The hinge is in the front. The rest of the fridge is more like 70". But all fridges, this one included REQUIRE a gap at the top and sides for ventilation. How deep is your above-the-fridge cabinet? If it's like mine, its only about 12" deep, in which case a shorter cabinet will look just fine since the fridge will fill in the rest.

Thanks for your input, everyone. The upper cabinet doors open fine. But the upper cabinet at the corner directly beside the hood opens into the blind corner, so I think the deeper hood will probably make it even more difficult to make use of the shelf space in that corner. (Sorry, I know its hard to visualize and I apologize for not having a picture to post.) Anyways, I think I've decided to keep the existing 27" hood. I'm not convinced that the 24" is going to look significantly different and we will have given up some level of functionality. Plus, we avoid the headache of dealing with an unwanted rangehood. (edlakin -- I know that I might have been able to get the appliance dealer to take back the 27" hood but, unfortunately, they removed and took away the packing on delivery. So, if he took it back, it would have been difficult to convince the distributor to take it back and he would likely have had to put the brand new hood in the store's "clearance" area. His first comment to me was, "it HAD to be the rangehood...anything BUT the rangehood". I got a fantastic price on our suite of appliances and it certainly was not the retailer's fault that we were thinking about going to a different size. Actually, I don't fault anyone for not identifying the issue earlier, since we certainly did talk about rangehoods earlier -- I just chalk it up to one of those situations where, on paper, everything looked okay but you can only appreciate the real impact when you see the actual kitchen put together. I thought the retailer offered a very reasonable solution and, for me, the financial hit we would be asked to take -- which he estimated would be maybe $300 at the end of the day -- would be the price for making sure that our kitchen was the way we wanted it, if that's the route we wanted to go.)

Did you buy a new sink and cabinet? If you have the cabinet out, it is usually not too difficult for a plumber (or maybe a good handyman) to open the wall and cut into the vertical drain pipe and move the sink drain connection to a lower point on the pipe. Assuming the vent pipe runs up, it can stay in its current location. The fitting mounted lower on the drain pipe would allow more space to fit the trap for a deeper sink. Wall repair is relatively simple because its all going to be hidden under the sink area where a wall patch won't even be visible. If you look at this picture you can see how it is typically connected and vented. https://inspectapedia.com/plumbing/Plumbing-Vent-Distance-Codes.php The plumber would just move the connection lower on the vertical pipe. If you do have issues with reconnecting the vent, you should be able to use a studor vent (air admittance valve) as a replacement. Bruce

Galley kitchens are my very favorite. What do you dislike about the current kitchen? I think I'd simply change to stainless appliances and get a new countertop. Your cabinets look great and are not a really dated style. Perhaps adding rollout shelves behind the doors to the lowers on the left would add more accessible storage for you. Look into Ruggable for some great washable rugs to add just the right amount of color/pattern/texture. Upgrade the ceiling light and add LEDs under all the uppers, plus new hardware and you'll have a super kitchen with half the headaches; no floor removal, plumbing or electric adjustments. It will give you the opportunity for some great upgrades to transform the space with little pain.