try hard, i think you should not forgo your breakfast bar or your ability to use it comfortably. if i understand the way you describe it, the 12 inch overhang will only protrude into the doorway, not the actual room, and then only by 3 inches. it really sounds fine to me. unused, sitting there with stools tucked, i think it will be seen as the kitchen. whether you use the 9 or the 12, your actual bodies or backs of stools will probably graze the family room but so what? counters and bars are often transitional spaces to the next room anyway, and i think that either way it will be fine and you will enjoy it so go for the 12! by the way, former owners of my house made the counter bar extend 11 inches which we find comfortable for knees. however, they removed the wall between kitchen and dining room and the entire counter protrudes the 11 inches into our small dining room which completely throws off the center of the room and makes the stools way too close to the dining table. i can't gut the whole space, so i live with it and really love using the counter bar. your situation is far far better and i bet it will look fantastic. good luck and let us know what you decided.

Thank you mj! I do love to bake and even though it is only the 2 of us I get carried away and then freeze for later :) My soapstone has one tiny chip in it from dropping a glass out of the cabinet. I forget it is there except when I wipe the counter. I have never oiled my stone. It has darkened naturally over time from all the use. I can see the difference as there is a piece of the same stone next to the ovens for a landing zone and it has remained very light. The stone in my sunroom has also remained light w/o oil. My soapstone is Green Mountain and looks exactly like the example on their website. Not many veins . It has proven to be very durable. I love it for kneading bread and rolling out dough as well as pasta etc. I think it is a perfect countertop choice but there are lots of threads here with differing opinions. I do believe that you have to have a quality product/install. Makes all the difference. I hope you will post pics of your baking soon !! c

megs1030, I think you are probably right about the wood finishes competing. I liked the cushion color a lot which is why I'd narrowed it down to that one, but I wasn't super thrilled about the base color. I hear you all on adding color. I think one of the reasons I'm hesitant here is because the configuration of the kitchen is such that there will be a fairly narrow area to pass through between the island and a wall that juts out behind it. Currently this is where the fridge sits and there is literally only 21" right now between the right corner of the island and it, but that should hopefully not be for much longer. Once the fridge is moved there will be 54", but I hope to put in some lockers along that wall to capture the jackets and boots that everyone wears out back, so it could potentially shrink to as narrow as a 36" walkway (that's still tbd though). So I don't want there to feel like there is a lot there, I think I want the stools to seem to disappear when not in use. It could be when the fridge is out of here I won't feel that way, it really closes the area in right now. I'd probably have to see the low back chairs in person to get a feel for if they'd tuck away enough. I doubt there is anywhere in town that would have any. Maybe I should stick with a couple of really inexpensive stools until we're further along.

Thank you all for your input. @Anglophilia, I saw the Neochef 0.9cf by LG and it is so nice looking. It was a strong contender. Then I kept going back to the Panasonic options at either the 0.9 or 1.2 cf with inverter tech. Some out of stock. I wanted to buy from Best Buy as they are near me. @Scottie mom, the Whirlpool one you mention was interesting, but I really want a bit more style and function. I saw a working unit at the car dealership waiting room where I get my car serviced. In the end I went with the Breville Smooth Wave BM0850 and have been very happy. It fits the small space well enough. The room it is located in, is an office/additional kitchen storage room next to the kitchen. Outfitted in the 15" IKEA base cabinets and soapstone counters that I fabricated from salvaged scrape from a local stone shop. The area is located out of the way of traffic, yet very close to the cooking area in the kitchen near the stove. I should qualify my comment about "being out of the way of traffic" as in my small kitchen nothing is really out of the way of traffic, as I have 4 doors in the 7.5x12' kitchen. The 17" depth counter over the IKEA bases holds the unit, with an inch of the appliance overhang at the door. The front feet are well back from the edge of the counter and are probably at the 15.5" spot on the counter. I have the requested 4" clearance, easily around the sides. the top clearance request 8", I have only 6" with my 18" above the counter, uppers. The back vents are 4" from the wall, though the "bump out" area (typically on the back of microwaves) is close to the back wall. The unit cost $350 and then I got a 4year warranty with Best Buy for another $40 or 50. Not cheap, and more than I initially wanted to spend. The Breville size is just fine for our use, and significantly smaller than the very large old Kenmore Elite microwave we have, which is still working at 10 years old. With the old microwave we had to keep it on the enclosed porch with the refrigerator because my kitchen is too small to hold these appliances. When I redid the office 3 years ago I had planned to have our microwave on the counter, and finally got around to it several months ago. The unit was way too big for the space, but VERY convenient and the location was such an improvement compared with the porch. Now I think the Breville is just right! small kitchen next to the office/kitchen storage. The stove is on the right of the door and the microwave is just inside the door in next room, on the left: This is the porch where the microwave did sit, just to the right of the door. This porch is also my refrigerator, pantry, coat room, and access to the basement: Still need the backsplash, lol: