free is free.. but sometimes not worth it ... i too .. used to scavenge halloween bales ... in one case.. i recall a weed nightmare the following year ... but i didnt have a plan to followup with other stuff in spring ... mulch is not really a pest issue.. this may have been better posted.. for a wider reply base.. in the conifer or perennial or annual forum ... rather than here ... but i do NOT care where you post.. just a suggestion due to the lack of responses .. ken

You will have an economic war between a Very expensive remodel and just moving. Does moving to a larger home with a more desirable layout appeal to you more than six months to a year of dusty disruption? They are likely to cost about the same. What you are proposing is Not at all inexpensive.

I think I would put all the tomatoes into their own plot(s) instead of spreading them out. You can interplant with basil, leeks, marigolds, other herbs in the corners of those beds if you wanted to. I wouldn’t put basil in the middle of three tomato plants – it would be very difficult to get in there to harvest it when the tomatoes are 5, 6, 7 feet high! Having the tomatoes planted next to each other would allow you to take advantage of staking/supporting them together.. I was happy last year when I could tie plants to their neighbor’s cages. Similarly, you may want to plant the bean plots right next to each other instead of spaced with radishes…for similar reasons (utilizing supports and getting to the produce). As far as canning tomatoes… we had a very successful canning season last year by freezing the tomatoes whole, right off the vine, in gallon ziplocks and canning the sauce in one marathon session at the end of the season. This of course requires freezer space (last year we filled up both our kitchen freezer and our garage side by side… this year we are contemplating a deep freezer). This method has its advantage in that peeling frozen tomatoes is as simple as rinsing them under hot water for all of 3 seconds, the skin slides right off.

My goals with this layout were to 1) Make the range hood a focal point from the living room, centering the hood on the pillars 2) Order the fixtures for Ice-water-Stone-Fire 3) Tuck the fridge out of the way of sight lines as much as possible 3) open up traffic flow to the french doors outside as to not crowd the living room arrangement. I think you'll need gaps in your island cabinetry to run electrical outlets. Microwave drawer in the island. Aisle at range is 42", but aisle at fridge/microwave/dishwasher/sink is 48" because there will be a lot more traffic on that side. It's a bit of a hike from the fridge to the range (less than 9 feet from center-front to center-front is recommended) but for the sake of centering on those posts, I put it beyond the 9 feet in this drawing. A 36" range with a 42" hood might look really nice on that back wall. IMO, when your fixtures are ordered Ice-water-stone-fire or fridge-sink-range, a prep sink is less necessary. If this were my kitchen I would not have a sink in the island. Any cooking I'd do that needed a water source would be done on the perimeter between sink and range. The way I work, the stuff I'd do on the island wouldn't need an immediate water source, but would definitely need a trash pullout to easily wipe the counter into.