Jansin, I have a narrow galley as well and desperately tried to squeeze in a peninsula when I first started my layout. I think your peninsula does not work at all. I would end the cabinet run where your upper ends or slighly longer (you could add some curved open shelves at the end of the upper). Like hollysprings suggested I think a kitchen table under the window will work best to optimize seating. For the medical sink, I would avoid the temptation of putting it under the microwave if you want to keep it off limits to anything other than your son's equipment. It is too easy to drop a spoon used to stir something in the microwave or a dirty plate. I would suggest a little alcove after the fridge with the sink and a bit of landing zone and maybe a swing up door on a upper and a dedicated drawer for equipment. My cousin who has a severely immuno challenged child has a set up like that keep her child stuff away from the rest to minimize contaminations.

Ok, this is my two cents. Opening anything in the northeast corner (as drawn in the kitchen plan) will block every other thing in that corner. - the wave, the 18" base, the appliance garage, etc - by either the door or drawer itself or your body. The microwave is particularly bad there as is dish storage. It could be an effective place for a prep sink and one person prep area except that it faces into a corner and would be exceeding boring place. The idea of "cooktop cave" might be different than trying to daily use one that comes within 6 inches of the cooktop and is almost full depth. I think it will be irritating to have pot handles run into the side walls and not be able to take a pot off to the side of the cooktop. Whatever kitchen you have now, you might want to try this in advance by placing large boxes 6 inches from both sides. The sink is too far from the range. The dish storage is far from the sink or dishwasher(s). With that particular arrangement, opening the trash and the dw simulateously is impossible. Person standing at the sink pretty much controls access to the trash. When the trash is opened, it might be a little awkward to reach the countertop immediately above the dw. Pretty much, stuff will come out of the ref to the top of a dw, you'll walk around the dw wing to the sink and prep EXCEPT THAT all of the prep tools are along the outside walls so you'll constantly be walking to and fro for a knife, spoon, whisk, bowl, plate.... I think all of the above is fine as long as you are aware of it.

Sounds like your remodel is very similar to what ours was - no structural changes and keeping appliances in the same location. Will you be tearing out drywall and replacing flooring? Getting any new windows or doors? If not, then basically you're just replacing fixtures and finishes and that is the best situation to have if you decide to GC yourself - as long as you have a plumber, electrician, cab installer that you trust, that is. We did our own demo on a Saturday morning - me, DH and a couple friends - and I thought that was the easiest part (except that old cabs were nailed together, screws would've been too easy I suppose, and it got to be like pulling teeth) - so don't know how much we would've spent had we hired someone else to do it. But if we hadn't bought new appliances, our remodel would have ended up costing $20,922. I too think your labor cost quote sounds high. Our cabinet install was $1817. Plumber was $488. Electrician was $1,623, which included bringing some things up to code, installing plugmold and undercab lighting. That comes to If you've been planning this for 5 years, you must be thoroughly familiar by now with exactly what you want and have all your specs and measurements memorized by heart. And if you've been following this forum for a while, you should have a pretty good idea of what kind of things to look out for. So you can absolutely do this and keep to your budget. Having said that, I have to admit that my remodel was extremely stressful - and I didn't have small kids either. I tried to time things well but still ended up without a working kitchen for 3 months (some cabinets had to be sent back several times, had to wait 3 weeks for c-top install, etc.) Setting up a decent temporary kitchen would've helped a lot. Even though the process was horrible and stressful, I'm very happy with my new kitchen and feel like it was all worth it at last. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Snookums, I completely agree. I am seeing over the mountain to "not enough money to finish the job" - great design and no money to pay. So now (subject of a different thread) I have decided to hire the contractor, get the exterior work done, and get the interior work prepped but not order cabinets or countertop yet. I'm going to take some appliances from other floors and buy some new appliances, and cobble together more of an open-shelf kitchen that is usable but simple, as part of this phase. The goal now is to get done with the city-permitted part of the job (deck, stairs, door, and opening up walls, putting in a header etc.), get in a tenant on our ground floor for rental income, and just live in the space for a bit. And apply for a line of credit (we were denied one to add the deck and kitchen because we didn't have even a bare-bones 3rd kitchen in a 3 family, so now we will have a bare-bones 3rd kitchen). The goal is to then finance the cabinets and design part with a loan. I reailze this is a bit of a risky plan but I've been stuck for a few weeks and the longer we wait the longer it will be before we can get a much-needed tenant (we can afford the house with a tenant, really can't without one, and we're in month 3 without one right now; my goal would be to have a tenant in mid-June or starting in July, and not ...whenever). Back to the interior designer - I told her this plan and she still suggested coming out on an hourly or much smaller fixed fee basis to give advice (e.g., location of door off kitchen), and I'm inclined to get her help, but ask that it apply toward a fixed fee if we convert to that. I'd pay her the fixed fee or for her time, and we could go from there.