Pictures:

Another view:

Did the pictures work? Thanks for any advice!

Have you any other eating area? What is on the other side of the kitchen...opposite the entry from foyer door? Is it a wall or open to another room?

I don't suppose the guy put his 'assurances' in writing, did he?

I think a little more info will be helpful for good suggestions but I wouldn't be ordering a countertop until it's fixed, IMO.

I'll bet you can make this better, though.

Hi deedles,

Thanks so much for replying. Yes, there is an eating area that fits a medium szed kitchen table. It's not shown in the picture, but it would be to the left of my picture, to the left of the entrance from the foyer.

Yes, definitely no countertops until this mess is fixed. It's not even functional now. :(

I would get rid of that breakfast bar and place some cabinetry to the left of the stove top. Diagram says the upper cabs had to stop short- can you run the bottom cabinetry all the way to door frame? If so then maybe also add some open shelving on the wall to the left of the uppers to give balance (or reconfirm that uppers can't be run all the way over)?

Or, more consistent with current layout, just tweaked a bit- wondering if you could ditch the overhang/breakfast bar idea and add some counter space to left of stove, pushing that peninsula over to the left. Would leave you with a narrow cupboard space underneath that, but could be used for spice pullout, small bank of drawers,etc. Not sure if you would want that along your pathway, but without the stools there it could be feasible as just a workspace.

Other options- What is to the far left of the counters near the sink? I'm thinking either a peninsula off of that counter or if there would be room for a small island once you move the current breakfast bar.

make a straight run from left of range to entry way.Re-use the peninsula cabs for this. Now it's an L kitchen: once the base cabs are redone and counters on-tell him you want 6 weeks to live with it but you likely will need another upper to complete the run to entry and something like a small island or butcher block in central floorspace area.[because there will be more to be done he should give you credit or come and "do" this himself]

Another thing you could do to make the stove area less cramped is move the dishwasher to the end of the run on the right, move the sink down to the right and put that end cabinet near the corner. This would involve the cost of moving plumbing, but you'd have a much bigger prep space between sink and range and you likely could have one person at the sink and one person at the range if necessary.

Wow, this really is awful. Only one person can access sink and range, and opening the oven blocks access to the sink. Totally unacceptable.

As others said, I am certain that moving cabinets around can help this significantly.

Can you please post a graph of the area? Show walls, doors, windows, the adjacent eating area and other rooms. If you can draw it on graph paper that is fine. Then photograph it in good light and post it.

For now, I really like these suggestions from previous posters:
1. Move sink and dishwasher to the right. This will, among other things, clear the oven door.
2. Eliminate the peninsula and run a straight line of cabs to the door edge.
3. Add another wall cab to the right of the door.
4. Center the stove on the new run of cabs to provide working space on both sides.

In the meantime, rough cut masonite or cardboard and lay it on top of the cabs to provide a work surface.

Sun's up, so hopefully you're feeling better, Laila. You're taking action, so you should. :) People'll be waiting for that big, detailed diagram.

Hi everyone,

Thank you for the replies. Here is another picture so you can fully understand the entire layout of the kitchen. Does this help clarify things? Thanks!

Just to clarify, the upper cabs *can* be run all the way over to the entrance of the kitchen. We just did not do that because we had to allow room for the breakfast bar eating space so that is why we stopped short, so the uppers and lowers matched and ended at the same spot. In the original layout without the peninsula/breakfast bar, the cabs *did* go all the way to the end.

Anybody have any thoughts please? :) Thank you!

I think you have your answer.

Eliminate the peninsula--you simply don't have room for a breakfast bar. Replace with upper and lowers. And move the sink to at least where the DW is.

Marcolo,

Thanks. I'm wondering if the replacement uppers and lowers will be weird sizes now though, since it wasn't originally measured for that. Like the new ones might not match the ones that are there now in width. UGH! :(

Yep, you simply don't have the room in the kitchen for a peninsula. Just eliminate the lower peninsula cabinet with one that fits to the left of the range. The upper cabinet I think you can leave alone.

I agree about continuing the cabinetry/counter to the left of the range and extending the uppers if you can. If you are concerned about that "extra" cabinet matching, then I'd explore the idea of putting open shelving or maybe a glass-door cabinet to set it apart from the others?

Graph?
Measurements?
I know it seems to you that you have given us what we need, I guess I am limited in my thinking, but I need to know measurements to make suggestions.

Otherwise, you have several good suggestions coming in.
I am sure you can make it work.