Believe it or not, there are hardwood guys out there that "have been doing this for 20 years" as they say, and never installed a border, feature strip, or medalion. They just straight lay. I lot of contractors will not show their help all the tricks, or how it is done, because in the future, they will become "the competition" They then think they know enough, and feel they are not making enough money and go out on there own, and have never done custom work at all. It is pretty much like that in all trades. There is formal and specific training and education, but no one takes advantage of it, because they either don't know it exist, or do not have the money or time to take off work to further their education, so they learn on your floor.

I had something like you fridge situation before we redid our kitchen. I don't know what the measurement was, but the door of a SXS came close to hitting the island. I don't think it hit, but you sure couldn't walk around the open door (good reason to get the grazers to shut it ;-) ) and that meant folks coming into the house from our much used side door got blocked. You don't appear to have that kind of traffic issue. My utility room fridge has about 31" from door handle to cabinet moulding. The single door of the 33" fridge opens fully, it's against the wall, so no need to get past it, but service would require some shuffling. The drawer opens fully, but we stand to the side of it. The fridge we had in there originally would not open fully. It was also single door. You have more room and would have smaller doors -- I think you'd be functionally okay with a FD, but no one will be able to walk around the open door and it may not be comfortable for you.

I have about the same aisle widths on three sides, with the fourth side (short side) open to the dining area. My island is more of a work table, just over 34" high, and I use it for baking prep. Mine works very well, in part because the DW opens into a long aisle, not against the island, and the island overlaps the fridge and range by only half, so there is adequate step back space for both of those appliances. The seating aisle is actually the narrowest of the three, but there are no appliances on that side, just base cabinets and shallow uppers (10" deep) for storage of baking supplies. My KA mixer is in the corner of that run, but there is an opening to another room directly to the left, so again, it feels more open than if it was in the corner of an L, or against a wall. I usually cite the NKBA minimums when giving advice, but I really like my island, and feel having narrow aisles is an acceptable trade-off. The kids love eating there--they seem to prefer it to the dining table, where we ate every meal when they were young. We have a bench on one long side, a swing out seat on each short end, and a shallow cabinet on the side facing the fridge and range. I can easily walk by anyone sitting on the bench, and can pass by any of my tall, thin kids standing in an aisle. Of course, if the fridge, oven, or DW doors are open, someone needs to detour around, or wait a few seconds. I've posted before that we host the dinners for my large extended family, so the kitchen is set up for easy serving and clean-up (yesterday was family dinner Sunday--I had my mom's cherry pie for breakfast this morning :). Also, I've had a friend staying here on several recent week-ends, and even though she is twice my weight, I had no problem sliding by her if she was working at one of the counters. My house is older, and the marble table was purchased on Craigslist--I didn't have a choice of sizes, although we altered it from dining table height to work table height. If I were designing a new house and new island, I would follow the NKBA recs, but my kitchen works very well for me and my family. If you post your layout, we can help you make the most of the space you have available.

Hmm. If I remove the underlayment and install the hardwood flooring, the height will be the same as it currently is, if a 1/16th or 1/8th inch shorter, and I can shim the cabinets. No stair issue to deal with. The area to cover is very small and within an open floor plan that takes up amost the entirety of the first floor. But I agree that a structural engineer is probably in order, I was just trying to avoid going that route. The easiest thing to do would replace with tile again, but I just don't want to! :) Thanks!