When we had to move to Atlanta for Dh to go to school he drove the huge moving truck with my car towed behind. He loaded the cat, german shephard and our goldfish. He got about 2miles down the road when he decided to return home. He handed me the cat, in her carrier, and told me there was no way she was going with him. He stopped to potty the dog, and himself, and get gas/food. The goldfish did not survive the Tehachapi mountains in so cal and is buried somewhere in the Mojavi desert. I flew with my 4mo baby in her carseat and the cat in carrier under seat. That was horrible because I had a carryon, baby in carseat and cat in carrier. I had to walk 20' at a time in the terminal carrying the bag and baby while shuffling the cat carrier on the floor. People just sat and watched me, no one offered to even open a door for me. It was a nightmare. Upon returning to CA 2.5yrs later my dh again drove the huge truck with our dog but this time he towed his truck on the flatbed. I drove my car with my cat in carrier and my 2.5yr old in carseat. We got her some fries and she kept poking them into the cat carrier because she thought the cat would eat them. We stopped in Shamrock Texas for the night and managed to sneak the pets in the motel with us. We got separated somewhere in Barstow and it was late and foggy when we got to Fresno. I decided to stop at a motel because it was something like 2am. Dh continued to our home in No Cal. He can drive and drive. I would not recommend doing a cross country trip in two days with three kids but I managed with a 2.5 and a cat just fine. But I think you could have a good time with your kids as long as they had activities and breaks. A stop at a fastfood with a play area is always good. They can play while you order the food. Also, with the older kids you can pick landmarks for them to keep track of where you are on the trip. On one of our trips to Utah my 11yr old dd was really getting on my nerves so I had her count the various flowers we passed. That kept her occupied for many miles. When my dd was 15mo we drove from Atlanta to Florida. She decided that was the time to be potty trained. We tried to put a diaper on her for in the carseat and she would not have it. At one point she started saying "poo poo" but the next rest stop was about 25miles. She held it to our amazement. But it did make things stressful for a bit. Any trip can be fun but always plan for disaster.

Wow! The problem, from my perspective, is that maybe you've been TOO kind and giving. They are using a form of emotional blackmail to get what they want, maybe because they find it works for them? By that, I mean they are not sincere in being kind to you... they are looking to get what they can & since dad has nothing, they EXPECT it from you because you have been so generous. For whatever reason, they are using that tactic instead of sincerity. Their actions show no respect or even liking you or your DH. When your DH tells them how to behave properly, it sounds like they may know but don't care since they don't change their behavior. My uneducated guess would be that they harbor anger & resentment for their mother leaving... and they may also resent your DH for whatever reason (since I have no info on why that may be) and they have learned to use the guilt people feel for their situation to benefit from it. It almost reminds me of generational welfare families... they expect the government to take care of them but they don't necessarily like the government & want the government to stay out of their business but keep on giving them the money & if they don't get an annual increase or the amount decreases, they get angry or blame the government for their kids not being taken care of when the truth is they should not have had kids that THEY couldn't take care of. I used to see that train of thought all the time and it was partly to blame for my interest in sociology & behavior. My advice would be to cut them off. They are well into adulthood... and have husband's & children. If they can be so snide as to say "we have kids and jobs, and husbands you wouldn't understand.", which is a not so subtle or backhanded insult/jab, then I would simply use that as my answer next time they ask for something... "I have a child to raise & YOU have a husband that can/should help you with YOUR family". And your DH needs to back you up or better yet, HE should tell them this & keep YOU out of it. You are not their mother and YOU have NO responsibility or obligation to them. It is tough love on your DH's part because these "kids" haven't learned how to stand on their own two feet but they have learned to lay on their backs to make kids that they will probably use to garner sympathy to get you or DH to give them some cash... nobody wants a grandbaby to go hungry or possibly become homeless. They won't learn to ride a two wheeler (LIFE) on their own until the training wheels (YOUR MONEY) are removed. I know that when I was in my 20's and my dad told me "sorry, can't help", I had to figure it out. I was a single mom with 3 kids and no husband... not even a lazy one to help while I worked 2 jobs. (and no child support) He would offer to take in my kids and give me cash for birthdays & holidays but I also never had that entitled attitude. It was made very clear by my parents that I made decisions. I made my kids. I was a grown up. Period.

I know what you are going through with the fridge. I had a similar problem with mine. Ours was only a year old so I didn't want to replace it with a counter depth - plus the CD are so expensive. We ended up building out a step-in pantry and hid it next to it. I like your plan 1 best. Unless you can hide the fridge better in plan 2 such as recessing it into the bathroom, I don't think you'll want to see it stick out so much from the LR. The fridge may be farther than you would like from the cooktop in plan 3. In plan 1, It looks like you would have 3' between cooktop and fridge. This is not bad and you would probably find yourself prepping closer to the sink anyway. I like the island idea. I think you could leave your sink where it is if plumbing would be an issue in the island. The island would give you a great work surface right across from your cooktop and fridge and not too far from your pantry. You can attach a table height seating area behind it that would provide seating on three sides. (Like butting up a table to the backside of the island to make a "T" shape). Houzz will have some examples (sorry, I'm not good with links.) BTW, I had that same vinyl floor in my last house. :)

I'm sure I'm annoying but I don't really know what I do that's annoying. I can guess that probably one thing that drives a lot of people up the wall is that I clear my throat all the time. Since I was a small child I have had sinus drainage. The doctors said it was from all the Refineries in my town. I honestly don't think that's it, I think it's the humidity. When I was able to live in a low humidity area, it did not suffer with it. Where I live now has no such refineries but is very high humidity. I am constantly annoyed by sinus drainage. UGH! I also speak my mind. If I don't like something or think it's wrong, I will say something. If I know something to be wrong that someone is saying, I will say something. Just as a for instance, as I've said several time, I am a daily dog park visitor. I hear all sorts of things people do with their dogs and one thing that stands out is a lady that used to be a regular would give her dog a doughnut (yes, a whole big doughnut!) every day. I told her that she should not be feeding a dog a doughnut! She took great offense to my comment but I know that I am right! Dogs should not be given high sugar/carb foods like that! Her dog always acted like he was all hyped up too, probably from the sugar high he was getting.