Thanks for all the great advice and insight. Lyra - you are spot on with the suggestion to choose an outfit that is "sit" friendly. No one wants to stand up and have diaper butt LOLOL! My hair is so short right now I don't have a lot of choices so, weather permitting, it will just be blow dried under. Long gone are the days when I could put it up in a French Twist. If the weather is rainy (a possibility) then I will go with the drowned rat look LOL! I have very fine straight hair and even the slightest humidity will kill any "do". BTW - what are the cough drops for - or should I ask Jessy? LOLOLOL! Alexa

Well... mine is Monsoon Wave soapstone fabricated and installed by Florida Joshua. He didn't stock it at his yard so I flew up to Jersey (incorporated it with a trip to see both my boys who live in NY), picked out my slabs, and had them shipped to Joshua. I live in So. Fla. so he had to take a couple of trips down here to measure, fabricate, and install. It went perfectly and even though it was a HUGE splurge for me; I would do it again in a heartbeat. It is beyond functional, beautiful, and takes a beating without issue. I can go without waxing for a couple of months and fall in love with the kinda washed black denim look of it. Then I'll get in the mood to shine it up and fall in love again with the vibrant sea glass colors that run through this stone. If you have the chance to use Joshua... it's worth every single penny and more.

My DH pondered your responses and looked again at the space with the island taped out. We have 3'7" on aisle walkway with two stools underneath island - we can increase that amount to 3'10" by moving 3" which gives us 3'3" on the other side where our shaw sink and DW are located. Remember on that wall we have to the right of shaw sink the DW a bit of counterspace then it jogs R to the east wall. To the left of the sink are 2-3 banks of drawers and then it opens up into DR. The only claustrophobic area if we minimize clearance on sink side would be only to the right of the sink. Remember, the island which is directly opposite & is decreasing in length by 6" so there is more clearance between range, aisle to sink,DW and garage door. Hope this articulates what this looks like. To summarize, we will chop off the end of the island by 6" to create more space around the range, island, garage door. We will move the entire island towards sink side, AWAY from appliance & pantry by 3". DH will raise height of island from countertop height to an inch or two above that to create better visual interest between long island and long countertop on sink side. This is the best we could come up with. We did not have this discussion regarding clearances with our KD and that was a huge oversight on our part and hers. We have to work with what we've got. DH does not want to give up seating at island as that's what is driving the entire design from his standpoint. He envisions sitting there, drinking a cup of coffee and looking out our new thee bank of windows. It almost looks like living in a treehouse as we're up on the second floor and have many deciduous trees in the back yard with an open lot right next to us. Feels very private. If I could figure out photobucket, I'd take a pic of the plans I just found and post them. I've opened up an account before and that's as far as I got. Thank you so much, all of you, for your feedback. Lisa

Sorry, it's hard to grasp what it is you're asking. Are you asking if a design with an island is better than the one with a peninsula, or vice versa? It would be better to see your layout to better advise. An island set up is not recommended in a narrow space like in the 1st pic. Hard to tell, but it looks like the walkway behind that island is tight & it's a main throughway from the back door. You would never be able to pass by anyone who was sitting at the island.