I wouldn't take out the fireplace - you have plenty of room to work with and enough to still have a sitting area -- at least a coffee nook by the fireplace even with the kitchen over on that side. Depending on how much you want to move things around the dining table could even go by the fireplace and the reading/sitting area by the deck. If the lighting is flexible, you could even change that seasonally. A fireplace adds warmth and charm to a room. They add value to a house. You are not in a situation where the room is just too small to have a fireplace and still live in the room. If anything, I would make sure the fireplace is an important part of your thought process and planning -- not an afterthought. It does seem to be an afterthought in some of these ideas, and that can make it awkward. My suggestion: put down the pencil and paper, the markers and even the blue tape for a day or two. Stop drawing. Take some time to think about what you really need, both now and over the next 10 years or more. Aren't your boys about to be taking off or at least not home more than they are home (if not already)? If not, I would think losing living space would not be good because there would be a greater demand for separate living spaces for kids and adults. And that daughter of yours is not likely to be doing homework at the kitchen counter much longer. I'm sure you went through this with your boys to at least some degree, so you should understand when I say that your daughter is about to start thinking your are the dumbest, most unreasonable person on the planet (at least some of the time) and want to spend her time in her room, talking to her friends, experimenting with hair, nails and makeup, etc. What I'm trying to get at is that you need to make sure you think forward ten years and plan for those rather than the last ten years. I don't mean plan an empty-nester kitchen because they are still around and in 10 years time may be bringing spouses and grandbabies around. Or you could decide this isn't where you want to be when daughter goes off to college and you start thinking about resale in 5 years. Do you host extended family or teen groups now? Just meals or other activities? You still want a functional and flexible space. I'm just wondering if you are giving up too much living space just for the sake of having an island. I don't see that having an island is gaining that much for all that you have to give up to get it. You're not gaining function. Most of what you gain is aisles. That doesn't work for me. I want breathing room, but I want function and usable space -- in the kitchen and in my living spaces. My suggestion would be to put down the pencil, pens and paper and walk away for at least a day or two. Think about what you need and use now and how it is likely to change. After you think a bit, pick up the pencil, resist the urge to sketch layouts and just list your priorities, in order, for your kitchen and your home as a whole. What is it that you must have and what would be nice but not essential. What is just a dream? Then keep that list in mind when you start to consider your layout options. To me, it sounds like the island is a would like or a dream, but not a must have -- but it seems to be driving all the options. The island seems to play into your desire to have more than one traffic path, but may not be essential to it. I keep wondering if you might have an option to rework the basement stairs and open up the DR to the kitchen and give yourself more traffic options. I can't tell that from what you've posted, and for many people it would be cost prohibitive, but for you, it might not be that frightening and it might be easier than moving your kitchen across the way, tearing up a basement bedroom you are happy with, etc. Just thinking out loud hear, and in between several interruptions at that. I hope you get some of what I'm trying to get at. Either way, keep at it. This is the most important part of a reno -- thinking, planning, researching, analyzing and thinking some more. It costs the least and will gain you the most in the long run. Look forward to seeing what you come up with.

I'm going to take a different tack. After nearly a decade as a wellness nurse in an independent living retirement community, I see this as a safety issue. Throw rugs aside (well known fall risk), you should be able to theoretically walk around with a yard stick across your waist and not touch any furnishings. If you can't maintain this three foot clearance, then it's too cluttered and unsafe. Clear passages with no trip/fall hazards is a crucial part of home safety as an older person attempts to age in place. One fall can change the trajectory of a life in an instant. There are many good home safety checklists available online with helpful tips and pertinent information (cdc.gov and ncoa.org-the national council on aging are just two). Beyond the safety issue, as a daughter who spent four months clearing out my parents' home (three story home and two story garage) after the death of my mother in 2013 (my father had died ten years earlier), please purge papers and at least some extraneous belongings now. My sister and I had a paper trail going back to the 1930s to review/trash/shred. Our parents dearly loved us and yet we were driven to tears at times that so much stuff had been saved over the decades (and never looked at in the garage attic or house attic again) that we had to physically haul out and either attempt to sell (nearly always unsuccessful), take to Goodwill or the county dump. That experience absolutely changed both of us and we resolved to never put our own children in this position-we've taken steps to purge our own papers and belongings and are much more hesitant when buying more "things."

We only use the disinfecting wipes outside. We bring them into the stores with us to wipe the carts, and then to wipe our hands after we come out of the store. I have an endless supply of disinfecting wipes from work, but I really don't use them much beyond this purpose. TP and paper towels are still spotty for us. I have been in stores that were stocked and those with empty shelves. I think it is more the day of the week (on weekends there are likely to be no paper products) and time of day (earlier in the morning has been better). Even though we are stocked up on these products now, it is hard not to have a panic mentality and feel like you have to stock up at every opportunity because the supply could end at any time. I have been carefully talking myself down from these thoughts, but they do crop up.

I had a music collection of over 400 CDs and 300 vinyl albums around Y2K. My albums were well organized but my CDs were a mess because they'd be in and out of multi-disk changers in two different cars and a multi disk player connected to my stereo and it was impossible to keep it together. I think it was Sony at the time that sold a CD jukebox type device with capacities in multiples of 150 - so 150, or 300, or 450. Each a VERY large box in a multiple of $700-$800 as I recall, so call it those three configurations for $750 or $1500 or $2250. Right about then I learned about Wifi streaming devices, the choices were a more advanced and full featured one from Slim Devices called Squeezebox that could handle lossless formats and a more rudimentary one from Sonos that at the time had more limitations than features and wouldn't handle lossless files. I wound up ripping all my CDs to lossless FLACs. I tried to "rip" my albums to digital versions too but it was too labor intensive and I gave up about 1/3rd of the way in. I bought CDs for my favorite albums, ripped those and added to the collection. Slim Devices tried to self-finance and avoid VC money but it couldn't keep going. It ran out of gas (and money) and sold out to Logitech, which didn't know what to do with it and finally discontinued a great product line several years later. Sonos continued, took in outside funding and still exists, of course. Sonos today makes great products, easy to use and a market leader so that support is robust (another early complaint it needed to live down). I don't know anything about the other company you mention. I still use my Squeezebox products and now, >15 years from when I first started with them, my music collection has over 20K tracks. There remains an enthusiastic and robust Squeezebox user group and updated apps to use. Logitech still pays for a surprisingly active forum and has retained one technical employee who oversees user improvements to the software and comes up with new internal apps every now and then. Hardware can be found on Ebay, I was able to get several devices to to equip a second home a few years ago and also a replacement when one died. I don't recommend the Squeezebox route for new buyers, Sonos makes a lot more sense. From a setup and maintenance standpoint, the two are akin to comparing a Windows or Android device to an Apple one, with Sonos being Apple-like. The Squeezebox world is flexible, configurable, and very capable but there's a learning curve. Sonos is much closer to being a plug and play setup .