Rain barrels out?! Baloney! As stated earlier, the water is going into the ground anyway. Does this mean you need to realign your downspouts so they flow onto walks and driveways so as to go into the street/gutter/stormsewer/river? Won't this be a great way to turn the home into an iceskating rink come snow time? What about the runoff detention ponds? Maybe your communities don't have these. Mine does because the storm sewer system is inadequate. The retention ponds hold parking lot runoff, allowing it to seep back into the ground. For those redesigning your landscape, go big on land recontouring to hold onto that water. I remember the 1950's Colo. drought where people had to buy the right to water their lawns. They paid a special fee and got a sign for their yard.

I drew up the plan I proposed above, with adjustments as needed based on the additional information you've provided. I assumed that the fridge wall is 144" not 143" and gave the extra inch to the fridge portion. I also estimated the window at 36" wide (based on the photo). If these assumptions are incorrect, you'll need to adjust accordingly. I kept the fridge wall and oven cab in their current locations. Sink is shifted from its current location, which I realize requires trenching into your slab but thankfully, the sink is fairly close to its current location so costs should be fairly minimal. I put the wine fridge in the island. That location is more convenient whether you're in the family room, dining room or breakfast nook. It can be accessed without crossing into the prep zone, which is a plus. I tried to figure out how to get stemware closer to the wine fridge but that was a no-go. I shifted the cook top out from under the window and to the left. This has multiple pluses, IMO. One, you can vent the cook top with a hood, which is more efficient that a downdraft and won't require increasing the depth of the counter to fit a downdraft (that would steal space from the aisle between oven and fridge side, which is already less than recommended). Two, it's less expensive. Pop-up downdrafts are easily over $1K. You can get a nice looking, functional chimney hood for less than half that. An undercabinet hood is even more reasonably priced. Three, having the largest expanse of counter between wall ovens and cook top moves your primary prep zone from one side into the center of the kitchen. You'll take fewer steps going from fridge or pantry to the prep zone. The aisle between table and island is a bit on the lean side, which is why I recommend placing the chairs as shown in the drawing. Mock it up to make sure you're good with this, though. Now's the time to make adjustments. Keep in mind that the recommended aisle behind seating is 44" (see the drawing I posted above). It's fine to have less than that on the window side because that's not a primary aisle. I suspect that the island curve will need to be softened so that you can reach the center to clean it. Again, mock it up and see what works for you. I estimate that you'll have room for 3 stools but the final shape will determine that. Allow 24" per person so that people can sit comfortably with enough room for elbows and legs. If you need another seat, you can reduce the width of the bottom right cabinet and extend the counter overhang towards the pantry. I didn't add uppers above the 12" deep cabinets in the nook area. As drawn, there's a nice balance of cabinets and open space on that wall. It also gives you the option to add a window. I listed suggested kitchen organization - blue for clean-up, table setting, green for prep, cooking, baking - to get you started. Feel free to adjust to suit how you work. I found it helpful to mentally make a meal using a new lay-out to see what worked, what didn't and how I could adjust it to make it function better. Think about how it would work when you entertain, clean-up, make snacks, etc. You can amend the plan to keep the cook top under the window but if you do, I strongly encourage you to go with a hood over the cook top for reasons stated above. See the link mamagoose posted above to see kitchens with this set-up. The dimensions in red show you what you gain with a smaller diameter table,either a 42" round or square table (set at an angle).If you need additional storage, you'd have room for cabinets against the kitchen/family room wall. ETA: Ignore the dimensions and shape of the square table. I don't know where my head was but what I drew isn't a 42" square table. It's much smaller than that. You could probably do a 40" square table and be okay but a 36" square table would work better. Not sure that's a better solution, though. Mock it up with blue tape. I know you have some, lol. I tried a few other ideas but they required structural/slab work and I didn't feel that the trade-offs were worth the additional expense. HTH!

For most vinyl windows, they are the same product, just with or without a nail fin and a different size. He could be steering you away from new construction because its more difficult and time consuming. While the price obviously reflects the extra time/labor, it doesn't reflect the profit that COULD have been made doing a second replacement job in the same time span as one new construction job. Installers generally don't love them unless they are diverse in what they do, ie: installing windows today, siding tomorrow, roofing another day, etc, but even at that, replacements are typically less headaches and an "in and out" install. The other, more sincere and helpful reason for pushing you away from new construction could simply be that you really dont need it, and you can save a bunch of money by going with replacement. Substantial rot, existing leakage, and sensitivity to any loss of glass area are the main reasons to go with new construction. You will find a lot of companies that push heavily one way or the other because that is just how they sell, but it should really depend on the individual circumstances so that you can weigh options for your situation. For you, given that you are having both the interior and exterior finishes already removed (siding and woodwork), it does simplify that new construction install so it becomes a more viable option IMO even if you didnt have any of the issues above.

I'm mostly too warm, but grocery stores are def. cool enough for me. I am not someone who goes out in shorts, sandals and tank tops either for the very reason that I never know how chilly a place might be. I am inwardly amused at my sister who does that and then is constantly complaining she's cold. My other sister has Hashimoto's and is always feeling chilled, but dresses accordingly. At my age, I often say my thermostat is broken. It's also been so hot here that many people's a/cs are running 24/7 and can still be insufficient. That said, in re: public places being uncomfortably cold or hot - FWIW, the city rec ctr where I work has had a terrible (and expensive) a/c system for many years now. It's constantly either breaking down or malfunctioning and administrative & maintenance staff do not know how to set the complicated electronic thermostats that were supposed to save energy, but don't seem to be connected to anything. They're are maybe a dozen 'zones', each with its own control, each set on some sort of schedule, but the temp.s in the rooms never match what the controls say they are at. Rooms can be stifling hot while the hallways will be perfectly comfortable, or even too cold.