We are remodeling a kitchen in the home we recently purchased. The biggest negative issue is an island that was added sometime after the house was built in 1980. There is congestion where the coffee/liquor bar door, pantry door, oven doors meet. On the other side the fridge and dishwasher doors come near the island. The island is always in the way and I have to coordinate which door is opened and how I stand while cooking. I cook 3+ meals a day, every day in this kitchen, so this is a room I spend most of my time in.

We took the doors off of the coffee/liquor bar (that helped) and we just now removed the island. That helped also, but now the space is pretty wide in the kitchen and I lost some storage/countertop space. We want to remodel the kitchen for our own use over the next 3-4 years, but this is not our forever home (and I want to save my money for building my forever home so I am having to curb some of my wants.) We are looking for what “buyers” would want in a kitchen. We are considering opening it up to the formal living room that is on the sink side of the kitchen, but this is a considerable expense.

My main wants are a double wall oven (oven/microwave combo as I don’t think I have room for a double wall oven and a microwave), and then a 30” cooktop. A 36” rangetop is preferred, but I am limited on counter space and funds, so the 30” cooktop is the most reasonable. I could do a slide in 30” range, but I prefer wall ovens for the comfortable height. I am starting to feel the effects of age, and I have difficulty getting my heavy cookwear out of low ovens.

Some thoughts include putting the fridge where the coffee/liquor bar is located, and building a similar cabinet build over in the breakfast nook area to give the storage I will lose if moving the fridge. I would like to open the wall where the sink cabinets are, making the sink cabinet an island. We have considered closing off the awkward door to the entry way by the dining room, or making the door to the dining room where the coffee/liquor bar is located (so moving the door to the right a few feet.) Maybe moving the pantry. I am going to post the floor plan, some photos before and after pulling out the island, and then an idea I found on Houzz that I like…but may not work. The living room has a 15’ ceiling, but the kitchen is vaulted having 8 foot walls but a 15 foot peak. I’ve never been this stumped before. We are in a mid-high range priced neighborhood, so although I love high end appliances like a Wolf range top which some of my neighbors have, it isn’t in this budget. I have had and like Bosch appliances, so I am currently looking at the Bosch 30” drop in cooktop, adding a vent hood, and then Bosch wall oven/microwave combo.

I can leave the kitchen closed off from the rest of the house as it currently is, and just update the cabinets, counter tops and appliances, but most people seem to want an open concept kitchen. And I am isolated while I cook, and the family is enjoying movies and TV in our other rooms, so I can see the benefit of an open kitchen. Please help if you have time to weigh in on ideas if this were your home. I apologize that the floor plan is sideways, each time I rotate it, it still pastes into this forum sideways.