So much to think about! Love GW... I am the only cook in the family...DH grills. We have a 6 month old son and maybe one more in the future so would like to plan for young kids. But I also realize that this young time is fleeting so I want it to be appropriate for teenagers too. I grew up cooking with my mom and so did my brother, so I have hopes/fantasies that my kids will like to cook with me too. As young children and as teenagers. So a 1.5 cook kitchen? ;-) We are not neat people, and don't really expect to do better anytime soon. We tend to leave dirty dishes in the sink if the dishwasher isn't empty or if something needs to soak. I wanted the prep sink to be able to fill up the sink to wash greens and drain pasta if there are dishes in the sink. I do tend to wash a pan here and there while the onions are sauteing. I do also really really hate cleaning up, so wonder if it being the thing that faces the wall and is separated from the rest of the kitchen would make it even more unpleasant? It would be easier to move the prep area to the main sink if there was someone I wanted to face than it would be to clean up in the prep sink, I would think. My mom has 2 sinks, one to the left of her range separated by a stretch of counter where she leaves a cutting board, and I like that arrangement. So that's why I put the prep sink on the range wall. I'm open to other arrangements of prep sink/cutting board/stove, I just don't have any personal experience with them. Anyway, that's almost a novel, so I'll stop. I'll think about GD's suggestion - smallest Kohler Whitehaven is 30" so if I did that, DW, and 15" trash I would be 69 inches and it's probably possible to steal an inch from the pantry.

Hi Friends! Yes, I did sell that house with the white kitchen. It was a bit of a shock to me too that I had to leave it, but we had an offer we couldn't refuse. My new (old) house is in the planning stages for a remodel. I wish I could re-create that kitchen but I think every home has it's own "story". That house, when I first saw it, had that big room as a perfect solution for it's layout. My new house doesn't have that layout (and we don't have the budget for a total teardown and rebuild), so I'm working with what I have :) I like the idea of a different material at the end, like wood or SS as Hoboken did. I am just not sure that the white colors seam as well as some of the other slabs. Beagles' is perfection but I am worried I won't have the exact same result. I saw a recent post by kam(?) that had a seam she didn't like and she had to re-do....that got me worried. Bee: Speaking of new kitchens and moving, I saw your drama over the white grout vs the gray grout and laughed. I still love that tile and am seriously considering it for one of our bathrooms. It's just so wonderful and I love your new kitchen too!

If you consider that most kitchens have a 25.5" counter (24" cabinet with 1.5" overhang), on each side of kitchen, or 51", and need a minimum of 42" for each work aisle*, or 84", that adds up to 135", plus the width of the island. Let's say your island will be 36" wide/no seating, that's 171", or 14'3" needed. If you have an island with seating, the aisle behind the seats will need to be wider to allow someone to walk past.** *6. Work Aisle: The width of a work aisle should be at least 42 inches for one cook and at least 48 inches for multiple cooks. **8. Traffic Clearance at Seating: In a seating area where no traffic passes behind a seated diner, allow 32 inches of clearance from the counter/table edge to any wall or other obstruction behind the seating area. If traffic passes behind the seated diner, allow at least 36 inches to edge past or at least 44 inches to walk past. --NKBA guidelines. You can post your layout for advice.

36" wide cooktop is absolutely fine. You will really like it more than your previous 30" cooktop. And while it is optimal to have a hood that is 6" wider, it is common not to, and you have good reasons. What I would check is whether you can get a hood that is a proper depth front-to-back, 22-24" deep. The lower-quality hoods are 20" deep or less, which means your cooking toward the front of the cooktop is not covered. So you would have spent all that money on the hood and it won't really work for the front burners. Also check your ductwork from the hood to the outside. It should be an 8" diameter duct for a hood that is 600 cfms or more. There are hoods made for a 6" duct, but they will be noisy and less efficient. Try to get a hood with baffle filters, not mesh filters.