Yes, that makes sense about squaring off the island and the seating. I think, though, that a better place for the microwave might be on the fridge end of the stove run...Either at the bottom of the upper or in the base cabs. Then others can use it, but it's also handy for the cook. I totally agree with Blfenton...Sink where you have the microwave and a pullout trash next to it. I vote for it facing your main sink. We have ours that way and it serves the prep area, cooking area, and is handy for scraping plates when filling the dishwasher. Also, you have the room to consider making your perimeter counters 30" deep, which can be nice. Some use deeper cabinets, but on our deeper run, we just pulled the cabinets out from the wall and put a cleat against the wall for the countertops.

Economic issues aside, I'm not sure PaintEverything would end up mostly working with her back to the people and view, even if two of the three points of a likely work triangle and a good counter are on the sink wall. The counter faces blank wall and has cabinets in the cook's face. A good place to throw together a couple sandwiches, maybe, but throwing together a beef stroganoff? To me this design looks as if it works pretty well, PaintEverything, and seems to make sense in view of your desire to do a limited remodel for now. Regarding stoves in islands, there are 2 kinds of people: firmly opposed and just fine with them. As long as you're the latter... :) I sort of regret people at the island turning their backs to others in the den, but it's nice anyway. Williamsen mentioned the view, but I suspect you have plenty of other seating facing that and it will be nice for the cook. I'm wondering though---back to your mention of a "big triangle." You do actually have two, a quite nice natural triangle formed between the long side of the island and main counter and one sort of warping, or wrapping if you prefer, around the right side of the kitchen. I've had kitchens define where I will work before, not vice versa, and I'm wondering if the dynamics of the kitchen might keep you between the two long counters. ITM, while you find out, maybe just erase the word prep by the side sink? I sort of doubt you'll develop a habit of walking around to it, but I could be wrong. It's not farther away so much as outside what would normally be the "messy" work area. Notice how if you draw lines from stove to fridge to prep sink that work triangle needs work, or as as Joanieponie says, doesn't seem to make sense? If you did end up with your work triangle in standard position, the DW location would make especially good sense where it is because you could designate that side of the sink for clean. Otherwise, my only real sticker is that the refrigerator ends the line of view from the dining room. That's fixable by covering the front with the same surface as the cabinets, of course. Or smile and live with it since you're anticipating a more conprehensive remodel some day.

Mrs Pete, it may not be likely that both will need wheelchairs, but pretty likely both will need walkers Walkers are a much more realistic concern, but needing them at the same time may or may materialize; my mother and stepfather are both 77 -- he uses a walker outside the house, but she can still hike half a day with a pack on her back. Aging doesn't come to us evenly. Think about the likely progression of mobility loss and how walkers might fit into your life -- having been a caretaker for my grandmother, I have some insight into this: - When people experience mobility issues with aging, they tend to need a cane first only when they leave the house ... then they need the cane inside the house too. A walker is a step-up from the cane, and people tend to first need the walker only when they leave the house ... then perhaps all the time in the house too. - One thing that helped my grandmother tremendously was owning TWO walkers. She had a typical walker inside the house ... AND she had a outside walker with larger wheels that was better in the yard, which she stored in the garage. She had only one step leading down to the garage, and she had sturdy grab bars on both sides of the door. Even if she was alone, she could safely transfer from the house to the garage ... and the second walker was waiting for her. Especially in her later years, she was not able to lift the walker from the house /over the step /into the garage by herself. - A second thing that helped her tremendously was having a "storage spot" for her walker inside the house -- this was very useful in the days before she used the walker all the time. She had a breezeway between the house and the garage, and it was ideal for storing the walker. - Still talking about walkers: my grandmother had a double garage, and I was always glad she had a single double door (instead of two smaller doors). I was her main mode of transportation, and when I went to pick her up, she'd have the garage open for me, and I'd park smack-dab in the middle. This meant we had loads of space for her to walk around the car with the car doors wide open -- this was nice in the rain. - If you're concerned about walkers, this is more reason than ever to avoid the idea of one spouse needing to walk arouuunnnd the bed to reach the rest room. - If you think you might want a scooter in the future, consider where it would be stored ... and make sure you have an electrical outlet in the right spot. - Bathrooms are often the site of falls, so it's essential that you have plenty of grab bars. Go ahead and put them in while you're building -- it's easier than waiting 'til you need them. And adding them can be problematic: my uncle installed grab bars in our shower for my grandmother, and later we had mold behind the tile. If they'd been installed properly when the shower was being built, that likely wouldn't have happened. - If you're thinking that you might one day need an in-home helper, it'd be smart to design one of your guest rooms with that person in mind. Fully separate for privacy, adult-sized closet, private bath -- and a parking space (though if you needed an in-home helper, you might no longer maintain a car for yourself). - My now-nurse daughter did home health care in college, and she says that the #1 thing people needed was help with bathing. So consider a bathroom that would allow space for a helper in the shower. The #2 thing she did was meal prep; for example, she'd chop things, which the patient could later cook on his or her own. - If you do one day need home health care, remember something my daughter said: she had two clients -- brother and sister who lived together -- who scheduled her on alternate days. This meant she'd come help the brother with bathing on Monday and Wednesday, and she'd do their food prep. She came back on Tuesday and Friday to do the same for the sister. This meant the siblings got the benefit of food prep four days a week; they used their insurance benefits wisely. She liked those clients. Okay, I got off-topic, but -- as I said -- I do have some experience on this topic. I think you could take at least two feet out of the living room, and maybe two feet out of the kitchen depending on clearances. Definitely -- some space could be eliminated at the foot of the bed too. You want enough space, obviously, but more-more-more is just more to maintain and heat/cool. and to the landfill. Do you have to haul your own garbage in this rural area? We had that issue for a long time, and it makes me appreciate the garbage service we have now. Anyway, have you planned a convenient space for garbage to be stored (we used to have such trouble with possums getting into it), and is that spot convenient to the pick-up truck's parking spot? You can cut down on the work with good planning. We will both be working until we're carted off. I love what I do. Besides, we have to pay for the %#@$*(! house, right? That sounds a bit like a chicken-and-egg scenario. There is no uber in the entire county. My farm is in a remote area as well, but even we are starting to get such services -- and the county provides a van service for the elderly and disabled (of course, my grandmother wouldn't use it because that's for poor people -- not true, but she wouldn't use it). My county actually has LOADS of resources for the elderly -- definitely research what's in your area before you need it. For example, when I called and told the garbage collectors she was over 90, they started coming into her garage and taking her cans to the street /back again. And Meals on Wheels was great for her -- and not just for the food; she had a short visit five days a week, which she enjoyed. I know almost everyone here disagrees about this part, but I still prefer the laundry in the mudroom part of the house rather than near my bedroom or my office. I asked a family member who is older and also lives on a large rural property whether she'd consider the laundry near the bedroom suite, and she gave me a look of horror! This is a bit off-topic, but my husband and I find that we are doing much less laundry now. He's already retired, and I am home for the summer. One of our adult children still lives at home, but she does her own laundry. We no longer wash loads and loads and loads every week. At the same time, every family has their idiosyncratic way of moving through the day and managing space--in other words to each his own! Yes, but many of the things that're pointed out here are not matters of tomato-tomato (a phrase that sounds better than it looks in type); rather, they are things that don't mesh with your stated goals. For example, you say you want a house that will support aging-in-place, but you have one master bath that requires a lengthy trek around the bed. This isn't an "each to his own" -- it's a potential issue that can be tweaked to meet your goals. that is gorgeous staircase! Very nice! I do worry about the cost, though. Well, that's realistic. I like a tight work triangle, but i cook a lot and bake a lot, and after living with the restrictions of my current space, dictated by walls that couldn't be moved, i'd like more room to spread out. But, it also doesn't have to be crazy large. A medium-sized kitchen works out best. "Too small" brings obvious problems, but "crazy large" isn't a benefit because it adds extra steps and invites clutter. You want to Goldilocks all your spaces, starting with your kitchen. Honestly, i don't mind cleaning bathrooms! I don't understand that at all! I hate cleaning bathrooms and vacuuming. This stair is cool, too, but i’d prefer less jagged I mean less staggered windows. That one's a bit much for me. The "jagged" is too much for me, I mean. It's also good to have space on one side to help with any transfer assistance that one may need at some point. A potential danger: strokes are sadly common, and they affect one side of a person's body. If you have grab bars on only one side, you run the risk of having bars on your "weaker side". I'd enlarge the shower to easily allow a shower chair. Absolutely essential. I have a blind dog I just lost my little blind dog at Christmas -- I miss him every single day. I've finally stopped turning around and expecting him to be at my feet. but the basement pantry / dog grooming seems like something that you'd want accessible without stairs for a variety of reasons. Agree. With aging-in-place a concern, everything you need for everyday life should be on one level. Guest rooms can go up/down. For example, we have sliding doors from our bedroom out to our hot-tub for easy access. Even if you never use those doors "as anticipated", I think it's good to have an exterior door for fire safety ... if your bedroom isn't near another door. I already mentioned my daughter who worked home health during college. She says that home health places will reject you (and this essentially can force you into a nursing home) if you don't have convenient fire-safe exits. I feel like I'm in a tent, looking out at the woods outside our windows. That sounds pleasant!

A window over the clean-up sink is more traditional, left over from the days when we spent more time at the sink (without a DW or prep sink) and needed the natural light, but it's what most folks expect in a kitchen. I like the rectangular island with seating on two sides, but if you keep the fridge in the original location, you'll need more than 42" behind the seats. The NKBA recommends a minimum of 44" to walk by, but all the traffic to the fridge will have to walk through that aisle, or walk through your work zones (you want them to go around), so I'd suggest a shorter, deeper island. Seating overhang on the short side will also provide some landing space to the right of the prep sink, and you should still have a minimum of 36" prep counter to the left, where you can scoop prepped items to move to the cooktop. Another option, if the fridge is moved to the cooktop wall, would be to make the island more square--maybe 5.5 x 5.5--and put the prep zone on the side facing the fridge and cooktop. Advantages are proximity to the pantry, an efficient prep triangle, and a view to the sliding door while prepping. Disadvantage is the distance between the cooktop and oven, if you do a lot of searing then roasting meats. I'd rather have the longer distance between the cooktop and ovens than the cooktop and fridge, but everyone has his/her own preferences. I prefer having the clean-up zone outside the prep/cooking zone, so helpers can load or unload the DW, or gather dishes to set the table, without entering the other work spaces. Since it's a one-story addition, hood vent can go up through the roof without much loss in efficiency. (If you're interested in that calculation, someone on the appliance forum will probably be willing to help.) I wouldn't recommend seating on three sides of a rectangular island; a seat on the side facing the cooktop would be in conflict with the cook and/or the open door of whatever appliance is on the bottom end.