oh boy, we did two bathrooms which had concrete shower walls. I used a circular saw with a concrete blade, sledge hammer, crowbar, mesh cutter, and lots of sweat! i did not want to just hammer the heck of out it. I would have damaged tiles in other parts of the house as the whole house shook with each blow! Once you get one area out, the rest comes out in sheets. You can use a crow bar to separate it from the studs. Have plenty of helps to take the trash out. good luck and keep the bar stocked for later...

We have an 8' island with a small prep sink at one end. We had an outlet installed near the prep sink but I tend to use it rarely. All my large appliances go on our other countertops (which I have plenty of) so that the island is for cutting etc. I do use the hand mixer or stand mixer on the island if needed but that is rare for me. What we wish we had done and may actually do at some point is put some outlets on the other side because like someone else said we use our laptops here at the island all the time. In fact right now mine is beeping at me that the battery is low and I am not thrilled about draping the cord across the top of the island just to be plugged in. in terms of looks we didn't do anything to hide the outlet we have, but it's on a side of the island that guests wouldn't see so it's not that 'visible'. The cover is colored similar to our cabinet stain so I never notice it. If we had outlets on the other side, since we have stools there I'm sure it would never be noticed at all.

I would be more inclined to have a narrower physical walking entrance to the kitchen with a counter or bar height pass-thru than a wider walking entrance. Think in terms of the cook. Suppose you have a room full of guest and in full view of your MIL you "accidentally" drop her Filet-mignon on the floor. While a half wall would have saved you the embarrassment and allowed you to have retrieved the delicate morsel and with a quick wipe of both it and the floor, deposited it upon the bed of blanched swiss chard, saving the moment. I mean, after all, it's not as if you hadn't washed the floor in the last week or two,........is it.

Alex, Regarding the wall, what if you built a wall below the stair loft and make that front room the piano room. Then open up the kitchen to the current piano room and use it as a family room/dining space. Sort of how it was set up in the listing photos. I agree with others that you need an interior designer/architect to come up with a cohesive plan for your home to bring it to your modern style. The work could be done in phases or all at one, whatever your finances allow. It will be very expensive as others have stated, but you probably already knew that. Your kitchen choices look alot like those used in the first kitchen picture from Debbie Washburn's post last Monday at 9:17am. Very modern, very nice. There's no reason why you shouldn't move forward with that design scheme. It's your house. You seem to understand the value of the woodwork. Don't feel pressured to keep it. Maybe you could have an architectural salvage company come to your home and remove all the woodwork they want, that way it could be reused eventually. Hopefully you got the house treated for termites! :)