I wish I had pics!! The kitchen cabinet-carts were in a rental house built by a retired carpenter; apparently his own idea. The counters were standard height, each unit immediately beneath the counter had a shallow drawer. Below that was the cart, an open wood frame with one end that looked like a cabinet-style door with a toe-kick but off the floor about ¼". When the cart was pushed under the counter, all you noticed was the "door" which matched the other cabinet doors. I remember there were wooden plinths which actually looked like the standard vertical cabinet dividers; the plinths acted as a stop so you couldn't push the cart through and smash the wall at the back. Most of the carts had adjustable "shelves" (shallow baskets actually) and two had a countertop for the top shelf -- I really loved those when I baked. I liked another of his ideas for some of the wall cabinets. The door of the cabinet was actually a shallow box with shelves (facing the usual shelves) that were just wide enough to hold cups or canned goods. I've haunted websites and carpentry info, and haven't found anything really close, although there are lots of cart plans available. So now I'm looking for a carpenter! Depending on which sort of crafts your DW is into, also consider adapting stackable shoe drawers -boot size-, maybe hidden behind bi-folds. I use these for storing sweatshirts in the BR as well as hold yarns in the craftroom. Sweater size hold flatwork. Link is to the ones I use -- I've got them stacked 9 tall with no problems. Here is a link that might be useful: all-purpose storage drawers

Some of this is personal taste and some is guidelines. I tend to do technical comments - any humor is incidental! Guidlines - I would allow 42" between sink and island and ref and island. If you get another size fridge, have kids, try to get past an open ref door or cabinet door, 3 feet is pretty small. On the other hand, you could allow a bit less room between cooktop and island. You must have fillers on both sides of the corner to avoid having doors and knobs get hung up on each other. Mixed in a bit with personal taste - be really sure you want the tall, deep cabinet beside the ref. I would like a tall, narrow cabinet in that position, but not a deep one. Why? You can't open a left or right swing door on that cabinet all the way because it will run into the counter or the ref. The last one to two feet of counter on the cooktop wall becomes unusable to a righty because a righty elbow will hit the cabinet door when closed. The counter will be blocked when that cabinet door is open. A narrow depth cabinet doesn't elimate all of those issues - it increases the usable counter. I like drawer base cabinets and I could get another foot of them if that cabinet wasn't quite as deep. Full depth also means you'll mostly be taking things from the appl garage with your left hand because it will be awkward to use your right. You could be a lefty and then it would work fine for you. The personal taste part is breaking up the depths a bit so there isn't a monolithic wall for very little storage space cost. I would also consider trading the refs - the big one by the clean up sink with the wine, and a ref drawer unit over by the cooktop or reversing the ref and the wine storage. If I'm getting a microwave meal from the ref and need to put in on a plate - I'm crossing through the cooks area to get a plate. Move the micro towards the ref - even if the ref moves. A micro is a shared use item and often the first cooking appliance a child is permitted to operate. Where you've placed it - it becomes exclusively the chefs or kids and spouse invade the chefs territory. And it would be problematic to open both the micro and the oven. I don't know how often that would happen, but I don't want to replace any appliance doors. If the ref stays where it is, move the prep sink out of the corner. With an sxs, the best landing area is behind you as you stand facing the open doors. You'd be dumping stuff into the sink or backing out (cause the aisle is so small) and placing stuff on the other side of the sink. I also like to have over-sprays on the counter instead of the floor. I would probably put the oven beside the cooktop, not under it. The oven would be a little higher and I see the contents without having to back up and bend over.

I love your current kitchen so much I just want to come to your house and chain myself to your cabinets so when the demolition crew shows up, I can scream "NO!!!!!!". If you like the cabinets and if they are still in great condition, why change them all? Of course, it's your decision and I won't hunt you down if you decide to make a total change. But be aware there is a market for used vintage cabinets in good condition so, if you do decide on a to-the-studs remodel, please have those cabinets carefully removed and either donate them to something like a Habitat for Humanity store or sell them. The RetroRenovation.com website is one place to visit and post about them where you might find exuberant buyers. And, of course, Craig's List. So I came up with a plan with minimal changes, allowing you to keep most of your cabinets. Notes on the plan. It should get bigger if you click the photo so you can read it better. Basically, the only thing that changes is the stove wall. You could easily have a good cabinet maker make the additional cabinets you need to match the current cabinets. You may, however, need to paint all the cabinets to get a good paint match if just painting the new cabinets doesn't result in a good match. I didn't figure out how far down you can shift the stove but it looks like you could get a good 12-20" of extra prep space there. That increase should give you a nice prep corner with enough space to spread out. I would keep the charming countertops you have for all but the stove wall and splurge on counters that are cooking/hot pot friendly on that wall. Stainless would be great there and will really compliment what you currently have so it doesn't look odd or like a thoughtless add-on. Soapstone would also look great. Since you're done doing a lot of counter, these higher-priced tops would still be a minimal expense. The yellow is for a cart idea, similar to what MamaG came up with, but not inside the bottom of a wall cabinet. It is simply there so it can be moved to block access for visitors. A flip-up counter can be installed that hangs down the side so there is a place there for chairs and for someone to sit and visit with you while you cook and have a place for their coffee, appetizer, dessert, etc. It can also be used to help with food service at the table for items that might not fit on the table with people eating there. You say you like the peninsula because it does provide that barrier and place to sit but, really, it is the only real obstacle you have to an efficient kitchen that feels spacious. Removing it and just moving the stove down as far as possible to the end of that wall, even to the edge of the wall, should give you good prep space and make your kitchen far more enjoyable to work in. Anyway, just a thought, if you want to preserve what you have and just improve it. Of course, a good, well-designed and executed to-the-studs remodel would also be super-awesome. I just wanted to give you an alternative to consider.

Here's another idea: Your foyer is the right size to be a half bath. And since it's across from the stairs, it's also naturally positioned off what will feel like a little hallway. You mentioned that the stack for the upstairs bathroom is somewhere over the dining room (I think on the wall between the dining room and the front porch)? If so, then the plumbing/sewer lines aren't far from the current foyer. The front door could move to where the front-facing living window is. This is one of the few fenestration changes you could make to the front of an old brick house that would look right because it involves only removing the few bricks below the window. This doesn't require reframing (so it's not expensive structural work), and you don't need to add any bricks (which is good because new brick work never matches quite right -- good enough for the less-visible sides of the house, but not something you'd want on the front). You said earlier that your living room is so long that you don't use part of it, so it shouldn't be any issue to define a small section at the end of the living room to be your foyer. There's also a couple handy walls there for hooks or a bench or a wardrobe or whatever foyer-like amenities you might want. I suspect it'd be an overall upgrade from your current foyer, which is pretty cramped. Meanwhile, moving the bathroom frees you up to devote the current half bath space to the kitchen. The result is a MUCH more functional galley kitchen. Since all the working areas of the kitchen are in one line and the walkway is a generous width, you could easily have three people working in this new kitchen. You'll also be flooding both the kitchen and living room with light and creating a great cross-breeze by having a direct, uninterrupted line from the new kitchen door to that living room window that is closest to the library. The kitchen is where you'd be doing your only structural work -- removing the current bathroom walls (if those are even structural) and creating a new window over the new sink location. The kitchen sink in the galley hasn't moved very far from the sink's current location, so hopefully that'll be more of a plumbing tweak than a situation where you have to pay to completely re-pipe. You'd also be turning the current kitchen window into your new kitchen door (which, like the living room window conversion, shouldn't require reframing and therefore wouldn't be structural) and bricking up over where the old kitchen door was. You could leave the bathroom window as-is if it is above counter height and you're willing to forgo a storage cabinet to the right of the stove. There's also a possibility that the bricks removed during the living-room-window-turned-door process and the kitchen-window-turned-door process and the new-kitchen-window-creation process could be salvaged and used to feather in the patching for the old front door and/or the old kitchen door. As for the mudroom, I'd suggest you make the library a mudroom/library. There are two great walls for mudroom stuff right next to the library's backdoor. Even with whatever furniture you have in there for the library purposes, that room generally has space for the whole family to pile in and take off their winter things at once. And you'd no longer have people with mudroom business traipsing through your kitchen. In general, the above is a WAY better kitchen and a WAY better mudroom situation without an addition.