Its my first time working w kitchen designers on a kitchen that we had so much options, so I never realized the inherent issues. If I were to do it all over again, I'd probably just extend the cabinets all the way up. One of the reasons we didn't was we have upper valence lighting on our current home and we love how much brighter it makes the kitchen. Anyway, I spoke to the kitchen makers and they seem to be willing to accomodate any change. I'm meeting with them onsite in a few days to go over the specifics. I'll let you guys know how it goes. Really appreciate all the feedback. I wouldve hoped that the cabinet makers would have told me the consequences before they made the cabinets...

I agree that staggering has to be very carefully thought out if that's the route you choose. Pic 2 just looks like you either (1) made a mistake in the height of the shorter cabinets or (2) you have a soffit over the other cabinets (and that's b/c it's 2-D; in 3-D/reality it will, I think, just look like a mistake). Sorry if that was too blunt... I would take all the upper cabinets to the ceiling (with 2- or 3-piece crown molding to compensate for any unevenness of the ceiling height). If you had a decorative hood you might be able to have that taller than the other cabinets for staggered look. On another topic...how much counter space do you have to the left of the sink? It looks very small, especially since the prep space appears to be b/w the sink and range. I don't think you'd want cleanup space as part of your prep space. I would also be afraid of things dropping off the narrow side b/c there really isn't much room for putting anything there. (That includes splashing water, btw!) If you have an island w/a prep sink then my first concern is mitigated. However, my second concern stands.

Funnelweb, I like your approach! We have a similar attitude. I remember a few years ago we had a snake in the backyard. I only saw it partially once in the old chook shed as it scuttled away very quickly. I thought "god what the heck is that" and then figured it must have been a blue tongue as we had quite a few of those. Then one day my son's school friend was here and they got a good look at it. The friend was all for killing it as he used to live on acreage down around Berry and reckoned that when it gets to breeding season they (snakes) get agressive.. but I reckoned it wasn't doing anyone any harm and indeed it had only even been seen the once, and frankly, I'm flattered it likes our place, so I issued a protection order for it. we have some frogs and some water and the old chook shed has a nice northerly facing concrete floor and stuff in it to hide under. Sounds like pretty good snake apartments really! There used to be an aviary and chooks in nearby yards, and these attracted the mice, but those are gone, so the food supply may not be what it once was, and I don't think snakey is till around. I have been doing a project re family photos recently and had a disappointment. We have an old family story about my grandfather walking along and stepping in a taipan which was curled up asleep minding its own business in the long grass. Snake jumped up into the air in fright. Granfather jumped up into the air in fright.. the family story went that snake went one way, grandfather the other.. but then going through my mothers photo album, there's a photo of my grandfather holding up a dead snake. Mum says, yeah, that IS the snake from the story. .... sniff... I liked that story better when I thought the snake lived to tell the tale. As far as I know the only fauna permanently living in the old chook shed at the moment is a rather large and impressive red back. When I found her she was a beautiful specimen. Red backs made excellent pets. They are quiet, timid and provide food for blue tongues. Sure you don't want to go sticking your finger in their gob, but I reckon that's about what you'd need to do to rile one up.. and im our experience the red backs aren't stupid, they do their best to choose places you don't interfere with too much and set up their web out of the way there. They are lovely little creatures.

I would go with spacing of about 1.5 feet between those plants. The brunnera and heuchera are low-growers; the flower scapes of the heucheras get 1.5-2.0 foot tall, but the overall effect is airy - the foliage stays low, pretty much same size as the brunnera. Helleborus are taller plants than the other two, so I'd avoid blocking the view of the brunnera and heucheras with the helleborus (in other words, don't plant the helleborus in front of them) unless the bed is viewed from multiple sides, then it won't matter so much, although think about the primary viewing angle and put the shorter plants in front. I don't particularly care for plants planted in straight lines - I prefer a woven-type arrangement with one plant leading the eye to another.