if your doors are frame and panel construction the panel must be allowed to float freely in the frame. It will expand and contract with seasonal humidity changes much more than the frame. You probably want to paint in the dry season when the panel is contracted so that it doesn't then shrink further and show an unpainted stripe. If you seal the panel to the frame the wood *will* move and something will give--you can hope for the paint or caulk bond, but it's also possible that the panel will split. When making new doors it's much better to finish the panel before installing it in the frame, but that's not usually an option in refinishing. Just try to not let too much paint gather in the rabbet that holds the panel.

I did get SOME sleep last night - though I had to take a pill to get it. :( We also are waiting for test results to find out if the original flooring contains asbestos. But that's another story. mtnrdredux: what a great idea - I am so much a visual person, this will really help me. I will do that this afternoon when I have some time. chris - that side of the wine rack is the end of the cabinet room and is facing into the open dining room, as is the island overhang. I'm already encroaching into the existing dining room space by about a foot and don't want to do more than that. So, adding another cabinet into that run isn't possible. Two possibilities I can see for relocating the wine rack (if insulation doesn't cut it) are: 1) put it in the walk in pantry - hadn't thought of that, thx chris. 2) put the wine rack under part of the island top where I currently plan to have 2 side by side drawers over 2 open shelves. (This is the side away from the ovens) Which idea do folks like better - or do you have a third? Sadly, if I move the wine rack, I still am not sure about moving the ovens to the right. I need a flooring transition in that area and had thought of a straight like between island base and the transition between ovens and wind rack. I want the counter height stools to be all on the same flooring as the dining room. If I turn the base between the ovens and dishwasher into a full drawer bank, it would end up being about a 16.5" drawer base. Is that wide enough to be useful? How wide would the interior of the drawer actually be, and - in general - what size drawers are good for what function? I guess likewise, if I omit the tray divider in the island, I could use that space for drawers; that would give me 33" - is that enough for 2 side by side drawer bases? One for silverware, table linens, etc. and one for measuring spoons, garlic presses, spatulats, bowls, etc? florantha - DH and I are the only ones here (other than the cats and chickens). If we do what we've always done, more prep work will be done at the clean up sink than the prep sink, unless we both need a sink at the same time. I do most of the cooking, he makes his own breakfast and both of us lattes in the morning. Somewhat often, we'll both be in there together; one prepping veggies or making a salad, the other doing something else (eg, getting meat ready). So access to 2 sinks in the kitchen is key for us. My concern about putting the small sink "outside" the kitchen is that that is the main traffic flow between the back door (read main door) and the rest of the house. All our friends plus us arrive and leave through that door. Having said that, it will be a smaller sink, and I can skew it towards the middle of the end some so it's not right on the edge. I will try a mock set up and see how it feels Thanks for suggesting that!! Best way to know if it will work is to try it. For hand washing of folks not working in the kitchen, there will be a pedestal sink in the half bath/laundry room and another outside the back door where we can wash up after "farm chores." Back to the wine rack question - In the meantime, I got a message from my cabinet maker. He said the side of the oven cab is 3/4", then there's 3/4" air space, then 1/4" back to wine rack - he suggests heat won't be an issue. Anybody think this is enough to take care of it... or not?

I tried to fit the peninsula into your layout, but I'm not sure it works. My kitchen was actually a little smaller, but open to the hallway with a shallow pantry across the hallway. My isles were not the standard 42 inches, but they worked well in the kitchen (better than the the kitchen I have now with the 42 inch clearance) The stove sink and peninsula as drawn are similar to what i had. I'm not sure you have room for the bar seating in front of the sink. My fridge was a little further from where I drew yours and I'm not sure if where I put it is ideal. Also I took another foot from your garage to give you extra width. I am definitely not an expert in this area. I went to a couple of kitchen designers to get layout help before we finalized the floor plan and one designer was excellent and had great ideas. Actually, I like your original floor plan and shallow pantry. Putting a 30 in cabinet next to the fridge should help when setting things down and using the fridge. I don't think you've allowed enough room on either side of your stove and I don't think I would want to switch it with the sink.

We met with our guy, Brian, from the kitchen ideas center again last week. We made a lot of decisions and we're pretty excited. Perimeter cabinets will be Plato and the two islands will be Woodland (?). We decided to go with mid-level cabinetry for the islands, because we're painting them and it's one way to cut costs. The walnut cabinet uppers will have walnut interiors as well. The lower cabinet interiors will be natural maple. Thanks to the advice on here, I decided to go with two 6" drawers in the "hutch" and the appliance garage will be 16" high. After seeing a 3D model, there is one area of our plan that is getting an overhaul, and that's the 84"W x 60"H x 10"D pantry. It looked like a row of lockers. Ugh. I hadn't taken it to the ceiling, because I wanted to put a TV above it. I've since given that idea up and I'm excited about the ideas Brian presented. Basically, a shallow hutch (10" - 13" deep, maybe less) with 18"W floor to ceiling pantry cabinets bookending a center display area - either glass doored cabinets or open shelves, with countertop dividing top and bottom. The pictures below are similar to the idea. As soon as we started discussing possibilities I remembered this post by illinigirl: what height pull for these extra tall uppers in bar area? I loved her design drawings for her bar area. At the end of the thread she has a picture of the partially completed bar behind an island, I believe. I especially like that the plans call for 'wood shelves with glass inserts' for the center display area. I'm not 100% sure how this will evolve, but it's possible we'd use the center shelves for alcohol. Or maybe just a display area for pretty things. The side cabinets would definitely need to hold pantry staples. We also met with a general contractor and that went quite well. We have another meeting with him tomorrow. Our project would be about 12 weeks out, and he estimates it'll take 12 weeks to complete. He will be presenting us with a full plan tomorrow, I believe. He is also taking on relocating the washer/dryer and making sure we have a somewhat workable temporary kitchen.