Thanks all - still working on this. Jillius, I also think the fridge flanked by pantries really works on that wall. Shortening the wall would be weird I think, because we leave the front door open a lot (security screen door) for light and air, so the door would be obstructing the opening to the kitchen. Re the range, thanks for the illustration - I don't actually think I would need to stand like that to be in front of the range, I have a 6" spacer in there and I could easily reach any area of the range from there, but besides that as someone else broke down in other threads only about 10% of cooking time is spent in front of the range, the majority is prep and that's probably even more so for us. My husband and I are vegetarian and the large part of our meals are not cooked at all, we eat a lot of fresh foods so a lot of counter space for prep is more important to us - in fact a sink in the peninsula would really be ideal. However we are on concrete slab so moving plumbing off the perimeter would be extremely expensive - from talking to the contractor he recommended against it due to the cost. I can ask him for a more precise quote, though. As for ROI, I am not going to assume any ROI. The most any realtor would recommend for resale is replacing countertops. We're not going to expect ROI, we just don't want to put excess money into the project since we know we will NOT get any appreciable ROI. We do live in a very high cost area, you can sell a falling down wreck for $2M here - but people do pay relatively more for move-in ready condos with nice kitchens. However, moving things more effective layout is not going to get us ROI - that's just for us as we will be here at least another 5 years. I also think having a more open appearance will be more pleasing to future buyers, but more importantly it would be pleasing to us for entertaining. benjesbride, I have considered simply widening the pass-through but I would prefer a more open feeling to the living/dining area. We have a U-shaped plan among the many saved floor plans that we tried out, but DH and I really like the serving bar effect of the pass-through counter/peninsula. Furthermore we do not want to replace the flooring, and with only one box of the floating floor material left (it's discontinued) we can only patch small areas, having the pass through open as a doorway or a u-shape would entail too much extra flooring material that we don't have. I really don't want different kitchen floors nor do I want to replace the entire 750 sq ft downstairs with something else. huango yes if the sink in the peninsula was not much more, I would do that - I was told it creates a big cost increase because we are on a slab foundation but it would be helpful to know exactly how much... and we will definitely consider white uppers, I might even consider all white cabinets again although I have found the current painted ones show every smudge and scuff which bugs me... but DH loves the dark cabinets, and the black-brown as they call it matches our LR bookcases. If we do dark we'd go with a very light countertop and white BS to make sure we don't darken things too much. Our walls are BM Mascarpone a warm white, so I am not sure how it would look more open to the LR with white cabinets if they don't go well with the mascarpone (which I love and don't want to change). funkycamper neat idea about the cabinets over the sink - I'm not even really sure if we'd need uppers along that wall, with 2 pantry cabinets and a lot of drawers. I could add a back to back layer of 15" cabinets to widen the peninsula, we could move the dining room fixture and table over by 15" and not feel too crowded I think. I'll have to measure it out and see, I had to make the cabinets move away to the far side of where the wall is now in order to make the doorway 36" instead of the existing 28" (too narrow) and to add some spacing between the range and the corner. rebunky thanks for the welcome back! No modifications to the exterior window size are allowed.

I am remodeling a double wide myself, previous owner removed a kitchen island/ cabinets and now there is a swag in the ceiling/roof. So be careful! Loadbearing is questionable in all of them.

If that was my house and I was building it, I wouldn’t use that 4x4 for load bearing. That said, you’re likely dealing with the building manager who has a responsibility for ensuring the home gets “turned over” on time and within budget. Delays and rework reflect on his/her performance. These companies use lots of sub-contractors and you seem to be getting a non-committal “maybe” until it all gets buttoned up at which stage, the new homeowner just wants to get in the home. It costs money to get the subs back. Go over your building representative’s head to the next stage of management. You may not get satisfaction, but at some point, at least you have worked the chain of command and supervisors are aware of the issue. That’s the best I can recommend.

Paint has never changed the ACTUAL size of anything. Why must lower cabinets even be navy? Drywall or ship lap can be painted multiple times. Or use the navy as a back splash, and have an all white kitchen! I don't see why it's a worry beyond the color of lower cabinetry , at this point. The side of any cabinet should match the front. Trim the post, and backside and paint it white. You can always paint navy later, or dining wall color.later. The beauty of paint? Do overs.