Thanks again everyone. Okay, thoughts: I'm pretty sure we don't want to try and put the fridge on the DR wall, even if we open up the rest of the wall. We get a lot of nice light through the DR windows, and I'm just really looking forward to having a long, unobstructed view across the space (to the point of probably skipping pendants over any island/peninsula that we end up with, to avoid cluttering up the sightlines). So, while those do solve the thorny fridge issue, I think they're out. Lisa's galley plan is intriguing, though I'd be worried about the DW-fridge conflict (and I'm not sure a DW-range conflict would be any better. Will try and mock it up. Sena01, thanks for those ideas and the great renderings. I'm of two minds about the fridge in that position. It solves the functional problems of the kitchen, but, but. When I stand in the space and envision it, it feels off to me, aesthetically. Usually when a kitchen has a U plus fridge wall, the fridge wall runs straight across rather than bulging out the way ours would. Still thinking about how much this would bother me, and whether dressing up the fridge enclosure like magsnj suggests would make it better. May_flowers, I'd love to get the back door out of the kitchen, but that's not really possible because of the way our lot is: the house is set into the side of a hill, and the approach to the house is on the kitchen/DR side, so to access a back door in the office room (which is actually a playroom right now) would mean walking all the way to the far side of the house. Also, this is a 3 bedroom house, with 2 up and 1 down, and if we put an exterior door into it, I think we'd compromise its bedroom-ness in terms of resale. (We have a 5 year plan: 5 more years in this house, then reevaluate as to whether we want to move or add on, moving being more likely I think.) Lavender, interesting ideas with moving the back door - might just work. Going to play with those and get back to you.

Re: lazy susans - it depends on what you put in the space. I have one in my U-shaped kitchen, for small appliances, and it works great. The second corner is closed off completely, with drawers on each side. I thought long and hard about "wasting" that space, but eventually I realized that what I needed room for on that side of the kitchen (utensils, towels, bags and wraps, plastic containers, canisters) fit much, much better in drawers. I don't miss that corner space one bit. Lazy susans eat up 9 to 12" on each side of a corner. That means the next cabinets have to be 9 to 12" shorter. It isn't that a LS is inefficient; it might not be the best use of the space. The only way to know for sure is to map out where you will put things in the new space. I made an inventory of the contents of my cabinets pre-remodel, and assigned a new home to each item. In some cases, this was driven by convenience - I wanted space near the range for potholders and utensils. I need a place to put cookie sheets and cutting boards. Glasses, cups, plates, baking dishes, cake pans - everything was measured and planned for. That was what finally convinced me to put drawers on each side of the corner, between sink and range - a solid understanding of what things needed to be close to the range. That also ensured that my drawers would be the right size (height as much as width). I specified to my cabinet maker how much usable height I needed in certain drawers, to make sure I could fit what I wanted to put there. I have two 3-drawer stacks, where the bottom two drawers are not equal in height. If they were, my canisters and cake pans would not fit (cake pans are stored on their sides).

Been doing a bit of thinking (and working) so haven't really had a chance to post. Davidro: Thanks again for the suggestion, but I'm not into the Silgranit or the drainage area. As far as I'm concerned, taking away counter space is a bad thing. As for the other things, I stood int he future stove area and there was plenty of space behind me for others to get by. I don't think thats an issue. Measured the fridge and will need to incorporate the dimensions into the layout. They're pretty close as they are now, probably a 1/4" here and there off. Opening my fridge to 90 degrees gives me access to pretty much everything easily. If I need to take drawers out (which I do like once a year now) I can either pull the fridge out or just remove some of the door storage shelves (they pop in and out easily). So, where I have it now is pretty good in terms of placement. I'm thinking of getting a 36" wide vent hood instead of the 30". i've been doing more reading and it seems like everyone is going 6" wider than the range/cooktop, especially with gas. Also, I'm thinking in the future, when this stove dies (hpefully not for a while) we'll get something a bit more high performance, but still 30" wide. Anyways, in order to get a 36" hood in, I need to switch the 24" cabinet to the left of the stove in the layout above to a 30" which is better for pots too. The cabinet on the left side of the stove will stay at 18". I'll have to rip my door trim down a bit, but oh well, can't have it all I suppose. So, I'll try to get my plan updated a bit although there aren't any huge changes at the moment. Still thinking about microwave placement. Have to do a rough layout for my laundry room as well. We're moving it from the main floor to the basement and the plumber that is coming to do the kitchen drains is going to do the laundry room rough in as well so need to get that planned out. Bye for now! Thanks! Dan

Here are the elevations Here is a link that might be useful: