We haven't installed the hood yet, but I have worked on the plan. I am thinking of a 22" deep hood built out from the wall by 7", for a total depth of 29". I did some geometry to arrive at a good combination of 1. non head banging 2. good smoke capture. The above would be a non-standard installation height however I think it would work best in our case. This is discussed in painful detail in my thread below. Something to be aware of is that the higher the hood is mounted, the louder it will sound. You could see how this works by lowering your head beside an operating hood. Here is a link that might be useful: super-quiet 600+ cfm range hood for condo This post was edited by feisty68 on Tue, Jul 8, 14 at 12:49

...We have 36" clearance at the tightest spot and it works totally fine. ... You're talking about a "pinch point", not the entire space being 36"...that's very different. Seating...I'm assuming there will be no seating at the island. You could probably fit one seat on the end, if you wanted to, but that's it. Aisle widths...Standard overhang is approx 1.5", not 1". You need to cover not only the door/drawer front, but you need it to extend out past it somewhat. This extension will direct spills (liquid and solid) to the floor rather than down the front of your cabinet doors or drawers (or even inside the cabinet or drawer); thus protecting the finish on your cabinets. So, if your 36" measurement is cabinet-to-cabinet, you really do only have 33" aisles, not 36" or 35". (Remember, the overhang is on each side...wall run and island.) Note: If you have inset cabinets, then a 1" overhang will work fine. But, you will still have an aisle approx 34" wide. Mockup...masking tape on the floor will NOT give you a feel for aisle widths. You need actual mass & an actual obstacle to know if it will work. Masking tape still leaves "open space". So, if you truly want to mock it up, get boxes, etc. for the island, refrigerator, etc. to see how the 36" aisles really feel and work. Oh, and do NOT move the DW...if you do, it will be smack dab in the middle of your Prep Zone. You have it placed just fine in your layout. You have a nice separation of Cleanup Zone from the Prep & Cooking Zones. To maximize prep space b/w the range & sink, I'd move the range so there's 24" b/w it and the MW tower and put any "extra" b/w the sink & range. One note about the WD...when asked here & on the Appliances Forum, almost unanimously, those who had the WD under their cooktop or right next to their range/cooktop, used them. Those who placed them further away did not. Additionally, the ideal height for a WD seems to be in a base cabinet in either the top or middle drawer position. Why am I bringing this up? Because I think you would be better served to eliminate the tower and, instead, have an under counter WD and, possibly, a MW drawer or a MW that hangs under upper cabinets. This would give you much more work room and allow you to move the range away from the sink a few more inches. When spending all this time & $$$ on a remodel, why settle for a Prep Zone that "isn't real generous" and be forced to "make it work" when you could do so much more? Corner...I highly recommend a corner susan. Susans (super or lazy) hold a lot! All your pots & pans or small appliances, etc. I would not use a blind corner cabinet or make it a "dead" corner.

I love looking at everyone's gardens! I dream of the day I've tamed this place a bit and I can spend more time picking specimen plants and less time desperately trying to fill in empty areas to keep them from eroding and/or getting overrun again by invasives. Here are a few shots of the parts I've gotten to so far...My giant hollyhocks, which I winter sowed last year. They bloomed through January, after which I trimmed them back. We'll see if I get a second year out of them. I'd love to have collected seeds but I never saw any. You can see the giant rhododendrons in the background. The 20' tall rhododendrons flowering last spring. I inherited these with the property. Anything that survived 20 years of neglect is obviously planted in the right place! Bearded iris growing underneath my deck on the edge of Puget Sound. It's actually a listed invasive here, but from the research I've done it only spreads along fresh waterways, not salt water, so I'm thinking I'll leave it be. And in the true spirit of a cottage garden, broccoli for miles... ...and onion braids. We just finished the last of the onions last week.

Every year my tomatoes have a theme. One year it was oranges, last year it was whites and container varieties. This year it's blacks and a few others, including the return of a couple kinds. Black Pepper- new this year, a paste Black Prince- new this year, 5 oz fruits Black Krim- new this year- beefsteak Black from Tula- new this year, saucer Dwarf Wild Fred- a return from last year. One of the best tomatoes of last year, the others being White Queen and Snow White Cherry. A nice container plant, and a tasty black getting compared to the other blacks this year. Jaune Flamme- a return from 2014. Hands down the best tomato of the year, great fresh, canned, and dehydrated. 2-4 oz fruits, compact growth habit topping off around 5', suitable container plant. Pink Bumblebee cherry- new this year. I try to have an interesting bicolor every year, last year was Copper River. I plan on doing a cherry/tiny eats compare year in a couple years, and need to test out a couple of little ones every year too. Sweet Pea Currant- new this year. Just another little eats, but container growable. I also have clones going from some of the indoor/overwintered plants I took in because I had seed stock failures last year, or because I wanted to test out their limits, lol. So a couple of these might stick around through the summer if I need seed stock off of them, but it's more likely that either they will get sold off come spring. Totem- a super hearty container plant. Sets seed well indoors and out, takes cuttings/cloning very well, and overwinters in the kitchen window nicely. Germination rate is high, and early growth stays small. Silvery Fir Tree- not so suitable for indoor overwintering, it likes a bigger pot. And it gets leggy. Will grow out for seed stock if I can coax the clones along till spring. It's a pretty ornamental I want to revisit in the future, so I want to save seed for the sake of saving seed. Beaver Lodge Slicer- Healthy plants, decent in containers. Taking cloning pretty well. I have a half dozen seed stock tomatoes growing and ripening right now, may or may not keep cuttings. A right nice and early setting red, it grows well around here and sells well. Copper River- really a lovely plant with nice flesh, I want to save this seed for the sake of saving it more than anything else. I have one mother plant that is a long vine, very leggy in the kitchen window. It is finally producing a nice sucker I can cut for cloning, and two small flower clusters forming.