Makes me think of those new super-strong metal constructs so light that they can rest on a ball of fluff. I wouldn't be surprised if someday we do have sheer shear walls. Bet your architect would be bouncing off the ceiling with the possibilities, Nicekato. :) Seems to me that interrupting the view lines down the house would be...unfortunate. To put it mildly. They're obviously a major design feature, and keeping the kitchen in its own carefully defined space is critical to its success. Working within the space you have, it looks as if your counters are about 12' long? The whole work area of the kitchen about 12 x 16, not including the storage to the left of the traffic/view way? That's a pretty decent space. The trick is massaging this to achieve really good function while still retaining an artful balance. You may have to accept aisles that are striking you now as a bit narrow. In a very spacious overall design I don't think it will look cramped at all. Certainly the room is not small, even before considering what glass on both sides and views sweeping through in both directions does for it. Regarding losing seating all along the island opposite the stove, have you considered HOW you would lay out replacement seating in the nook, taking into account both the sliding glass doors and the need to keep furniture out of the traffic/view way? How many people would you want it to accommodate? Better start drawing stuff in to scale, because the answers to these will determine IF you can do without stools at the counter. FWIW, I suspect people would want to come sit with the cook, at least to the sides of the stove, when great things are happening. I'm also sure they'd be perfectly happy anywhere within chat distance, with the option of strolling over to watch now and then available. That terrific stove is currently nicely positioned to allow others to see the cook at work. Is entertaining friends by cooking a function that needs to be kept at the top of the priorities? Would you be as happy, say, if the stove were on the lower counter facing the wall? Just musing a bit about the overall layout, how about removing about 3' from the left end of the middle counter to "connect" the 3-counter system? A 9' counter is still quite long, and this would allow the cook(s) to move quickly back and forth across the cooking space with spillable, especially hot, items without worrying about colliding with passersby.

Thynes, that's a great space and a pretty nice design already to go tweaking, but if it were mine... :) I don't know how many hours your folk may be from the nearest good grocery store, but that giant pantry suggests it's a lot. I'm being facetious, of course, but...it's a really big investment of space. To stand in. Do your back-strengthening exercises in private? If it were mine and I wanted seating at the peninsula, of course I wouldn't want the cleanup on the peninsula. Given the problems with sliding the sink around the corner to avoid that, I'd definitely investigate, instead, the possibility of taking...maybe the first 3 feet of the stove side of the pantry and maybe combining that with a bit of the existing counter area as my scullery. The sink would be on the stove end of the scullery, so that side would serve prep function, with the DW in what is currently pantry space. That would move dirty pots and dishes far away from the social area, practically out of sight altogether, including to people walking in. Then the stove would stay roughly where it is now, could slide up or down a bit as desired. That would allow good prep areas on both counters--your in-laws could face someone at the peninsula or move up the kitchen a bit to keep the peninsula uncluttered and available for serving, drinks, etc. Or prep in any of the 3 potential work areas (both sides of stove) this creates. Not least, I'd do there what I have in my own kitchen--no uppers over my prep counter. I love working without upper cabinets in my face. I'd move that overhead storage right behind me to the fridge wall. In any case, this single design device would make their windowless kitchen feel airy and as large as it really is. I would also put the microwave elsewhere, out of sight on either the fridge wall or under the peninsula. Definitely not over the stove, where it'd be, willy-nilly, a major feature on looking into the kitchen. This would also avoid traffic congestion at the stove. A noncirculating air filter could be mounted above the stove without being attached to a microwave, and its mount could be designed to look far more elegant than a microwave ever can. It could even masquerade to look like a regular externally vented hood, although I'd probably try for something else altogether--maybe tuck it into an over-stove shelf, with space to display art above. Or whatever. A fun drawing tablet project, but then the whole thing is. Have fun!

When you had a table in that room before, how big and what shape was that table? The area looks plenty large enough for a table for two, which would certainly be much cheaper than an island. Plus table-height seating is generally considered more comfortable than counter-height seating. A rectangular table or oval table roughly 3 x 5 or 3 x 4 should fit just fine and sit two more than comfortably. Like these: I agree with everyone else that you have a great natural nook for shallow (12" deep or so) floor-to-ceiling cabinets: Cabinets like that are the best kind of storage because you don't need pull-outs or anything -- nothing ever gets lost in the back, and you can see everything you have at a glance. More importantly, it'd be SO much more storage than you have now. You could lose all your uppers and then some and still end up with more storage than you have now. It seems as if those two changes -- floor-to-ceiling-cabinets and a better-sized table -- would give you everything you said you wanted (more exposed brick, seating, and enough storage). Was there anything else? I think we'd all be happy to improve your kitchen for what a serious cook or someone with a lot of kitchen traffic might prefer, but it's not worth it for you to spend lots of money to change everything if you are really quite happy except for those things and aesthetics. If there's nothing else functional that you really want, it seems as if you could just make those few changes layout-wise and go for broke with nice appliances and fun finishes. Get a 24" fridge. You could go apartment-sized with the other appliances, but I'd keep the standard-sized dishwasher unless you routinely never fill yours. As a lone cook, I often fill our standard dishwasher by myself and then some. I'd also keep the standard-sized range. I've found the burners on 24" ranges to be too close together for a lot of my pots to sit neatly side by side on the burners.

I have thought about the suggestions given and am very appreciative, thank you all very much. Been a crazy week since I am going away this weekend, but I keep looking at the diagrams and putting blue tape down on the current counter. I will try to list some points and elaborate my thinking. 1) Back access to the blind cabinet - Maybe we could but it will create some difficulty since the return vent is behind that spot. Maybe it could be done.It is a stacked upper and lower return and we are already cutting off the upper to make the opening, so I am concerned about more mods. 2) Corner sink size - I am told we can get a 24" sink in there. We are thinking of this one Blanco Sink. 3) Moving DW over to desk area - There is a window in front of that area that limits height to 30.5", so could not put any normal appliance there. Additionally my wife very much wants her desk. Half the desk will be relegated to cat food storage. 4) Getting real vented hood - I can not add a actual vent to the home due to association. If I could I would have considered areal hood to start with. 5) Microwave - If I did not need it for range hood I probably would not bother to have one. I am not a fan and it is mostly a bread box for us.I used it to heat something today, but had to empty the bread, bagels, and pretzels. 6) Putting sink next to the corner cabinet and on the straight side of peninsula - I need to sell my wife on this idea. She has a preconceived notion that she does not want a sink in the middle of our eating peninsula. She loves the corner solution. Our needs and uses. In our 5 years living here we have entertained another couple for indoor dining once. We have a single friend who joins us, but that is very casual and infrequent. Normally I do the cooking and can not think of a time when two of us prepped together. I have given allot of consideration to moving the range down and bringing that cabinet up towards the sink to create a larger area. Being a righty I like having some work area on the right side of the range.I have looked at my cooking over the last few days and usually I use the counter on both sides of the range.I actually cook using 3 areas as follows. Next to the sink for wash and prep foods. They all go into bowls and then to the right side of the range. The tools and off the shelf products such as seasonings or oil go on the left side of the range. While I have made a fine argument to myself that it works for me, I am aware creating something that is to weirdly personalized diminishes appeal when selling. The other side of that coin is that this is for our use long term. If resale value were a high priority we would never move a bearing wall and just keep our current worse layout. Spending what we are going to spend can only be justified because it is what we want. It is drastic over improvement for a small 55+ community house. I am going away for the weekend (National Home Brewers Conference) and will keep studying the options. I will also work a full house diagram I can post.