folks, here is the whole floorplan, for those who wanted to see it... it is what it is, I made the best use of the space that I could. I'm sorry for those who think it's really dumb, and I should start over, but the cabinets are purchased and built already, we're just working on installing them. The BS1D24 is facing out, so we can't do a panel all the way across, or a pony wall. BS3E24 is facing in. There is space between BS1D24 and the wall, between that and B3E15 and between that and BS3E24. We're looking at between 2" - 3.5" between each of the cabinets, or cabinet and the wall. Also, we already have tile down for the floor, so drilling them down is probably not an option. What about maybe glueing them? I know everyone is greatly concerned about the placement of the fridge, really we've got the cabinets in their respective positions, and it's not that bad. It will function for what we need. I have kids, they will sit there and eat their breakfast cereal. If they want to turn sideways to see the lake, or turn around completely to see the TV, they'll survive. Sophie Wheeler, if you don't have anything constructive to add in a positive manner, please refrain from commenting. This is my dysfunctional kitchen. Don't worry, I will never invite you over. If you think my kitchen is that bad, I don't want to hear what you'd have to say about my dysfunctional family.

@tmnca My floors are Goodfellow Original - Nature Series - Maple in Sierra The more you order, the more the price goes down. I paid a little over $4/sq.ft. It took me forever to find one I liked. I visited almost every flooring store in the nearby city. I literally spent months looking at samples. The sample of my flooring that I saw didn't have much variation but I like the colour. When I started opening the boxes for install, it had a ton of variation which was exactly what I was looking for so I was really happy. Opening each box was like Christmas for me haha! They look the best at night under my recessed lighting. It's almost as if it brings out features in the wood that you can't see in natural daylight. It does scratch easily though. Not scratches that you can see (although I did put a massive, extremely noticeable one in my kitchen but that was entirely my fault) but ones where if you look at them on an angle in the light they show up. Regardless, it's not going to stay perfect forever. I'm still in love with them. If you are installing flooring yourself and it has a lot of variation, it's not like just slapping down a floor. My husband and his cousins were doing it and I had to be there to select each piece to go down. It made it more time consuming but you don't want a bunch of plain pieces all bunched together. Just like the variations in the wood, you have to do variations across the floor. For places like the kitchen where the cabinets would be sitting, we put the most plain pieces down and saved the variation ones for places that you can actually see.

I too want to give a shout out to Kimmy for her detailed instructions. I just installed a whitehaven following them. I will add this the curve for the cutout is 4" so a 4" hole saw on your drill will give you the perfect cut then you can use your circular saw up to the holes on the sides and bottom. I don't own a jig saw so I used the same hole saw that I got to cut my butcher block with a reveal (also 4" obviously). In addition to Kimmy I want to thank Joseph for recommending Pete's sink mount. I realize most on this thread have already installed using Kohler's instructions but Pete's sink mount makes getting everything in and level super easy and you can adjust up or down with the sink in place unlike Kohler's 2x4 method. This is an FYI for anybody that comes upon this thread later. Steve - Ikea sells a kit to attach a door to a drawer that has a template to drill the holes. I realize you don't need the hardware but it might be worth it for the template. https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00280755/

The answer, is "it depends". You may need them for clearances. The Electrolux ranges for instance need a bit of a filler and a cover panel. This is where you have to read the appliance specifications. You do not need them for counter support though, if the rest of the design properly provides for that. Any exposed cabinet side needs to be finished with cover panels, and that thickness needs to be accounted for in the design. Any uppers adjacent to a hood will have exposed sides. If exhausting is not possible, and you are left doing a recirculating vent, I'd urge you to choose a hood both wider and deeper than the cooking zone below. You want the best capture area possible since you will not be able to exhaust the effluent.