Well it is practically nothing to make a pony wall. Some 2x4's and drywall.Electrical isn't much if the rest of the house is current. We DIY everything, so I don't have a good idea how much it might be to pay someone, but probably $700-$800 (it is probably less than a couple hundred in materials.) You also don't have a great deal of surface space, from what I can tell. So unless you are getting some super exotic granite, I don't know how you would make the pony wall, electric and granite add up to $9,000. I would guess that for most granites, you would be talking around $3,000-5,000 for that space.

One other thing. To give it a more "finished" look I would add a wood panel to the front of the pony wall, instead of just drywall. It does add to the cost, but the look is a lot nicer in my opinion. Here is a picture of ours.

Ohhhhh-me likey the book shelves and drawers!!!
The 9K includes granite countertops, backsplash, pendant lighting for over the breakfast bar(need electrical wired for this as well), stools, sink, faucet, hood, new cooktop. I have 5K JUST for the granite and from 1 quote I got, I was pretty darned close on that estimate. I found pendants I love for slightly less than I had alloted, a sink for slightly less than alloted, cooktop and hood are TBD, but will probably come in a few hundred under.

Why do you want to construct a pony wall? Are you keeping the existing cabinets? Having an overhang is possible and the depth is dependent on the thickness of the counter top and the depth you want. Corbels matching your cabinets can be used instead of some other method if you want a very deep overhang.

To solve your outlet issue you can have electrical run inside the cabinet and installed on the face of the cabinet just under the counter. This gives you a greater work area and wider eating area and fewer accidents of glasses, etc. falling off the eating area. Plus it gives you an easier install and likely a cheaper one also.
R.

The electrical can be run in conduit inside the back of the cabinet and you can have outlets put on the cabinet facing the fridge. That should have been done in the original install.

To get a large flat island, you can place a 3/4" plywood interior reinforcement in the cabinet interior to reinforce the back and install Counter Balance supports. They will be invisible, and you won't even have to remove the decorative door appliques that are on the back of your cabinet run.

This is all super simple and super cheap to do DIY. However, you may want to get an electrician if the electrical itself needs a bit of attention. You should check to make sure that your kitchen does have the 2 20 amp GFCI small appliance circuits that today's code requires. Kitchens use a lot of electricity! If your current backsplash outlets aren't GFCI protected, or you don't have 2 separate circuits, or the circuits are less than 20 amps, then it's worth the $400-$500 to have an electrician come and repair those issues.

Note that because you don't have electrical receptacles on the peninsula, you don't meet current codes. I assume it was built to then-current codes, but if you make changes, you will need to update. (I understand that you want to, so this is not a problem anyway.)

I agree with your DH one level will give you more work area and I think will look better in your kitchen. Depending on eletrical codes and how your house is built you might be able to run the electrical through the cabinets using armored wire or up through the floor assuming you have a basement. Ask your electrician friend for the help on different options. I'm not sure where you are planning to put the pony wall. Can all this be DIY? yes. We have run wiring, added a circuit breaker and had it pass inspection, moved walls and built new ones. There's lots of info on the internet on how to do just about anything so if you do your homework and take your time it should be a doable DIY.

We are keeping existing cabinets. I'm restaining them all starting next week.
I hadn't thought of running electrical through the cabinets to the outside of the cabinet by the fridge. There is obviously electrical on the wall where the (ENORMOUS) microwave is. Not sure if the electrical on that wall classifies as meeting code since it is electrical for the peninsula. Maybe once we get a microwave that didn't come from the Big and Tall store, the outlet will be more accessible-or the microwave can be moved next to the cooktop and totally free up the peninsula.
live wire-I'll be having the granite professionally installed and they are putting plywood under it--will that be sufficient to hold the weight of an overhang? The overhang will be 12-16". WIll the granite place tell me to get brackets or whatever is needed when they come to template and see there is overhang?
THANK YOU so very much to all of you guys. Finding this forum and all of you guys with so much knowledge, know-how and the willingness to share with others is so refreshing and more helpful than you will ever know!

Super quick: go with the counter all one level.

Code will require an outlet somewhere on the end of the peninsula if you pull a permit.

Have you considered an above the range microwave with a fan built in? I love the way it gets the micro off the counter.

Breezy is about right when she says: Code will require an outlet somewhere on the end of the peninsula if you pull a permit, but, more specifically, code requires receptacles placed such that no point along any countertop (including the peninsula) is more than 24" from a receptacle. Thus, if your peninsula is more than 4' long, you'll either need one receptacle that is less than 4' out (rather than at the end), or, better, one at the end and one in the middle.

Hhhmmmmm....my peninsula is over 4' long, but I am only required to have one outlet. I didn't want it at the end on my pretty cab end panel screaming "look at my outlet" constantly so I was cleared to put a sillite right above countertop height on the end of my fridge wall which faces the end of the peninsula but is more than 4' from the end. Probably as clear as mud. ;)

Not quite sure I am picturing you situation, Breezy, but I'd reckon you "got away with one" there. From your description, it sounds like there is not a countertop run between the peninsula and the sillite... that is, if you put a crockpot on the peninsula, and plugged it into the sillite, it sounds like that cord would be hanging in the air? True? If so, that kind of defeats the purpose of the code regulations, seems to me. I guess your inspector decided to let it slide. Just be careful with your cords!

Here is our overhang support. The granite guys used a router to make a slot in the tops of the cabinets for them to sit down flush. The overhang is 14". You don't see these supports unless you crawl under like I did to take a picture.

As far as the cost of the electrical, we had 7 recessed lights put in, 2 pendants added over the peninsula, rewired for the fan over the dining table so both the light and the fan worked separately from a wall switch, vacated a couple of outlets, put in another couple in better places, put GFCI switches in the kitchen and added a switch by the garage door so we could see when we came in after dark. He also ran a wire for the undercab lighting behind the sink wall so the entire run works off of one switch. We did all the wall board repair and clean up. The labor on that was around $450, but it was the lights that were expensive at around $2300. It was the recessed lights and the undercabs that ran the price up, not the pendants or fan. We would have run a wire under the floor (we have a subfloor, not a slab or basement) for an outlet at the far end of the peninsula, but we could never figure out how to make a space inside the cabs for the electric box.

if you do decide to do a 2-level bar, we 'cheated' about 5 inches off of the existing counter (so that it is not as deep) to add our electrical. (this was because we wanted the raised bar to be in front of a window, and didn't have any inches to spare.) so imagine a long, 5 inch box the length of the peninsula. all the electrical went inside there. then the overhang/bar was placed on top of the "long box" for support, and brackets were added as well. (routed into the back of the cabinets so they didn't show. we were then able to have outlets on both sides of the bar-- two on the counter side and one on the bar side. (under the bar for occasional phone or computer use.) it worked really well. i never even think about the counter being less deep than the other counters... and it looks like it was meant to be that way. (if you want a picture, google kawh and curved counter... i posted a picture there.)

oops-- the pictures are posted in answer to your own question, bacacca... sorry to overstate myself! -kawh

in case you decide not to build a pony wall and just extend out your new counter top for seating, i was told that you need support for anything 12 or higher using those support brackets posted above or corbels. stone is heavy!