Maybe you have stumped us! Or maybe we, at least, have nothing to add that will improve things... My problem is that currently I see a lovely, serene, gracious looking/feeling kitchen, but the plans make a new small kitchen without the same homey feel. I can see the challenges, though, of your current kitchen when I look at the floor plan. In the new plan I want to move the sink out of the traffic path to the dining room, but not sure where...Swapping the pantry and ovens? Maybe. I guess it's my only suggestion. Even where it is, it's better than having the range and sink in the path! The plan looks a little short on counter space, but when I study it, I think there is enough, and in the right places...So that's what counts.

thanks rhome-according to the specs, the viking is 5 7/8", and the sharp is 7 1/8". so, its less than 2" difference. i'm just having a hard time visualizing. Or, better yet, trying to recall exactly what it is if anything that i'm going to run into problems with when i try to put it in there and if the taller height is really going to mean alot in the end. our coffee mugs would fit and so would plates, bowls, etc...i'm hoping for feedback from people who have the sharp 1.0 cu ft microwave drawer to weigh in on how much of a difference it would be to them to have the extra height. my current microwave only has 7" now if you only count the usable area on top of the carousel. it has a browning coil on the top that takes up space and if you take the carousel plate and piece that turns the carousel, it seems alot larger.

Breezy -- is it too late for this question? I agree that wide are nice and do eliminate the wasting of space that dividing into two drawers creates, from two 'sources', from the fitting-things-around-edges source, and from the width-of-cabinet-sides source. Between these there is significantly less space in two 19.5" drawers vs one 39" drawer. But note that there is variable loss from the fitting-things-around-edges source depending on what you put in the drawer. That is, with big, shapely items like, say, skillets or lasagna pans + something else, there can easily be large, unused spaces around drawer walls -- the hard suitcase in a car trunk paradigm. But with smaller, more easily malleable items (say, oven mitts), there is less loss near the edges of the drawers as you can fill in that space more easily. So large drawers lend themselves more critically to things like pans than smaller items. That said, rhome's point about opening a vastly oversized item for something smaller is important, I think (not that I've lived with my kitchen, only started putting things in). Stuff shifts and gets lost horizontally the same way it can get lost vertically. If you can afford the additional drawer and can plan in advance where what goes and can therefore estimate big-enough sizes, that would be best. I think it was buehl, maybe plllog, who had a link to how they planned their kitchen to a fare-thee-well (sp?) with labels for what goes in which drawers. While over-the-top, I recommend that method! Because really that's the only way you can get close to sizing the drawers properly. Stand in your mind's eye where you'll cook what and think about what you need at hand, then put the drawer there -- and label it! I kept forgetting what I thought was going to go where. If you have a ton of oven mitts (which are big), you're really not going to want, probably, to share them too much with something else, if you can avoid it. Try shaping a drawer for them alone-ish. Maybe have a split stack in the second row as well? Note that the size of the split needn't be equal; could be, say, 12"/27", e.g. Other considerations: cost. Each additional drawer was another $100 or so for me. So two 19.5-ers cost more than one 39", counter-intuitively. And as was noted above, that big drawer even just *empty* is heavy - it necessitates the heavy-duty glides, which are an additional cost. Awkwardness opening thin drawer? I think that depends on how thin, what's in it, placement of handles, among other factors. I have a 5.5" drawer front which translates to a 3.5" interior drawer. That seems thin, and it's long, 31.5". There may be a teensy amount of torqueing, making one-handed opening a little hard. It's not bad and I imagine as the drawer gets heavier with stuff it will get better. I think placing the handles more centrally helps. But this is deeper than the 4" you're talking about. I am guessing that's the drawer front, not interior. For my frameless cabinets, you lose 2" from the interior height for both top drawers and bottom drawers, just 1.5" from height for drawers in the middle of the stack. Here's a picture (and please note the cutting board drawer which I just love): And then I have a 3-stack that's under a short counter with a 5.25" ext cab on top that translates to just 3.25" interior. That's enough, barely, to fit a saran wrap box, but as those things like to spring open, I'm not sure whether they'll get stuck in practice. Here's a picture -- for reference the middle drawer is 8"ext/6.5"int and the bottom is 12.5"ext/10.5"int. I'm embarrassed to say I am actually able to fill that bottom drawer just with plastics and metals and *I just love it*. There is enough room for them all to have their tops and sleeves and the like. All that stuff just drives me crazy and having it all splayed out in that giant drawer is just heaven. And BTW, I had never noticed those streaks on the drawer to the right. They are there IRL, but are much less noticeable, the flash highlighted them. They are colorings of the natural wood; just fine by me.: So ... I am worried that 4"/4"/4"/7" just might translate to too little interior space -- just something for you to look into. There is another picture of a 4-stack on my photobucket which I think you can get to if you're interested just by clicking on one of the above photos. And there's a picture there of a thin drawer underneath the MW/convection, but it's not long -- it works just fine at 5"ext/2.875"int x 24"w (designed just for the oven racks, but holding hot pads too). HTH

Accurate measurements make such a difference, don't they? = ) You have 30" more to work with- yay! - and that makes all the difference. That should give you enough room to add peninsula seating back in. Let me play with your plan some more today and see if I can find a happy medium between storage and counter space, especially prep space. Have you done a tally, including measurements, of all your kitchen items? Doing that in addition to grouping items by use will help you determine how much storage you need and where you need or want it. Your current kitchen has a lot of doored base cabinets, which aren't nearly as efficient in storage as drawers so you may find a new kitchen holds a lot more than you think it will. We didn't change our kitchen's footprint but because my cab storage is heads and tails better than it used to be, I have room to spare. Would you be okay if you only had one sink near the range? I know it's not nearly as convenient but given your kitchen's modest size, I haven't been able to come up with a plan that puts both sinks near the range that still gives you decent counter space for prep between sink and range. One more sink question. What is the minimum single sink size you'd be okay with? Shrinking your sink cabs to 27" (bowl would still be larger than either bowl in your double sink) would help. Side note: My knowledge of Kosher kitchen needs is limited since none of my Jewish friends keep a Kosher kitchen so let me know if I goof on something in that regard. Sena, I missed seeing your suggestion until now. Sara, Sena is one of the talented GWers who can provide elevation drawings. One of these days I'll learn how to use my Chief Architect program so I'll be able to do elevations but I haven't set aside the time to delve into the program.