if you are not going high end, my experience with buying appliances is that a decent range is not much more than a cooktop, and may actually be less.. you may even be able to find something that someone is discarding to do a higher end remodel. the second kitchen reno I did (my first IKEA kitchen), I found a used jenn air range for $270 that a guy got rid of when he gutted his kitchen. I loved it so much that I bought another jenn air new for my third kitchen. my fourth kitchen -current - has a cooktop, but the cost of just the cooktop was as much as a full range, and this is not even in the high end, though it is a good one. I saved no money doing this. The third kitchen had this kind of G shape and was in a tiny house, fit in a 9x12 space. it was very efficient, and two people could fit in it. It had lots of storage. you can have the corner base cabinets on the "open" side face towards the living room and can use it for non-kitchen things. and about the door - just because you "only" spent 200 on it, doesn't mean it looks shabby! That said, French doors will really add light to this space, and bring your garden indoors. you started out asking about contiguous counter space....

When I designed our current house, I drew the window configurations 30 to 40 times before I decided the final confiuration and still lost sleep on it until they were in. I also used a fiarly low cost design program that allowed you to view things in 3d and place furniture (Broderbund 3d Home Design) to "see" how the rooms looked. I also looked at how the exterior of the house looked with various window configurations. Lastly, I tried to account for how various window coverings, (drapes, blinds and shutters) would impact how they looked. What I found was that the windows usually got a little smaller than I orginally planned. In summary, look at all aspects of the windows, inside, outside, access, window coverings, furniture placement and view before you decide. Hope this helps, but it probably doesn't. Since people have been so complimentary of the windows in our house, here's a couple more pics.

Thanks for the advice Mustbnuts, much appreciated. That prep sink is just on a pennisula, not a wall. It's only 4' high with a raised bar-type shelf above the counter. This shelf wraps around the other side to join to the tall skinny cabinet there so it looks nicer than it does on the plan, I just didn't know how to draw the shelf etc. in the BH&G software. There are bookshelves on the other side. The ceiling is vaulted so suspending cabinets there isn't really an option. That area is pretty much the only thing I'm leaving as it is, except for adding the prep sink. That isn't a desk, it's a place for me to read the paper and have breakfast and lunch while enjoying looking out the windows. DH doesn't do breakfast or lunch. I will also use it to sit and consult a recipe. And, my nephew can sit there and chat with me the 4 times a year we have family for dinner. The area that the chair is in is currently a very small nook that I'm stretching out the kitchen wall to meet. I use it for breakfast/lunch/recipes now. The new area won't be as nice but I think it's a better use of the space than the nook. Thanks for saying you think it will be pretty, sure hope so.

Practigal here is the layout and additional pictures. Thanks for your input to all.Picture below is the wall that will be opened up and a column added looking down the hallway to the 2 bedrooms.