Irene-you are too funny! I just jumped over to the conversations since I haven't been by in awhile. You explained, or blamed it precisely! The snow birds left the door open on the way south and drove so slow they each brough trunk loads of frosty weather. Thank God it's OVER!!

All other counters are quite a bit more than 48" away except a small 15"deep counter right past the entry doorway- it could be a temporary landing space but it's partially blocked behind a swinging door so it's not ideal either. I'm also just picturing how right now we often stand slightly to the side of our (single door) fridge when we open it, and just open it a little bit to get what we need. We rarely open up the fridge to a full 90 degrees right now to get things- only to clean. If you have to go to the corner to open the door (hinges on the right), you'd have to stand right in front of it and open it wider to get in there- it feels like you would have to be almost "in" the fridge to get stuff out, whereas if the hinges were on the other side you can be standing a little more next to the fridge and access things without opening the door wide. I don't know if that makes sense, but I feel like if we had the hinges next to the wall it still might work as long as we could get bins out for cleaning. So the 3 1/2 in clearance to the wall required for the french door fridge I'm looking at doesn't necessarily mean you could get the drawers open with that spacing?

Marvin doors are factory made, and they have multi point locking system so I doubt they can be changed. Some shop made doors come with reversible astragals so they they can be switched, but not Marvin, or Anderson, etc. That said, some door shops will make modifications, but you lose your door warranty, and the amount that you will pay to get this done its not worth the effort.

Years ago I had a client that wanted to build a house with a fireplace that was open to both the Living Room and the Master Bedroom, and sell the house in five years. I explained to him that most home buyers want to have A LOT of privacy in their Master Bedroom and that fireplace may kill a sale. He had me design the house so the Master Bedroom has its own fireplace and the Living Room has its own fireplace.