Did I really do this?! Did I really request the assistance and comments of people I knew to be kind enough to take the time to give it, the NIGHT BEFORE our already delayed final pre-construction meeting? WHAT would cause me to do such a thing?! (Smile) I do value your suggestions and see a few ideas I can still act on. As to the rest, in my current kitchen, my refrigerator and range are 18" apart and 10 & 12' away from the sink, respectively. My primary prep space is 3' down from the sink and 8' across from the refrigerator & range. All of the walking I get in when cooking is my primary mode of exercise! That said, the inefficiency of my kitchen really doesn't bother me all that much. I guess I have to stand and say, "My name is Gala, and I am NOT one of the TKO." The refrigerator has a wall on the dining room side and a finished panel on the other with a full-depth cabinet above. See, I did learn something from this forum, even if I didn't pay enough attention to the layout posts. Igloochic, thank you for taking the time to mock-up my dimensions. The renderings and pictures of your kitchen make it clear to me that the dishwasher placement just won't work. I currently have an 18" trash pull out between the range and sink. I think I can move that between the sink and dishwasher without my husband divorcing me or builder taking a hit out on me. Igloochic, could you share the aisle dimensions of your pre-renovation kitchen? Also, can you explain what you mean by insetting the sink by 3"? The range side of the island is all drawers. The far side of the island has standard counter height seating. There's a 5.5' aisle behind that which serves as a main thoroughfare through the house. Past the aisle is an open staircase going up to a family room. Again, my thanks for each of your suggestions. Know that I appreciate you taking the time to make them, even if I don't act on all of them.

Hi Guys, I'm using sweethome3d to generate floorplans and 3D visualizations of our space. It's free and it's java based so it will run on windows/mac and linux (which sketchup doesn't support, so this was key for me). It's not perfect and you have to go through a lot of hoops to do complicated things (slanted roofs with skylights specifically!), but if you screw with it enough you can do some pretty powerful things. Their lighting model isn't ideal (really? No diffuse and specular surfaces at the same time!?), but it's fairly easy to use. here's some shots of the layout I did with it (arrows and text were added after in another program) And the current work in progress rendering of the new space: Here is a link that might be useful: SweetHome3D

Listen to Jillius. You absolutely must have more counter between sink and range for prep. Minimum 36". Most prefer closer to 48". I have 54" and wouldn't want to lose as inch. As jannicone stated, that is the "most precious" counter in the kitchen, a natural place for doing all your prep work so you will want to have room to spread out, and not having adequate prep counter there will make cooking in your kitchen very inefficient and frustrating. So, as Jillius said, switch fridge to other end of room, put a microwave, if you are having one, on a shelf next to the fridge, and install drawers for dishes where you currently have the fridge. Then, on the sink side, move the DW all the way to the left (you will probably need 1-2" of filler between DW and wall), move the sink down next to the DW, and enjoy the nice prep space between sink and range every dang time you cook. It looks like this will triple your prep space. Yay! And move your trash into the prep space because that is where most trash is generated. Composting, too, if you do that. These changes will make a huge difference. I would not want to work in your current kitchen plan at all. I would hate it. I would love to work in your kitchen if you make those changes. It will make cooking so much more efficient, efficient and even fun! I probably shouldn't add this but I can't keep my mouth closed sometimes. Your designer is NOT a great designer. Your designer is doing a hack job, focusing on appearances over function when you can have both function and a nice appearance, and is ignoring some of the most basic rules of kitchen design established by the NKBA. Is he/she a member? Just curious.

Perky and Lapsang, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Chief Architect is the professional version of Home Designer, the program I use. But Chief Architect costs $2,000 or more. I started with the $79 version, Home Designer Interiors. I liked it so much I decided to put down $500 for Home Designer Pro, which has a lot more capabilities but not as many as Chief Architect. Here's a comparison chart with pricing of the Home Designer products: https://www.homedesignersoftware.com/products/product-chooser.html And here's info on Chief Architect: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/products/interiors/#buy As far as learning how to use these products, they have some really good training videos. Here's a very thorough one on using HD Pro for kitchen design: https://video.homedesigner.chiefarchitect.com/player/player.php?id=1589&th=1&autoplay= You might watch this to get an idea how it works before you buy it. Also, I'd be happy to try to answer questions about using it.