Here's what you can do to post a pic since it would be much much easier to help you with one.
1. Take a pic with of either your layout or actual kitchen. If you have a scanner, you can scan a pic of your layout.
2. Open a free account at www.photobucket.com
3. Upload your pics
4. Highlight and copy the html url under the pic
5. Write your message on the forum and paste the html url into the message. It will initially show up just as a jumble of letters and codes.
6. When you submit the message the pic will show up in the message.

Then sit back and digest all the great feedback you will receive from forum members. HTH

Deep breath!

Tell us about your appliance and fixture requirements - size of dbl ovens, size and type of cooktop, size of dw, size and type of ref and the size of sink.

Tell us about your goals for the remodel - easy access for multiple cooks, more counterspace, more storage or whatever it is that you want.

If you dislike particular things - like corners or trash pullouts, mention those also. Pictures of the existing room and a floorplan of the room would be great.

If you can't do pictures then describe the room like this...
---West Wall 12'9" (no doors, no windows) outside wall
---South wall 13'6", window 3 feet high by 2 feet wide at 7 feet from west corner, bottom is 48" tall, outside wall
---East wall 8' peninsula with 2'9" opening to family room
---North wall 13'6" with 7' opening beginning 3' from west wall corner, structural wall.
---8.5 foot ceilings

Here is a link that might be useful: Also contains how to post a picture.

Ah, thank you so much for the instructions on uploading a picture, and for your reassurance..:-)!
Let's see if this works...

The double ovens are on the left wall, the pantry and fridge on the right wall, with pantry to the left of the fridge, if you are facing them. Sink on the bottom wall, centered under the window, with dishwasher to the left.

I realize there were a few key things I forgot to mention, when I read your questions..
First, this isn't a re-model, this is new construction. We have been under a very tight budget ($85 for the whole house (2000 sqft), including bringing in water, power, road and septic). There was definiately no money for a kitchen designer, so I just did the best I could with books and the internet. We are to the point of drywall on the walls. Oh, how I wish I had known about this forum a few months ago! Oh well..
So, we really can't move plumbing. The electrical for the island cooktop has not been run yet...that would go under the floor, so I'm assuming it will be just as easy for my electrician to run it under the floor to somewhere else...?

I purchased all my cabinets and appliances on craigslist, so I can't really change what I have in that regard. I did leave enough room for a 36" fridge, although that's not what I have now. The double ovens are, I believe 27", and the cooktop is 36", I'm pretty sure. (It's all in storage, waiting to be installed. But I know it's bigger than 30") The sink base is 36" The image I uploaded, with the gridlines, is to scale.
I do already have the island, but we're open to building something custom, like I described in the original post.

Thank you all so much for your willingness to advise and help!
Carrie

Bumping for the layout gurus!!

I dont think I would like my cooktop in the island like you have it. Its just not enough space. The west wall would work better.

I agree that the island is not large or deep enough for a cooktop. You would have to make it shorter than shown, as you have the island only 2 1/2 ft from the sink. (If we can believe the little grid squares)

I would move the pantry over with the ovens and put the cooktop on the same wall as the fridge. I would not want the island between the fridge and cooktop. It would become an aggravation. People here have remodeled their kitchens to avoid doing laps around a 'barrier island'.

I know I am disregarding some other issues right now...the openness to the family room, and the question you had about dishes. But I see problems with the basic plan and think it may need to be re-shuffled and have a new layout.

Maybe it would help to see more of the house around the kitchen?

This? Its kinda six of one, hafadz of the other on which end has the oven, the ref or the pantry. You might be able to make this out - or something like it - of the cabinets you already have.

{{gwi:1929913}}

Back to the shuttling dishes problem, I know it's a radical idea but, why not a dishwasher in the dining area? With 6 kids, it makes sense to put a DW & dish storage closer to where they're used, doesn't it? And it looks like that could fit in where you have that buffet? drawn in the plan.

Wow, now that's nice, Bmore. It solves many of my concerns. Do you like it evamommy?

Since the oven and pantry won't really be 3 ft deep, the island could be a foot longer...or shift one foot that way.

I'd like dish storage where the fridge is, but it's a handy location for the fridge, too. If you did put dish storage there, you could probably shorten the room back to 14'. That would mean replacing the pantry with the fridge. Do you have any other place for pantry storage nearby?

Ha! I didn't even notice. Thanks, girlfriend.

"I know it's a radical idea but, why not a dishwasher in the dining area?"

I did that in our last house. It seemed like a good idea, but didn't work at all well for us. You still need dishes in the kitchen, and we were always trying to put things back and forth to load the dishwashers efficiently. The dishes were always in the 'wrong' one at the wrong time. Also, sometimes dishes in the dining room dw were forgotten, and found a few days later, smelly and starting to get moldy. Yuck. I love 2 dishwashers, but not separated.

wow....thank you so much for all the thoughtful responses! You've given me a lot to think about...
Gotta get the kids to bed, and then I think it's time for me to spend some serious time in my floorplan program.
A second sink and dishwasher in the dining room is a very, very tempting idea. Or really, even having the only dishwasher in there is tempting. I've been living without one for almost two years now...I don't think I'd know what to do with two, lol. But really, by the time we load it with all the "eating" dishes, I've always had to wash the cooking dishes by hand, anyway, as there just isn't much room left by then.
Thank you again for all the great ideas...and the overlooking of all the typos, yikes!
Carrie

Would it make sense with bmore's plan to switch the frig and double ovens? It just seems to my very little tired fried mind (tonight!) that the all cooking would have easy access to the sink and it would increase dish storage between 6"-9" depending on oven size. I'm going to end up with a small kitchen after all and every inch helps!

Yah, Rhome, I can see the problems with separating the DW's. But I'm kinda' relieved to know that at least someone has tried it! :) On the up side, Bmore's plan pretty much solves the traffic jam dilemma. The island would work nicely for a spot for the dirty dishes to get stacked and then transferred to the sink/ DW and without the parade thru the kitchen proper.

In bmore's plan, is that an island,or a peninsula? If it's a peninsula, then I would swap the ovens w/ the fridge. Having the fridge tucked away in a corner behind a peninsula will ensure snarly traffic jams -- at least it would in my house!

But that quiet back corner (it'd be quiet w/out the fridge!) would be an ideal place for ovens.

Or would that make the area between penin and fridge too bottleneck-y? Just food for thought.

Bmore's plan has a nice big island...No peninsula. :-)