Kitchen as it was before flood:

Our builder and designer did not
miss a single kitchen design flaw. The island was placed at an
angle with two arms that limited access to the main kitchen space. The
sink filled the angle and only one person can stand there. There was
24" each side on the side arms. The left arm was in front of the
fridge with 36" clearance or less (I'd have to measure). I know we
could barely stand there with the door open. If the fridge was open, no
one can enter on that side. My brothers tend to stand at that arm
with a laptop so they can chat with and show my dad stuff. There
was no countertop available for prep on that side 90% of the time.

The double oven was next to the
fridge and you can't use the sink when the oven is open because you're standing
in front of the sink area. The rangetop was against an outside wall
with the right island arm splat in the middle of it. The dishwasher was
under the right arm. You're dominating the sink if you are
using/clearing the dishwasher. You also can't cook because you
would be standing on the door opening area of the dishwasher.

If anyone stands at the rangetop to
cook, you will block any entry into the rest of the kitchen on the right. The pantry is right at the end of the right arm and blocks any entry into the
kitchen if someone is looking in the pantry. It also protrudes
18" farther in than the rest of the countertop so the visual of the
kitchen is cut in half by this ceiling high tower.

Our only prep area was about 7"
square area on the right arm of the island because my dad has a giant dish
drain on that side. The 24" of counters on both side of
rangetop was filled with cooking oils on one side and appliances (rice cooker,
juicer, etc.) on the other all the way into the dead corner.

The island had an overhang but it
was so short that if you sit there, the sink splashes you or if you are at the
arms, you kept anyone from entering.

Our goals:

1. Better flow and
   functionality.

2. More efficient use of
   storage. We had lower cabinets and it was hell. I found brand
   new pots/pans that were stuck in the dead corner when we cleared out for
   demolition. There were duplicates of everything because they
   couldn't find anything. For example, we had 15 tongs. I was
   responsible for buying 3 of those in the last year.

3. Room for multiple cooks and
   helpers so we can actually cook around my dad.

4. Comfortable area for my dad
   to sit and rest while cooking.

5. Hang out areas for my
   brothers to chit chat with my dad when they visit.

6. Keep my mom with my dad so
   she's not isolated in the room next door.

7. New appliances. Our
   fridge is sputtering and it takes forever to cook on the GE rangetop. You
   have to rotate the pan or pot continuously to get enough heat because the round
   cook thing was so small. 8) Change out the colors which I and my
   family hate with a passion. I hired a designer at full services
   when the house was built. I was working 18 hrs a day and gave him
   directions of what I liked and didn't like without reviewing choices before
   installation. It was a huge mistake which everyone still bring up over a
   decade later. I wasted $30K in design fee for something that did
   not match anything I specified.

The new kitchen design. I
walked the space multiple times to imagine how each of us typically act when
we're in the kitchen and designed around our behaviors. I based it on
traffic flow and to accommodate multiple cooks and helpers.

We enter through the left and have
island counter to deposit grocery with freezer/fridge and pantry right behind
island. The 48" Stages Kohler sink
allows 2 people to be at the sink and 2 people to be at the 48" BS
rangetop behind. The microwave/convection
is on the island directly in front of fridge.
The double oven is a bit far but I couldn't figure out anywhere to place
it that wouldn't cause a visual cut due to the height.

The dimensions are wrong. It's 20'8" X
11'9". The program includes wall construction too and threw me
off for a while.

The island is 8'X6' which includes the curved overhang.

I had a design blockage about the
rangetop backsplash and needed to save money so I decided to use the remnant
from island countertop as the backsplash.
As a result, I designed a ginormous hood to frame the quartzite.

I'm really worried about how this
will look and whether it will make my kitchen feel small. I'm just getting used to seeing how large
the Stages 45 sink is and the BS 48" rangetop is still huge to my
eyes.

I'm afraid we'll look like midgets
in a giant's kitchen.

I had to change out my entire color palette of
grey/espresso/green when I fell in love with a quartzite slab which is
blue/grey - Fusion Blue Fire.

It's so dominant that I can't find any stone to play nice with it for the
perimeter except Taj Mahal, Sea Pearl, and a couple other quartzite. All
these were completely out of budget and unaffordable with the splurge on the
Fusion. I decided that I will DIY copper countertops for the
perimeter, keep the espresso and change the grey perimeter cabinets to
cream.

Any feedback would be appreciated as
after the purchase of the quartzite, I went into the hospital for major
surgery. I've been in a delirium of exhaustion from
overworking on this remodel or a haze of pain killers most of the time. As a result, I've made plenty of mistakes
especially on measurements. We're
at the point of ordering cabinets once I pour concrete and get
inspector's sign off on the vent exhaust new location. I don't trust
him to nix everything even after the city has approved the design. This
makes a difference whether I have the soffits you see in the photo
above or cabinets to the ceiling as planned.

Immediately, I would suggest you make your walkways around the island MUCH wider just to allow for so many moving bodies. Like five feet wide. The 42" you have allowed is roomy for one and allows the occasional rare other person to squeeze past when necessary. Your kitchen is much busier than that.

The one thing that jumps out immediately are your aisle widths. Between the range and the sink the measurement states 3'6" but with the 3" bump-out for the range you're down to 39" and then with counter overhang of say 2-3" between the two counters you are now down to 36" which is much too narrow for the number of cooks which includes an elderly man and a wheel-chair and when you have two kitchen functions backing into one another.

The same thing is true of the aisle width between the fridge and the island. You might want to check the full depth of the fridge *including* the handles. My CD fridge, when you include the door and the handles is another 4 1/2" deeper which will really eat into the aisle space, especially when you then add in the counter overhang.

A word of caution - slow down if possible. There is too much riding on this planning to rush it.

But, if I saw that slab I'd be changing my colour scheme as well. That is gorgeous.

Wow, that stone is beautiful!

I agree that your aisles are too narrow. With all that action, you need at least 54", preferably 60". Especially since the sink and cooktop are back-to-back, you need more room so people can be at each station without stepping back into each other. It looks like you have the space to widen those aisles just by moving the island a bit closer to the settee and toward the family room. But that's assuming that you can get by with less clearance on the settee side since that side isn't really a work area.

Oh, couldn't you also just turn the island the other way? This would give you nice, wide aisles and you could put the sink closer to the fridge/freezer for prepping. You might want to switch the DW to the left of the sink for closer access to dish/glassware storage if you did that.

I see no problem with the oven being at the end of the run. Unless you use your oven differently than I do, you put something in, check it a couple times, and take it out. It's not too far to walk for that, imho.

I'm no help on the layout. But I couldn't resist telling you that stone is just stunning.

I think you got good advice regarding the aisles. I too wanted to drool over your stone. Stunning!

Oh that fusion slab! How can I forget your thread a while back where you gave it all up for that amazing natural work of art. It really is beyond stunning. I get why you are using the large sink cut out piece behind the range. How could you not???

Anyways, on to the layout. I appreciate how you have meticulously thought through the details, even while being a little loupy on pain killers after surgery. :-) My sincere commendations to you, your husband, and siblings for all working as a team to take on the responsibility of caring for your aging parents.

I had to laugh because the cardboard with blue tape mockup for the range is sooooo GW TKO!

My thoughts as to the range hood looking giant. Hmmm, maybe with the dark wood surround it is too much? Can you mock it up in the same color as the perimeter cabs? I think I'd let that fusion stand alone and be the star. I was not sure what you meant by the DIY copper perimeter cabs? Sounds awesome, but what do you mean?

Echoing the others, your isles at 3'6" are just way too tight. Even if it is only dad cooking solo most days. I think that's your biggest flaw.

Going by your description, I'm just trying to imagine two people prepping at the stages sink. Then, parallel to that, two more people across at the cooktop with that narrow space???

Sorry, but even if you all are as thin as pancakes, I see some bumper car action going on. And I picture dad getting a tad frustrated in the middle of it all, since he is probably used to all the space to himself! Maybe have a practice run with everyone and the cardboard cabinets to test it out? Might be good fun... Lol!

My DH did not insist on much with our kitchen design, except nice wide isles. We have a 53" isle, countertop to countertop, between the perimeter and island. I thought that was total overkill. Well, after living with it, I humbly admit (and quite often) "Honey, You were right." I especially love my 36" dish drawers across from my open DW with a few inches to spare.

Sorry, I am not sure on the double oven placement, so no help there.

Ok, now I'm back dreaming of you swirling fusion slab again. Gorgeous... :-)

I'd turn your island 90 degrees, so the sink faces the window. You'd have to rework the storage and move the seating to the short end, but it would give you much bigger aisles, and work space on three sides.

Looking at your list, I'm wondering where is your mother going to sit?

What if you made the island narrower with a table-height area in back (or a table pushed against the back) so your mother can sit and prep with the rest of the family -- or even just visit and be in the middle of the action? I personally would prefer that to sitting off to the side.

Taking the advice to widen the aisle, I'm pushing the island cabinets back several inches to widen the aisle. We had already mocked up with boxes where the cabinets would be and I made my various siblings and husband pretend to work at the rangetop and sink back to back as well as walking back and forth. The current spacing was comfortable for everyone even with exaggerated gyrations. However, since once the cabinets are in, they are in so I widened the aisle as suggested.

We were living with 27" aisle so anything else is a huge improvement.

@rebunky. I meant that I will DIY copper countertop for the perimeter unless I can find nice quartzite remnants that would be neutral. Even then I'm not sure I can afford it. I priced the cost of doing the perimeter countertop and it should be less than $1000 for the 8' and 6' run. I have to see what the leftover plywood are after all this demolition.

@jlc712 I originally had the sink facing the window and just changing the existing island into a square but we lost a lot of storage with the gigantic fridge/freezer (73" expanse) and the 60" range hood. After mocking it up, we didn't have the flow that we needed. We still had my brothers clustering on both sides of the sink chatting with my dad and absolutely no counter on both sides as the Stages is 48". We had 6" of counter.

When they come to visit, the first stop is staring inside the fridge for 20 minutes.

@Oaktown, my mother would be sitting to the right or left of the settee and see everything. The settee is for my dad to sit down and rest every once in a while. I designed a pull out rolling table that slide under the baking counter. That table will be marble topped and at 30" for me to use for rolling dough. I'm 4'11" so 36" counter is tough on my back for rolling. It can also double as a dining table for my parents to eat informally together.

My dad cooks 2-3 dishes every 4 hours for my mom so this way, he can just put the food out without carrying it into the dining room. She has little appetite so she eats a couple of tablespoons each time. The rest of us have to eat the leftovers.

Lighting? Canned lights look good, but how will you see what's inside the cabinets? Little halogen track lights used along side the canned lights might be useful.

Usually a triangle pattern is more user friendly for the frig...stove top...sink.

My kitchen is a similar design. Note: I have 75 drawers & cabinets. I have the 6 burner stove top in the island, about 3' over is the 30" sink. Then the frig is behind the sink.

I hang one complete set of pots & pans over the island from a pot rack for easy access and have another complete set in the pots & pans drawers, even have a pan lid drawer. The pot rack has utensils hanging from it, a second set is in the drawers. I have a knife rack built-in on the side of the island. Consider appliance garages. I have 3 with plug-ins inside them and it gets them out of sight. Since the plus-ins are right there, they don't get moved.

I have a bread making station on the end of the island. All the bread making ingredients are kept in marked containers in drawers at "that" end.

If I could change or add to my kitchen there are 2 things I'd want.

1) Hands free foot pedal for turning the faucet on.

2) A second sink.

@Nicole, my appliance garage is in the dead Lemans corner. I don't have any other space. We're pretty short on storage due to the size of the fridge/freezer unit.

My dad has arthritis so I'm getting the touch Brizo Venuto. I can't do Tapmaster because he also has vertigo and would fall if he is off one leg.

Latest update, one has to be really Careful when taking GW advice about appliances. I got the BS 48" rangetop and it's going to cost me $5k to upgrade the gas line so it can be installed. Yikes. That's almost 2x of what the range cost.

Even if I downgrade to a 36" and sell the 48", I still need the same upgrade due to the BTUs. I had to throw out the gas fittings for a BS gas oven.

I'm getting close to $50k already without any of that cost on anything you would see. Cabinet budget just shrank to $6k.

LOL, if I end up with IKEA, it will be one of the most expensive IKEA kitchens ever due to all the costs in the foundation and behind the drywall.