Thanks for the feedback! It's much appreciated. A little more about the table clearance (which I agree is an issue, I'm just not sure if it's a deal-breaker...) I think the layout as drawn has between 2-4'' extra inside the U (between oversized inside corner clearances and clearance around the range), so I don't think the aisle space between counter and table will be worse when built with a 1.5'' counter projection. Our stools project out 13'' at the bottom (widest part), so they shouldn't be much of an additional obstacle. And I just re-measured the wall/counter to table clearances around the dining table in our current rental and it's 33'', 32'', and 23.5'' (the fourth side is open to the living room), so I guess we're used to a tight squeeze! Although having the open side makes a world of difference, so I really am listening to your concerns. I do also worry that a shimmy that works when you've just turned 40 could become a more significant issue as we age, since we're planning/hoping for this to be our forever home. @bmorepanic - it's funny you should suggest that layout b/c I've been noticing a lot of home decor articles lately focused on having a large table in the center of the kitchen. So it would be both very stylish and of-the-moment, yet completely fitting in our Victorian. Your layout also makes clear that it would make our kitchen feel huge. The downside is I'm not sure I like the total openness between kitchen and dining. I was hoping to get away from the feeling of "I'm eating in the kitchen" - but that may be unavoidable in this space, so perhaps I should just really embrace it. I think I'd also miss having a seating option that's puts the sitter closer to the stander's eye level (if that makes any sense). Very good food for thought, though, as it's an option I hadn't seriously considered - thank you. @missingtheobvious - an earlier iteration of the design had smaller clearances in the corner (that couldn't accommodate a lazy susan or pull-out) but I forgot when we changed things around and decided that a 30'' range would be better than a 36'' one in this space that we now might be able to do more with that corner. I love the convenience of just having to open a drawer to grab a pot, but if we can really capture a significant chunk of new space, that would be great. I'm going to take @hollysprings advice from another thread and mock up some drawers to see what will really fit in them and see how much the extra space is needed. Thanks for the reminder to do this. @localeater - I purposefully didn't include any seating inside the U as I think I sit enough during the day and need to force myself to do more standing! ;) I love the idea of a round table. We've just been using the table we already have in the design (which has a leaf, so it can seat 8, 10 if we squeeze) but a round/oval table with a leaf would give us some more inches where we need them. I'm off to hunt for round tables so I can add them to the layout and see what that looks like! And great idea about swagging the light. In our current rental, when we extend the table, it's only possible to do so by moving it away from the center of the ceiling fixture, which drives me a bit batty. So I'm into a creative idea for being able to position the table in a way that allows for maximum traffic flow for everyday, while being able to move it for entertaining (when people expect to squeeze a bit anyway). Thank you all again for replying! It's really helpful to hear your ideas and think about my reaction to them, in terms of clarifying the priorities and concessions I'm willing to make.

To clarify some things about our ideas to buy on Isle of Palms - while we're going to hold off on buying, and may not ever buy on the island itself, the area around it seems to be exactly what we're looking for our retirement years. The island is less than 13 miles to downtown Charleston, and only 20 miles to the Charleston Int'l airport. Even closer than Charleston is Mount Pleasant, about 4 miles away (across the Inter-coastal waterway and a marsh), which has plenty of shopping, restaurants, medical care including a decent hospital. In addition to wanting to live close to the ocean, we want to live near good medical care (this is most important), shopping (I'm not going to stop doing DIY projects on any home I live in until my body gives out - it's my hobby), airports, etc. I love the beach - every vacation we can we go to a beach - we've visited many of the east coast beaches over the years - I never get tired of it. My husband loves salt water fishing. We have a boat that he takes onto the Chesapeake Bay all the time to fish, and we go tubing on the Potomac River with our grown kids and grand kids (who are still very little). We've planned on retiring to as close to the (right) beach as possible for at least 20 years and I think it's safe to say that we're not going to change our mind about that between now and when we actually retire. And I definitely don't want to ever live someplace rural again - did that as child and have family still there - definitely not for me. Even if we were young I don't want to live in a place where there aren't plenty of doctors, including all types of specialists, and I don't want to live someplace, where if one of us was in the hospital, the other would have to drive over an hour back and forth. I'm honestly surprised at how many people I know who retire who don't care about that aspect at all. So - given what we know we want/need, we've been considering all the areas close to the Atlantic between Wilmington NC and Jacksonville FL. A few years ago we visited every place that even seemed to come close to what we want. But when we were looking before our income and savings were a fair amount less than they are now, and housing costs and interest rates were higher, so it limited where we would be able to afford to buy, so we didn't consider some of the areas we could afford now. And this is a retirement place we're talking about - being able to vacation in it before retirement is a bonus. We could wait until we retire to buy, but as I said in the original post, I don't want to miss an opportunity to buy while the prices are low AND the interest rates are low. But I do think we need to slow down and take our time - visit and stay there during different seasons, including the heavy tourist season, and make sure that it's what we want. We may find that living on an island/beach itself is not that great and that we should go back to what we always considered to be our only option - living on the mainland, but close to the beach. People seem to think that prices will be low for a while - I don't want to buy and then see prices drop even lower - and that interest rates will be low for a while too. So I realize that there is no rush - but I still don't want to kick myself years from now for missing any "deals of the century". I know this was long - sorry about that - but I think my first post gave the impression that the whole idea of buying at/near a beach, and this one in particular, was hurried and not thought out. While rushing into it right now is undoubtedly a bad idea, I don't think the concept of buying a home sometime soon for retirement in a few years, if the prices and interest rates are really low now, is a bad idea.

Agree on maintenance. As for the toilet thing - enough room around the toilet - but not TOO MUCH room so that you can install a grab bar if necessary. Toilets that are ADA height at GREAT. And I also prefer ones with smooth sides that are also called 'hidden trap' - they are all smooth and don't have exposed bolts / covers and don't collet dust / crud around the base. Also - way easier to sit down / get up. My new build has 2 bedrooms that connect to the master bath. That could be separate beds if a spouse was a loud sleeper - or also could be used by a caregiver. I am going to have hard surface flooring (mostly a dog decision) but the hardness can be mitigated by having some decent "indoor shoes" (that can also help with things being slippery, etc). I have no steps from garage to house, nor from house to outside. I have 36" wide doors everywhere. We recently installed the metal door frames and it's weird now that that feels SMALL! We will also have the ability to put grab rails anywhere by using 3/4" heavy duty, marine grade plywood behind all our showers. Sheet tiles / large format porcelain / sintered material, etc. and a zero threshold shower. Handheld sprays. A tub with a ledge so you can sit and swing your legs over - but the shower is the key - it will actually hold a bathing chair AND a caregiver. My inlaws had care 24/7 for a few years. They also had a 1620's historic home. While it was their dream ho me, it was sad to see how the usable portion continued to shrink as they could no longer handle the stairs. My parent, OTOH, have a single floor condo, with a garage and a stair lift that is now allowing my Dad to be super mobile while he waits on his knee replacement surgery. It was a Godsend after Mom's hip replacement. (It also works fairly well to send up the groceries...). While their straight stairs are a design no-no, it worked well for the stair lift. I hope the best set of decisions we've made center around very low maintenance materials - metal roofing, concrete exterior, windows that are large, but not super tall, a plinth around the house to facilitate cleaning / spiderweb removal, accessible systems for HVAC, water heating, home automation, etc. Home automation that will work more and more with Alexa, Google home, Siri, etc may come in handy, too. For the kitchen - induction, as well as ovens that the doors open TO THE SIDE with ballbearing slides for the racks to make removing items easier and safer.

By the time you read this, I hope you will have had a wonderful experience, filled with friends, colleagues and best wishes for a wonderful retirement!