How intent are you on having a raised bar? If you make it one level then you could regain the 'raised' cabinet space, shrink the overhang a bit and gain maybe 6". I don't know if it's worth it.

Is the 'Active' side of the sliding door on the bar side or the other side? Would you ever consider putting in a sliding door with the active side on the far side? That would gain you roughly 4' (if that is the opening width, which is much larger than average).

Yes the active side of the door is on the bar side. I can't switch because it would be blocked a little by the sofa in the family room 8 feet away. The actual opening is about 39".

I have thought about having the bar the same level for the reasons you mention. As it's set up currently the 7" cabinet under the overhang has to functional doors under the overhang with (3) adjustable shelves, I was thinking I could put wine glasses there? The big suck is I lose the 2'x2' square next to the pull out trash can next to the wall because I went with all drawers on the lower cabs. Since I can't access that are there is nothing there. they will put cleats on the wall to support the plywood and granite.

Not sure what to do?

How big is your sliding door rough in? Is it big enough to replace with a 3-panel or 4-panel slider which would give you space on each side of the door.

Our breakfast bar overhang is 10" and my husband (6') finds it comfy. I had wanted a deeper overhang but was talked out of it by the contractor and soapstone installer because they were afraid anything deeper would be too heavy and could actually break off and hurt someone. I even bought special brackets, but they couldn't be used in our application. Anyway, I begrudgingly went with the 10' overhang and it hasn't been a problem at all.

Have you thought about having the window come down to the bar? We did that and I love it! When I sit at the bar I can see out the window and it makes me happy : ) I also am very happy with the raised bar. Our configuration is similar.

If you lower the bar to counter-height, you'll need a 15" overhang...so I don't think you want to do that....unless...

(1) Bring the bar down to counter-height (bar-height doesn't really hide anything and it breaks up the great expanse of workspace peninsulas & islands offer)
(2) Eliminate the cabinets under the overhang
(3) Put a cabinet in the corner "dead space" that faces the seating side
(4) Make the overhang 15"

At 5'10", I find our 15" overhang OK...another 3" would have been better, but it's OK. My DH at 6'5" still has to straddle the cabinet, but at least he'll sit at it...unlike our friend's peninsula w/a 12" overhang...he refuses to sit at it b/c it's just too uncomfortable (I have to sit sideways or lean pretty far forward when I sit at their peninsula.)

I had the KD extend the Penisula to 22" deep so the finished counter top will be anbout 23.5". I also did increase the overhang to 12" so the edge of the granite bar will be 12.5" from the edge of the slider.

I also increased the size of the window over the raised bar to 45 wide x 32 tall. The window over the sink is 45wide and goes down to the countertop. This should make for better symmtry??

Lastly, does it look strange that I have drawers on the penisula and doors under the sink? I did not do a door on the penisula bank because I did drawers everywhere else?

I liked the look of the raised bar since it hides the counter from the family room and seemed like a good idea.

A 36" penisula with no raised area would add access to the dead zone from the opposite side?

"Have you thought about having the window come down to the bar? We did that and I love it! When I sit at the bar I can see out the window and it makes me happy : ) I also am very happy with the raised bar. Our configuration is similar."

hmmm... anyone else wonder what she's lookin' at with those binocs?? lol

I think, even if you decided to keep it raised, you can use most of that dead space. You could order a full depth, tall cabinet and cut off the top back corner so it could fit under your low countertop. The material removed could be used to close it off again. If you were just getting shelves, there shouldnt be any tracks, or hardware that would prevent you from doing this.

Well, joyjoyjoy, I just laughed for a good 10 minutes!! Too funny.

Here's a sample of what I am looking at : )

I'm not sure I understand the question about accessing from the back of the raised bar. As you can see we have cabinets under our raised bar. They are regular base cabinet ordered extra tall. They are placed back to back against the other base cabinets facing into the kitchen.