As you use your kitchen over the next several days make mental notes about how often you use the fridge for various purposes. Do you open it a lot during food prep.? How many items do you take out of it during prep? How often do you open it during non-prep times--i.e. breakfast, snacks, sandwich making, beverages? How many items go straight from fridge to table and back again? I don't use my fridge during prep as often as I thought. If I'm making a salad, I go over and grab all the salad ingredients at once. When I'm making a meal I have a pretty good idea about what I'm going to be using and I try to cut my trips down by taking several things out at once. Most of the items I improvise with (seasonings, oils, etc.) aren't refrigerated and are stored in the cooking/prep zone. Sometimes I have to walk to it for butter or milk or eggs, but not as often as I thought. I prefer to have our fridge near the table and out of the prep zone. It's accessible for non cooking/prepping activities all day long--which is how it is most heavily used. To me, keeping others out of my cooking/prep zone is worth the trade off of not having the fridge right at my fingertips. We tend to use a lot of items from the fridge while we are eating. Having the fridge close by makes meal times a lot more relaxing and setting and clearing the table becomes less of a chore. Our plates and silverware are near the table so others can set the table and get items out of the fridge without crossing paths with me. Also, I wanted to maximize window space in our prep area and there wasn't a good spot for the fridge. I like having lots of storage in my cooking/prep area for the tools I use. This is more important to me than having fridge drawers (plus I prefer to keep things simple-one less appliance to clean and maintain and no hassle trying to find something to fit the same space when it needs to be replaced.) The fridge is placed between the kitchen and dining area. It's not terribly far from my prep area--it's a straight shot to get to it, no islands or peninsulas to walk around.

They should be mixing the glue outside, and the grout when it is time too. Also, tile cutting should be done outside too. Just make sure the floors are all covered in the kitchen the counters are covered (they should take care of that for you). Also the path that they travel to and from the saw should be covered. You can use brown paper from Lowe's or HD. There was no dust generated in our house, we just got done 2 days of putting the tile up in the kitchen.

My biggest concern with that would be that the distance from the fridge to "my corner" would be about 15 feet and a loss of efficiency. Plus I talked to my husband about moving or resizing the island, and he is opposed basically because he doesn't want to do a darn thing to the floor so he wants the basic footprint of the kitchen to stay the same so we don't have to refinish. Personally, I love the above idea of keeping the window wall open ready and waiting for us to knock it out and install french doors, but we weren't planning on touching the plumbing. Unfortunately our budget just doesn't allow for it. So, I really am listening to the suggestions while thinking of the money. Why didn't I win that darn lotto jackpot. In the interest of the almighty budget, I think we will keep it mostly as is with some minor tweaks. I think I can move the stove down about 6 inches or so which widens my workspace and on the other side a wee bit, we will just have a cabinet for cutting boards and stuff on the bottom and a pull out spice rack on the top. It will be off center. Will that look funny? Hopefully it will be OK. We are going to do cabinets to the ceilings (I am pretty adamant about this, but the cabinet guy said that it would increase the cost quite a bit so fingers crossed), we are adding another pantry cabinet on the other side of the fridge, we are going to have a new 6 foot bank of cabinets built to house a wine fridge and make a little bar area in the current area where the hutch is. I think that with these small changes we'll get some added storage space and get an updated look without breaking the bank too much. Going back to the vent hood, I talked to the husband about the vent hood, he thinks they can do it through the ceiling and then just vent it to the side of the house, so we'll price that. I do like the look of it. The microwave we can hide away in one of the pantry cabinets.

I use a large walnut Boos cutting board for the majority of my prep and all of my non-raw protein cutting. I feel ashamed after reading this thread to say that sometimes my food does touch (((horror))) the counter. There. I said it. My raw fruit and veggies sometimes sit on the runnels to drain after I wash them. I use a plastic board that goes in the DW for raw protein, even though I'm not convinced of the argument that raw meat is more sanitary on plastic. I knead and roll my doughs on the marble counter in the baking zone. Sometimes I roll pie dough between wax paper sheets. I really dislike bleach and have never treated a countertop as LWO describes. I've never seen or heard anyone I've ever met do that either. I'm careful with the obvious contaminants like raw eggs and meat. I wear food handlers gloves when I handle raw protein as my hands can't stand the water hot enough to feel as if I've sanitized them if I handle it without gloves. No one ever puts their purse or coats on my counters. Maybe it's the way my kitchen and house are laid out after the reno. Coats and purses are left at the door. Reusable, full grocery bags are set on the floor at the end of the island near the food storage zone (fridge and pantry). Is there really a nationwide issue with people getting sick from eating a piece of toast in which the bread sat on the granite counter for 30 seconds before going in the toaster? Don't get me started on how most of the rest of the world treats food safety.