My suggestion for putting the prep sink on the island facing the view and putting the clean-up sink/DW on the other island was made just to get the clean-up zone off of the island with the view. You can't leave the DW where it is anyway because it blocks up the path between the eating area and kitchen and you don't have enough room to open the DW door and stand beside/infront of it and to empty it. I'm not sure that you have enough width to have a middle island. You note that you have 36" aisles on either side of the island. Is that 36" cabinet to cabinet or counter to counter? Counter overhang can be anywhere from 3/4" to 1 1/4" so in EACH aisle you could lose 1 1/2" to 2 1/2" of aisleway. A 2' wide island isn't wide enough for a DW and clean-up sink to be placed comfortably. At one spot you also have wall-ovens placed and noted 36" aisle space but did you take into account the space that the oven handles will take. And the amount of space required for you to open the door and stand in front of it to take out your cookie sheet/roasting pan, etc. will be uncomfortably shallow with those measurements. What I see is a problem with aisleways widths making the middle island not feasible. The left hand wall - does that window look out onto anything important and does the size have to stay? What about putting the DW and clean-up sink there instead. Your kitchen is 12' wide so you need 50" for counter space (24" + 1' overhang x 2) plus 42' per aisle (which is comfortable for most people) for a total of 84" for a grand total of 134" of necessary width. You have 120" available - mmmmmm. An island will only work if you get rid of either the top counter run with the stove or the bottom counter run with the range and then you have to find someplace to put that stuff. I'd get rid of the middle island. But JMHO.

I drink lattes and the espresso quality still matters to me (maybe I'm picky ... heck, I'm on GW, so ...) I had a full-auto, and a good one at that, but I won't buy one again. It's not as serviceable and I ended up unhappy with the results, both of the steam power and the espresso. If I didn't get a grinder/manual, I'd just stick with drip (which wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, I just really like my coffee so that's where I choose to spend my money.) Fair warning: my home setup (~10 years old) is around 3K$ now. The work setup, which I would probably buy now if I were buying new, is around 6K$. That's partially due to wanting a dual boiler system: the water used for frothing needs to be boiling but that's too hot for the coffee. You can get something reasonable at around 2K$, I think. I highly recommend Chris' Coffee. This is our setup at work: Size-wise, that's 36" from the left of the towel basket to the right of the grinder (not including the extra towel/portafilter.) So if you have drawers or shelves to store towels, you get back around six inches. It also shows a typical amount of messiness (hi res image here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11615635/IMG_1338.JPG). Everyone has their own amount of tolerance for messiness. We don't clean up all the grounds during the day but do at night. Even then, it tends to not get as clean in the back. You also have to be careful when knocking out pucks or you get splatter. If you don't need anything else there, 36" would seem doable. There won't be a lot more room. But then, because it's a bit wet/messy, you wouldn't want to put much else there, anyway. > My challenge is that almond milk is hard to froth Yeah. As is non-fat milk. I gotta admit, the Linea does a much better job than my well-loved S1 Vivaldi II (though the Vivaldi's not awful.) But the Linea also costs a bit more than twice as much. La Marzocco is pretty much the gold standard for espresso, commercial or "pro-sumer". It's also easier to get serviced since everybody that services espresso machines services LM. Not so much for the less known brands. At this range, these appliances are meant to be servicable, not discarded at first failure. > I would choose a machine that is plumbed, even if it's manual. Maybe you were including this, but if you don't have a sink near by, I'd also get the drain plumbed in. That way you can rinse the portafilter without worrying about filling up the drip tray. I wouldn't pour milk in the drip tray, though, so you need a sink to rinse it. I generally don't bother rinsing the frothing pitcher between drinks (since I make them pretty often.) Some people would be more fastidious than that. If you are like that, you're going to have to make a trip to the sink for every drink anyway, so you might want to factor that in. In my remodel, I'm putting the coffee bar next to the fridge, opposite the sink: The water supply to the espresso machine should be filtered and possibly softened. Chris' Coffee has a kit that I use. You need to have space for the filters and they have to be changed once a year (at least as often I use it.) I still have to talk to my GC about how he'll plumb the water to see where the filters go.

Dear Sarah, General Advice I believe you should begin by consulting with an architect. Removing all of the walls will require a beam to span 21’. You’ll lose your sense of entry and will walk in the front door right into your living room. I believe cheapening your homes current appeal. Also the beam will be installed and stick down below your ceiling framing, because chances are it will be too deep to flush frame, so you’ll still see it and still “feel” the separation of spaces. I believe you should keep your walls that create your entry foyer, and even add a header so you can frame the existing wide opening into your lr to continue the crown molding unbroken. Like it does at the opening between your lr and dr. Your entry has no crown and the way the lr crown cuts back on itself at the entry looks awkward. This living room will not be formal so is it going to be used as a family room? If so I would keep the family room so it can be turned into a first floor bedroom (for future). You can use it for a second family room, den, library, office…whatever you need as your living situation changes and it will change. Keep a closet and add a door off of the entry which could stay open against the wall. If the lr will be where you watch tv you should consider where the tv will go (above the fp is the usual place, but watching a tv above a fp is not the most comfortable. TV placed there is usually too high for comfortable viewing. You might consider switching the openings filling in the opening from the lr to the dr and making a new opening from the lr to the kitchen. Kitchen Design Advice The layout you have drawn will work, but before you commit to it you should get to see and compare every other possible arrangement of appliances and cabinetry that will work to make your new kitchen perform best. Both esthetically and functionally within the space you have to work with. Because you are never going to remodel this kitchen again as long as you live here. Do it once, do it right and you’ll get to live in a kitchen you truly love, and when the time comes…sell your home with a kitchen that doesn’t need to be remodeled. If you want to do this right exhaustive space planning is the only way to get it done. Otherwise you will always have doubt and uncertainty because you didn’t get to see every possible new kitchen option, whether you are consciously aware of this or not. Kitchen Critique Try to keep your aisle ways to 42” to 48” so your island will do a good job of separating work space from gathering space. Your work triangle is good your ref/f is about 9’ from your range. Appliance Requirements Ref hopefully single door and drawer freezer below. Door opens to the right plenty of counter top to the right. Also the island is 42” to 48” ( 1 ½ to 2 steps) away which can be used. Sink more than 30” to the left and right for staging item to wash, stage, and dry. Range has 20” of counter to the left and 42” to the right good space for items used during cooking and for prepping and storing items going into and coming out of the oven to cool. Can also use the island counter for additional staging space. Esthetic Performance Range and sink may compete with each other to stand out in this layout. Ref at the end of the run of cabinetry should be paneled out for a custom look. Cabinet above the ref should be a deep wall cabinet flush with the face of the deep ref enclosure. It wants to look like an armoire with a ref set into it. The fully exposed end should have a wains panel end that matches the door in style. There should be some wall to the right of the ref to stop crown molding if you’re using any. Island is too deep for its length at 6’ long x 4’ wide in your space it will appear to be square. If you can’t fit a longer island in your layout without cramping the dining table and chairs. Your island shouldn’t be wider than 36 to 39” if you want a pleasing rectangular shape. As drawn the pair of 12” cabinets will look heavy, like 2 large columns supporting a much too small counter top. You’ll need 50” wide wains panel ends to cover the cabinet boxes to make the island look like finished furniture and at 6’x4’ will look very heavy and awkward in your kitchen. Functional Performance Your ref/f is far from your dining table, outdoor space, and living room. So you’ll spend a lot of time traveling to get food and beverages from your ref. This is not the most effective location for this appliance. That doesn’t mean you can’t keep it there. I believe you’ll have a storage problem and your kitchen cabinetry will be more expensive than it has to be. Because you are using a lot of narrow base cabinetry 12” wide, 18” wide, and 24” wide drawer bases don’t cost much less than 27” to 36” wide base cabinets. Considering narrower cabinetries complete lack of utility for the price difference, I believe you’ll be better served with fewer and wider cabinets where you can get them. Your cabinet is 12” wide – the cabinet box 1 ½” – glides for the drawers- 1” – the drawer box sides 1 ¼” = 8 ¼” x 20” of usable storage space. Starting from your ref. 12” base become a try base for all of your cutting boards, corner susan, 12” trash bin pull out with a top drawer for wraps. Sb, dw 18” db, range, 27” wide 3db with a wains panel end deep enough to cover the edges of the drawers. Island: start by omitting the two 12” cabinets and replace them with turned legs and an apron so the island looks like a work table. On the working side wains end panel, 27” 3db, 18”, 27” wains panel. Or Wains panel, (2) 36” 3db with removable dividers, wains panel end. Wider cabinets give you much more utility especially for large kitchen items. You could have your most used cutting boards in the top drawers, or an in drawer knife block, or spice insert, or utensil dividers…whatever you need where you use it. Hope this has been helpful. Joe Brandao Kitchen Design Company

M, So great to hear your take on form following function. I think we share a practical streak. On the one hand, I'm not a preservationist, on the other I do want to be true to the spirit of the house. I'm not aiming to make it something its not, and I don't want to "over improve" either. I agree that its entirely possible to "design a modern functional home and have the original vintage design-spirit prevail". In fact, thats precisely the balance I'm striving to achieve. In my situation, honoring the vintage design spirit means keeping certain elements intact: --the cottage windows --the china cabinet --the built-ins in the living room flanking the fireplace I'm not as attached to keeping the kitchen and breakfast room spaces separate as my partner is. In the spirit of cooperation and domestic harmony ;-) I've solicited feedback on how we could fit everything in the footprint of the kitchen proper, and posters to this thread stepped up admirably (THANK YOU!!) Reading the comments here has allowed me to feel more comfortable with merging the kitchen and the breakfast room--that this might be the right place to "modernize". Considering the two spaces as one is beginning to feel…well…more practical to me. Your point about it being possible to botch both the form and the function strikes a cautionary note---Sheesh, that would be awful. Aiming to avoid this, on both counts! Thanks so much M, for your always incisive comments.