you don’t make a mistake and have a stupid hole drilled right into a drawer in the wrong place!! (been there, done that) So, I created a template and got little pencil marks all in the right place (with many interruptions).
Go to open the bag with the handles in them and the store gave me someone else’s order!!! I ordered them with a large ‘online/pick up in store’ order from Lowe’s after holding up many handles a couple of weeks ago. The bag of handles was in a very large order that I loaded into the truck. You’d think I would double-check them, but I guess I wanted to make everything twice as stressful.
So, I have no choice but to stop everything in the midst of a bunch of guys working on last minute details waiting for my instruction or decisions. Off to Lowe’s to get handles.
Meanwhile, my agent pulls the same thing every time. She starts talking about staging months ago, wasting a bunch of time standing around getting ‘ideas’. I reminded her last week that we need to stage and we swapped a lot of photos of the ‘look’ we are going for. She got rid of most of her old staging furniture over the summer, and it was the wrong style and coloring for this house anyway. So, she knew she needed to rent or buy or beg or borrow or steal stuff. But no, she starts going around in her car ‘shopping’ today. Starts calling me madly to meet her here, meet her there, Oh and can she please borrow the truck.
I was livid… I’m trying to get handles on, I have a million details to get done, guys painting the wrong thing the wrong color, you name it. I need to start detail cleaning. But no… I’ve got to drop everything and go ‘shopping’ with her so I can load everything in the truck. Not a happy camper.
But I did get the handles done in the dark tonight, we finally got cleaned up enough to paint the concrete front steps and the concrete courtyard patio, got the final coat of blue on the front door and I love it. And, we got most of our main pieces of furniture into the house.
At first we were going to go with a white neutral with pops of coral for our color scheme, but I fell in love with a bright turquoise ottoman and dragged that into the house. In the end, she had no solution for the couch and chairs so we made a mad dash to my house and dragged off a creamy off white couch and chair that I am not really happy with. After weeks of showing her what I want, I’m not really getting the look that I wanted. A little disappointed after all this hard work, I wanted the staging to be perfect.
As usual, now instead of construction materials and tools all over the place we have boxes and boxes of ‘stuff’ all over the place. It’s a wonder that we can ever pull it off to get ready for photos 
Have no idea where we are going to hide all the tools and stuff and all the empty crates and boxes. I see the little garage getting very full.
Some pics loaded
I agree that the Countertop microwave on the stand pushed back to be flush with the trim is causing the microwave to be a little ‘wobbly’. But at this point I am trying to sell the house and have to move on. The appearance is more important than the perfect functionality for what I am trying to do. Most of the time I do pay attention to every detail of functionality, especially in a kitchen. I expect my buyers to be very very fussy about the functionality and quality of the kitchen. And, usually, I have a kitchen that is very well thought out compared to any other property available in the same price range.
cb, I love love love the glass handles on the drawers in the kitchen. Perfect. You knocked that out of the park.
And the color on the front door is awesome. This is coming together really well. Can’t wait to see it all together.
Don’e worry about what your agent has or doesn’t have for staging; for anyone walking into the house for the first time, it’s going to look fantastic. Really.
CB, I’m sorry your agent’s staging has been uninspired, but the house will sell itself. Your inspector knew what he was talking about. You have a great eye for detail and you’ve made very smart choices.
I agree that your beautiful home will sell itself. Buyers will be happy with the uncluttered beautiful lines and views from the home and not worry about the furniture and other items that they are not even buying as part of the sale. Don’t sweat the small stuff–you’ve nailed the big stuff!
Looks great! I especially like the colors you’ve chosen both inside & outside.
As for the wobbly microwave, before we put in the pull up door I had ours with a (different microwave’s) trim kit. I rigged a back brace to keep it from slipping back and little cup lifts to make it fit with the old microwave’s kit.
Artloversplus, we couldn’t find a series we liked for all our built-ins so went with custom panel fronts with the fridge (Subzero), dishwasher (Bosch) & warming drawer (KitchenAid) in our recent kitchen remodel. Not planning on selling anytime soon and I like the look of “hidden” appliances. We’re a couple of miles up the coast from CB’s project. If we were going to put the house on the market we’d need to either run a gas line to the cooktop or install an induction cooktop. The 18-year-old Dacor electric cooktop and downdraft venting that came with the house still work well and I just couldn’t justify replacing them with this remodel. Like HImom, I didn’t want to cut into the counter… granite in our case.
After all the microwave discussion I took a couple of pictures of the microwave set out the way the trim company had in their instructions. Who would invent something that requires the dang appliance to stick out like that? However, I discovered a new problem about having it pushed in flush with the trim. There is about a 1 1/2" gap between surrounding trim and microwave cooking area… first thing that’s going to happen is someone’s going to spill food down there will pulling something out of the microwave. Oh well, form over function at this point in the game.
I loaded some photos of the microwave issue
Absolute chaos today in the pouring rain. We had to change our photo session to Tuesday afternoon because it is supposed to rain all day Monday. This gives me a breather to get more things ready, including trying to clean up the side yard and get some mulch on it. We are not going to be able to paint the concrete deck on top of the garage because of the weather. The paint color on the back courtyard is hideous and I have a new gallon of solid concrete stain that I want to get on there before we set everything up for the pictures. We will see if it can happen.
The reason I am in a rush to get the photos done is because I want to make the deadline for Broker Caravan on Thursday. In order to get on the official list for Broker Caravan, we have to have the listing into the MLS by Tuesday noon. We have made the critical decision that we are going to put the listing in Tuesday at noon in order to get the Broker Caravan (which I consider the most important Open House). Then we will have to shove the photos in later this week. Not ideal, but it has to get done. Cannot wait another week for Broker Caravan.
Loaded some photos of the mess in the house trying to stage
That was what I talked about! I saw its coming and you will find out. I never thought about the food will drop into that gap, I was only thinking that the MW will not get the support from the trim and move around. The trim is intended to hug the body of MW in place so it won’t move.
In my case, the width of the cavity of the cabinet just fit the microwave, so there is no room for the door to open if I flush mount it.
There is one profile picture where it looks like the microwave doesn’t stick out further than the drawer handles. Having it stick out (to me) is less of a big deal than the gap – but is there a problem with the wall if the microwave is protruding?
cb, in the photo labeled “Back Bedroom Staging,” the view out the window with the ivy (or whatever greenery that is) dripping down the wall outside is lovely!
ETA: I wouldn’t worry about the MW sticking out. If it eliminates a 1 1/2" gap into which food will inevitably fall, I think it’s worth it.