If you mean the whole room fan where the grease is supposed to be sucked through some smaller vent in the ceiling as opposed to a real hood-I wouldn't consider it. The grease will just go all over the ceiling the purpose of the hood is to collect the grease close to the cooktop so that it doesn't disseminate everywhere and yes the hood would have to hang down from the ceiling. Perhaps you can get her to show you a brand and you can post it here and you'll get feedback on it.

I completely agree with you not to have the island on two levels. Gee-whiz it's tough for him to install the outlets meaning it will take him an extra couple of hours but you will have to live with it for years. Do you know the type of countertop that you are getting? They have pop up outlets but it only makes sense if your countertop is something that can be cut relatively easily. I am not sure why he would have to not a drawer at this point in time all of these outlets should've been thought of before anything was ordered.

Nothing has been ordered at this point. Met with the designer and saw the builder later in the day. We are still in the design phase. It was our first meeting the kitchen designer to see what our needs were.

Would the receptacles ruin the look on the countertop? He says that it can be done-just not sure of the look. I know that I don't want a step up counter though. Looking for ways to meet code yet be pleasing to the eye and functional.

A couple of things.

On your question regarding the hood, those ceiling hoods have to be no higher than 8' to even do a fairly poor job. They really are not the answer and my suggestion would be to post in the appliance forum for the experts there to explain it better than I ever could.

As practigal said, you really want the hood to be close enough to the cooktop to catch the grease, etc. You don't say what type of cooktop you're planning on, whether gas or induction, but especially with gas you want it nearer.

As for issue number 2, I believe code states you need 2 outlets on the island? One on either side of the 9'?

I spend more time at the cooktop than I do the sink, so mine is in the peninsula. Also, I prefer to have the sink under a window. I used a glass island hood to help it disappear, and that works for me. My counters were flat before, and I really didn't like it, although I know that is now the trend again. It felt too much like people on the other side were hanging over my cooktop. It also made me nervous with grandkids sitting there. My entryway is also across the room, so I felt like the cooktop was the first thing you saw when walking in the door. Raising it fixed all of those issues for me :)

Do a search here on houzz for receptacles on islands.

Most people spend far more time prepping than actually cooking (yes, there are exceptions like Errant_GW above). However, for most of us the following statistics apply:

• 70% or more time and work in the kitchen is spent prepping (preparing the food for cooking - washing veggies/fruit, chopping/cutting, mixing, etc.)
• 10% is spent actually cooking (stirring, adding ingredients to a pot)
• 20% is spent cleaning up (clearing the table, clearing counters, putting leftovers away, loading the DW, wiping down the table & counters, unloading the DW)

In addition, unless you have at least 24" b/w the back of the range/cooktop and the seating overhang edge, there should be no seating behind a cooktop or range (grease can splatter over 18"!)

Personally, I would much rather prep on a peninsula than cook!

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Venting...

• Is more expensive b/c the hood is finished on all sides and more work is required to exhaust it to the outside,
• Hoods need to be over-sized and over-powered to provide effective capture and venting of fumes, smoke, steam, etc. Smoke, steam, odors, fumes, etc., are affected by stronger and more room air currents when the cooktop/range is on a peninsula or island than when against a wall. In addition, there are non cabinets flanking the hood or a wall behind to help corral and capture those odors, steam, smoke, etc., so you have to make up for these factors with a larger and more powerful hood:
  -- At least 6" wider than the cooktop/range
  -- 27" deep
  -- Cfms in the 600 to 900 range (or more)

Outlets...

We used pop-up Mocketts for our outlets in our window well. We checked with the County Inspector b/f we installed them and he approved them. Here's a picture of them:

Mocketts up:

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Mocketts down:

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I did not want pop-ups on our island, it's also larger. We did some on the back (not public area) of the island in the drawer, and on the side. I bake, and was afraid of flour etc. getting into the joints. We also decided to have one drawer open on the side, and used the area it would have been for another outlet and disposal button (so the drawer lost a little width, with false front to look right).

I should have expanded my comment a bit for buehl to say, "I spend more time at the cooktop than I do the sink (once guests arrive), so mine is in the peninsula (so we can chat while I'm finishing things off). :)

That's one big peninsula! Why is it so wide? Mine is 92" x 38", one level with sink, and separates the dining room and kitchen. Every kitchen needs one deep prep counter, and I prefer it next to a sink. I like that the dirty dishes go from the table to the peninsula to be washed and loaded into the DW. I only have an outlet on the end of my peninsula, which I never use for kitchen tasks. I do wish I had an outlet on my peninsula for plugging in a mixer or blender, but I had a tiered peninsula pre-remodel and like the one level so much better.

I'm honestly not in love with either on the peninsula but would much rather have a sink on it than a range. I wanted to have effective venting (much easier to do with a regular hood) - I'm honestly not sure how well the in ceiling vents work but would expect they would need to be extraordinarily high CFM or would not work well at all. I'd also be concerned about splatters and safety, especially if you have kids. You may want to post your layout on this site to get general feedback as well.

I'm also curious about the layout with a 5' deep peninsula. Ours is 42", which allows for a full depth cabinet plus a 15" overhang on the other side for seating.

As far as outlets; we put ours on the cabinet face on the 'kitchen' side of the peninsula. I created an empty space in between the drawer stacks to have room for outlets. FWIW, we have yet to use them, but they do meet code. Here is an unfinished pic, but you get the idea. If you put them on a cabinet face, you can't have more than 6" overhang on that face.

We are planning to do what Mush creek has shown. I think we're doing one on each end, where the corner and the working face meet and then one between drawers on the working side. I would think that would be the least intrusive. I also vote for sink on peninsula. I understand the attraction to face everyone; I would just be a nervous Nelly all the time.

I only have one wall and the peninsula to put appliances. At one end is the banquette which we use all the time and the other end is a door which is used quite frequently. I was looking at the pictures and most that I saved have the sink in the island/peninsula. But of course, these are not "lived" in pictures. In reality, at least at our house, the sink area gets messy where I keep the stovetop area clean. I have two teenagers who, (if I'm lucky) get dirty dishes to the sink-not in the dishwasher. (Yes, I know that I created this problem :) )

Also, when I'm cooking pots, pans, and dishes tend to accumulate in the sinkThis would look messy if I were entertaining. The beautiful pictures of kitchens don't really show how the kitchen would look while in use.