Thanks so much everyone; I appreciate your time and feedback. If I did a darker island base, it would be a similar finish to the wood floors. One one hand, I thought that it might provide better transition to the adjacent family/hearth room, but I do worry about either a dark island or dark island countertop looking like a "black hole" in the middle of the room, if that makes sense. Lightness is a good thing, as both front and back porches will result is not a lot of direct sunlight. Plus, like I said, I'm going with a quartz and while I like the furniture look of a wood topped island, I don't know if the espresso brown quartz countertop would give me the same effect. Again, thanks so much! I look forward to sharing progress in the coming months.

javachik, I LOVE how you marked up the layout. One issue with that is that our contractor is building out the wall by 3 feet to exactly where you suggested putting in the fridge, so that would block off the hallway and bathroom from the kitchen and dining room. Aside from that, I'd still do the island, just a smaller one, and still orient the table lengthwise, it would be tighter but it's New York, things are tight anyway. If anyone had suggested the layout you did earlier, I'd have probably asked the contractor to put in columns around an island instead of building out the wall. since posting originally, I bit the bullet and hired a designer to come in and nail things down so we could order cabinets, and we ended up sticking with the one-wall kitchen and making the island 3 by 6 feet including an overhang for 3 stools, and making the focal points of the kitchen the fridge and range, with an undermount sink in the middle and a hidden dishwasher next to the range. I think it will look clean and be functional with access to the stove and sink and fridge from both sides of the island, and a lot of island prep space. As for the cabinets issues, the designer worked with the contractor to tighten the area behind the wall so the counter-depth fridge will only stick out 3-4" inches past the cabinets, which should work. I think this kitchen will work. They did suggest a small prep sink on the edge of the island closest to the fridge. I loved that idea but it added a few thousand to the project and budget is so tight already, and I wasn't sure if it would make the kitchen "awesome" or just end up being a pricey semi-error. So we didn't pull that trigger. As for storage space, the contractor is building closets on an angle into the space next to each pocket door, so we get storage without losing flow. I can't picture it but hope it works well. desertsteph, I thought of your suggestion so many times and ultimately rejected it because (1) the bay window in the dining room is perfectly symmetrical and a gorgeous look from the dining room, and an angled door would ruin the detail and look (if anything I'd put a door between the 2 bay windows, and make our deck wide enough for the door there, but I priced it out and it added some crazy number that we can't afford (turns out neighbors with decks who have converted windows to doors all have doors off the kitchen or middle of bay windows, none on the angle) and (2) the kitchen window is long and lets in a lot of light, so putting the counters in front of the windows would mean bricking up the window partly and losing light which is so important; I couldn't pull that trigger.

Deb: $125 per foot!!! Oh my! That's almost twice as much as I paid (prefabricated, I paid $40.38/sq ft). I did some testing and while it did MUCH better than the marble, there was some staining (not etching) on my pre-sealed sample when I had a few food stains that sat for 24+ hrs. My fabricator claims that sealing the granite should take care of the light staining that I saw, so I am trusting him. I actually don't care that much if I have some "lived in" looked. I have lived with marble so I know what that feels like, I am just hoping to defer some of that permanent etching that we had. If you have white cabinets and a wood island, I might actually think about the Caesarstone if you can't find the white princess. I was pleasantly surprised to see a showroom by Christopher Peacock that was done in the Caesarstone that looks like marble and it was REALLY pretty. I would never have believed it unless I saw it myself. Wish I could have taken pics but they wouldn't let me! The other option I love is concrete! Might be too un-traditional for your style, but I really like the counters in my friend's house and they are very light gray--and very easy to take of! Despite what some people say, she has never had a staining problem. They have a gorgeous patina that is really pretty and I love them with the white counters. Not her kitchen, but similar--look how pretty the concrete is! From Menlo Farmhouse

Has GW ever asked its forum members to track their food prep/ cook time percentage over a couple of days? I'm like Paula Poundstone on 'Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me' surveys when I see that percentage cited. LOL. Good question. I think it would be a good one to figure out. If something's on my rangetop, I think I'm generally interacting with it, unless it's chili or something similar. As am I, but usually I find the prep time chopping, rinsing, etc takes more time than the actual cook time on top of the cooktop. Of course the exception being a stew or soup, etc. And I never prep next to my sink. Interesting because I've done it both ways and it really depended on my kitchen layout. When I didn't have enough room next to my sink like in my condo, I washed everything and then moved it to prep next to my cooktop. It worked but wasn't ideal. In the kitchen in my first house, I had a traditional L shape with fridge, sink, stove and I prepped right between the stove and the sink. It actually was the ideal layout for me. In our rental in NY, I also prep between sink and stove. In our rental here in FL the sink is literally right next to the stove so there's no room to prep there. There's also no room to prep on the other side of the sink so it means again washing things and then bringing them to the other side of the stove. It's awful. But I'm with the OP. I would not want a sink on an island. So, that makes two of us. And that's perfectly fine but why have even the cooktop in the island?