>>>vate - I never thought about looking up and seeing the lightbulbs! Do most people have covered bottoms?It seems that most pendants have open bottoms. For narrow pendants I don't think that's a problem. For larger ones, you have this ugly bulb right there above eye level, and it can throw off a lot of glare too. >>>The pendants only fit 15 watt compact fluorescents - will this be enough light for my island? (I plan to have at least 6 cans in the ceiling of my 13' by 11' kitchen.Wouldn't be enough for us. We wanted lots of light directly above the island, not over the shoulder. But might be fine for you. However, those narrow pendants will tend to throw off more of a spot light than a broader light. Again, depending on where your canister lights are that might be fine for you. One word of warning - depending on what is above your ceiling, once those junction boxes are mounted up there for your lights, and your ceiling is finished, no matter how many or what type you end up choosing, moving them or changing them is an expensive and time-consuming proposition. >>>BTW, can you please tell me the name of your granite? I LOVE it!! Thanks. It's Cinderella Blue. Some of the money we saved building our own cabinets was invested in this granite! We got it at Earthtones Granite here in Atlanta: http://www.earthtonesgranite.com/html/cinderella_blue.html

Here is the layout as I have it in my software. Reality is a bit different because it wasn't quite framed this way, but this plan is close enough. There is a barrel arch to the great room and then another barrel arch through to the dining room with a small butler's pantry. It's still just framing, but we were amazed at how lovely the barrel arches look. the octagonal ceiling over the banquette and the double vault in the keeping room are also just framing, but you can tell how nice they will be. This is a 3D rendering which is the view from the cleanup sink (the one along the wall). The materials aren't perfect because I don't have a decent white marble or stained beadboard, but it gives a sense of the space. So, there would be either two large pendants or an island fixture with 2-3 lights over the island with the chandelier at the banquette (can't see the seats from this angle). Also, there is a ceiling fan/light in the keeping room. I'm at the frantic planning stage where I don't have to have everything nailed down, but they are ready to do rough ins, so if I change my mind on some things then it is the "ka-ching" of a change order down the road. Kate - you must be getting close if your kitchen is going in. Do you have a move in date, yet? Our builder's schedule shows us being done at the end of September. Oy! Jo Ann

Lavender_Lass, I'm glad to hear you love your wall oven! Everyone who has one seems to. I think I'll enjoy it, myself, and DH is already thrilled with the idea - he's even been checking them out at appliance stores, and he's never been that interested in ovens before. I agree that the space would really open up without the peninsula. We could do a small table and keep it simple at first, but we'd have the room in the future to expand a little, add chairs. Ashleymking, I actually love the open counter space of the peninsula, myself, and if it weren't for DH's bad back and therefore the desire for a wall oven, I'd almost certainly keep the peninsula. The 30" walkway is definitely too narrow, though - I would gladly sacrifice the peninsula space for a larger walkway. It feels cramped just looking at it from across the room. This may not apply in your layout, but for us, looking in through the dining room door, the peninsula actually extends into that line of sight, so if you walk straight across the room you could walk into it. More importantly, it's a real bottleneck for people passing through. Only one person can comfortably pass at a time (2 if you don't mind brushing up against one another!), and with an active 3-yr-old and 2 little dogs, we feel like we're constantly telling someone to get out of the way. This is compounded by the layout of the refrigerator being just off the end of the peninsula, so the walkway is totally blocked if someone opens the fridge door. It doesn't sound like a big deal - of course you can just wait a moment until the person at the fridge is done - but it annoys us every day. We felt that between 40 - 44" would work for us, larger being better. We arrived at that number partly by looking at recommendations in posts here on GW and partly by looking at the sight lines through the doors, measuring ourselves standing there 2-deep and just imagining "what if I wanted to do X..." scenarios. Well, there's my novel about our walkway, LOL! Hope that's useful to you. Marthasdream, it's funny, I had considered open shelving for the plans with the peninsula but didn't think of it with the wall oven/ open plan. Thanks for the reminder that they could still work there! My open shelf fantasy is actually to have a set of 2 or 3 with some room on one for cookbooks, and the bottom shelf having hooks for my most-often used pans. Perhaps the dream isn't dead!

"The custom cabinet company has been to the job and has approved all the distances between the cabinets, ovens and refrigerator. " Most cabinetmakers, custom or otherwise, don't really understand aisle clearances, seating overhangs, etc. Their focus is on the construction of the cabinets. It's the designer's responsibility to ensure a functional space is designed. Yes, many cabinet salespeople call themselves "designers", but they aren't. When I say a "designer", I mean a KITCHEN designer educated in good design practices. E.g., what are the actual aisle widths b/w the items that stick out into the aisles the farthest -- e.g., appliance handles, counter overhangs, etc.? That's your true aisle width, not cabinet-to-cabinet like so many cabinet salespeople show.