Wire is pretty easy to fish just about anywhere. I wouldn't say that an eletric cooktop ''can't'' be moved until you posted your layout and some pics.

Well, it can't be moved unless we do a gut-remodel, demo all of the cabinets and re-configure all of the appliances, which is not going to happen. So, the cooktop is staying in the island. Do you have any experience with island cooktops to share?

That's what I have -- everything is one level -- counter height island. That's what it was when we bought the house, and although we've done a lot of upgrades, we kept the original cabinet boxes where they were. Originally I had an electric coil Jenn Air downdraft cook top. About 8 years ago, I replaced it with an induction unit and a telescoping downdraft. There are only 12 inches of depth from the downdraft to the edge of the counter. We have three stools spaced along the island.

We've lived in this house for 11 years and had countless family get togethers. My young granddaughters regularly perch at the counter to eat snacks or talk to me while I'm cooking. Also, when they're over, I don't raise the downdraft because I want to hear everything they say to me. I suppose if I had a gas cook top, there'd be more concern because of the open flames. But we've never had an incident or even come close to having one. For what it's worth, I do most of my stove top cooking on the front two "burners."

If you've got 17 inches clearance now and add a few more inches, I don't think there'd be much of a problem. Other than the fact that your cooking "mess" would be more visible. But that's just my personal opinion. I don't have any knowledge of building codes.

It may depend on the ages of your kids. I'd say that having 24"-30" from the cooktop to where the kids are sitting would be very helpful in preventing them from touching the cooktop.

I have an island coooktop, although we do not sit at the island. When my son was about 4 yrs old he was standing on a chair by the island 'helping' me make Mac 'n cheese. On the side of island where he was standing there was only about 6"-9" from the cooktop to the edge (other sides have more space). When I turned to drain the pasta in the sink, I warned him the electric cooktop was very hot even though it didn't appear so. I warned him not to touch it. Unfortunately as I turned my back he laid his hand flat down on the burner and screamed in pain. He had burned his hand badly enough to cause blisters and we made a very quick trip to the ER. He was in pain and I felt terrible for not moving him away from the cooktop. He later told me he didn't believe me when I told him the cooktop was hot because he couldn't see a flame. Ultimately, he never did it again and has no scars. He's now 23 and I doubt he remembers the incident, but I have never forgotten it.

There are no national residential code requirements for minimum distances between the edges of a cooktop and the edges of an island or peninsula. You can have a free standing range with no countertop around it at all, there aren't any requirements. Common sense should prevail, and local jurisdictions may have codes.

The story above is unfortunate, but the same thing could have happened if he was standing on a chair 6-9" away from the cooktop on a run of counter against the wall. The accident had nothing at all to do with the cooktop being on an island.

It sounds like you should have plenty of room, particularly if you can add a couple of inches.

Induction won't burn like a radiant cooktop once the pot is removed. It will be warm but not HOT

Doing all of what you propose will still be quite costly. All of the electric needs to be rerouted and found A home as outlets are required. Resurfacing the cabinet backside has to be figured into this, as well as new counters.

Might as well get some more eyes on the situation to see if something else can be done. If you're already gonna spend 5-10K, why not see if it can't be spent smarter.

Sophie, we started with a plan to replace the existing corian countertops with quarzite and to swap out the cooktop, which then morphed into my desire to cut down and expand the island. (scope creep!) It's a good point that we would need to re-route electrical in the island to provide for outlets. I'm interested to hear how we could spend this money smarter. Our kitchen is quite large and functional and a complete overhaul with new cabinets and moving appliances is not in the cards, especially because the upgrades would over-price our house if we plan to sell.

We considered cutting down the pony wall of our raised bar peninsula, but we decided it would look like a hack job with the mix of materials. I think you should replace your island with new cabinets. Do it once and do it right.

Post a layout.

I don't have a layout easily available, but here are some photos (obviously, not styled!). I didn't get a photo from the other side, but the cooktop is in the center of the island and the sink is under the window.

You can see the pony wall that would need to be cut down. I'm thinking of adding legs to the front of the counter extension to help support weight of countertop. Leaving the wall would be convenient because it hides the electrical and cheaper than removing it since that would require a new set of island cabinetry. I'm trying to decide how awkward it would be to leave it in.

This one is easy. Move the cooktop to where the fridge is now, and the fridge to the dumping zone desk area instead and remake that into a snack zone.

Hi Sophie, We've thought of doing that. However, we like and use our kitchen desk area and the work triangle would be really big with the fridge and sink on opposites sides of a pretty large kitchen. Also, I think that reconfiguration would require new cabinetry, which we don't have in the budget.

I should mention that this is not likely to be our forever home. We want to improve our kitchen for re-sale and to improve our enjoyment of the space, but we can't do a full kitchen remodel or we wouldn't be able to make up the cost with the sale price. So, I need to balance my desired upgrades to get the best value for the money spent.

I recently did the opposite and added a bar height counter behind my cooktop. My living room is on the other side so people are often gathered at the stools while I'm cooking. Having it raised just feels so much more safe to me. It keeps spatters and spills from reaching guests. It also blocks the view of the cooktop from my front door, which is directly across the living room from it.

If it were me, I would kept it, and add an island exhaust instead of the down draft.

You can most likely repurpose what's there, with a few fillers. (Just need to inventory cabinet sizes, etc.) Refrigerators are the least used of the main kitchen appliances dring actual food prep. Locating them on the perimeter out of the way of the main zone between sink and cooking allows them to serve dual usage as anchors of snack zones accessible to those not underfoot of the cook. It keeps people out of your hair. Yet, it's just steps from the island. Truem the island woud work better with a prep sink on it, but if you're on slab, that wouldn't be easy as it would with a crawlspace.

I don't think the budget would be exorbitant for chopping off the pony wall to cabinet height rerouting some electrical within the island and getting a new countertop. (You may need to have some junction boxes with blank covers for the splices facing out on the pony wall (technically "exposed" as they should be, but camouflaged by the countertop)--to get the outlets into different positions. Not cheap, but certainly not as much as reconfiguring half the kitchen.

I've often toyed with the idea of adding a pony wall to my single-level cook top island. Not for safety but for hiding some of the cooking mess as Errant referred to. The one thing that kept me from going ahead with the project was my worry about the taller chairs/stools that would be needed. I thought they were a risk with active, wiggly, young grandchildren. Too much of an opportunity for falling or tipping over. So I guess everyone has a different take on which safety concerns require the most attention.