I love this forum! You are all fantastic! Thank you so much for your replies! They are Extremely helpful!! Judgejudy1: After reading the feedback to our layout, I think we will flip it to match your configuration. I'm impressed that you fit an island in there too! (We thought our kitchen was too small for one.) Our range is a convection oven as well; DH wants a microwave and I wanted a smaller convection oven for heating up/cooking smaller meals (and cookies!). I would love to see a photo of your layout and/or kitchen! Thank you so much! (I hope you had a pain free dentist visit!) mercymygft: Thanks for your reply! I like your suggestion very much and have suggested it to DH! :) cluelessincolorado: You are awesome! I can't believe you made a mockup of the revised layout! I love it!! It makes terrific sense to have a proper 24" deep base cabinet to the left of the fridge (when you are looking at it straight on) and shallower pantry cabinets to the right. This will require DH to build out the wall 15" to the left of the fridge, but I think it will be well worth it. (If you look at the layout, the wall ends just past the fridge's left side. He then had the 15" wide cabinets next to it, and cabinets behind those 15" wide ones. But, if we do a proper base cabinet with a counter and wall cabinet to the left instead - which I Really want to do - it would need a real wall behind it, right? We'd have to mount the wall and base cabinets to something.) Now all we would need to figure out is what can be do with the tiny bit of wall space facing the garage door. It's only about 18" wide and 12" deep. (With a real wall extending behind the new microwave area, the 18" wide space will end up being 18" wide less 2 x 4's and sheetrock.) I wanted it to be a tidy place to keep our keys and things. It would be a shame to box it up with sheetrock and lose it all together. Maybe we could build some niches into the wall, or build a recessed cabinet in there? You can see what we had planned for the little 18" space in an older mockup here (NOTE: This is just to show the 18" wide space, it's not the current layout, since I am very much sold on the newly proposed layout!): This is very exciting! Thank you, thank you! patti_bee: Thank you for your reply! I'm totally sold on the new layout! It is growing on DH too. Stay tuned! :) jscout: Lol! We hope to one day have a side by side separate freezer and fridge! (Too funny!) It's just not in the budget right now. And wow, you know your appliances! Yes, that is a GE Profile! Thank you for the tip about the depth, it is greatly appreciated (as is your whole thoughtful reply)! editionk: Thank you for your reply and suggestions. I agree that a wider pantry will be more useful than the 15" ones. There will be a cabinet with glass doors above the dishwasher that will house my beloved dishes (I fought very hard for the glass doors there!), so I'm not willing to part with it. I am really loving the mockup that cluelessincolorado made and would like to go with that. Which just leaves the 18" wide space facing the garage to be dealt with. (It's only 12" deep, so it isn't wide enough for much of anything. I'd like it to be a tidy place to store our keys and stuff.) Thank you all, again!

I have a very similar space and tried and tried as you are to locate the sink and stove on the same run and it just couldn't happen without cramping and majorly sacrificing function. We ended up with our main and only sink in the island. I was hesitant I really was but it really has allowed effecient use of space and keeps the auxiliary traffic out. We have 2 boys and use our island all the time for all sorts of things - snacks, wrapping presents, homework. Having the sink in there has not impeded any of those things. I know you said you really didn't want to do that but to sacrifice functionality to avoid it you might want to really think hard on it before you get too far. On the other hand if you can squeeze more length in maybe you can do it - but then I'd want a prep sink on the island, a water source there somewhere even if it's a smaller one. Our island is 9' long and has room for 4 stools on the long end and one on the short side. It houses the sink, dw, trash and a 4 drawer stack. We have a decent over hang, about 16" which makes seating comfortable. I like green designs - our MW is right by the fridge and that works well and usually those 2 appliances are used right in succession - no crossing zones to get to them. Good luck! It is so tough to get everything just so! If only I'd have analyzed the rest of the house as much as the kitchen! ;O

A couple of reason I was asking.....First, never stop designing at the exterior walls. Think of the site and house as one. That's why it's important to have a drawing that connects the house to the site. It gives the complete picture. And second, while I can see the motives for a rear loading garage, it not only makes for a "tacked on" look to that part of the house, it creates that poor master bedroom entry. And interestingly, the back wall of the garage (which faces the front) doesn't look all that great!! Not to mention that the form of the "garage wing" looks entirely different than the house. If a side load hides all the doors anyway, what the point then for a rear load?? And you get a much better geometry to work with in the master bedroom. Finally, I generally don't like to come into a house and be looking at a wall. If the sight line goes clear through the house it not only connect the house to the site better, it makes it seem BIGGER. I while back I threw in some examples into an idea book for some one else to illustrate what I'm talking about. Look at how all those houses are drawn with the floor plan on the site. You need to do the same thing. Also, look at how in all of those houses we're looking through the house from the front door to site features beyond. And coincidentially, look at the modern farmhouse example there. That garage is detached but the roof forms play off of the house, it not something totally different like your house is. If it helps look at this thread http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3285825/what-makes-a-house-have-good-design?n=39 and read my post there 23 post down. Pay attention to #9, 28,44,52,61 and 62. But good luck with your project. Exciting times for sure!!!

I have had a MW drawer since early 2008 and use it several time a day every day. I have had no problems with it. In fact, with one exception, it has outlasted all my "cheaper" countertop MWs by 4 years or more...so factor that in when you do a cost benefit analysis. The one that lasted the longest was a big Montgomery Ward's MW Convection Oven I bought in the mid-80s -- it lasted around 10 years. The one that lasted the least amount of time was a Panasonic (about 2 years). Sharp and Amana lasted about 4 or 5 years each. Note that I did not buy cheap countertop MWs b/c I happen to like the bells & whistles -- I use them all the time. My countertop models cost $250 to $300, I think. (It's been over 10 years now since I bought the last one, so they might have cost less...I just don't know for certain.) My 30" MW Drawer cost $800. So if the MW Drawer lasts another 4 years or so, I will have "broken even" with 3 countertop models at $300 lasting approx 5 years each. After that, I'm ahead of the game! The 24" MW drawers cost less than 30" and are the same size, so don't get a 30" model. . If the MW drawer is a budget-buster, then I suggest a countertop model installed above the counter (hanging from the upper cabinet) b/w the range and Laundry Room wall. However, you will probably have to move the range toward the sink another 6 to 9 inches to accommodate it. With the exception of, I think Bosch, all countertop MWs open with the hinge on the left, so this is the best location. [There is one that opens like an oven, but I don't know for certain that it's a Bosch nor am I certain it's a countertop model -- it might be designed to be installed as a built-in, which will then make it more expensive. The brand name may also make it more expensive...] Make sure the interior of the alcove for the MW is finished to match the exterior of the cabinets. That will add to the cost, but it will probably still be less than a MW drawer.