The bigger issue is how you plan to convert the island to a single level. It ain't gonna be an easy or cheap project to do that. Those cabinets on the back can't readily be remade without painting them to hide the redo. Alterations like that are labor intensive, and that usually tips the scale towards just starting over with all new cabinets and a much more simple and quick install labor. Now, you probably could remove those cabinets entirely, and then source from the original company some tall fillers and some legs to make it into a tabl island setup, but it won't match. But, you're not gonna cut those boxes down, take the doors completely apart to remill the stiles and center panels, and then put the whole thing back together cheaper than you can just buy new. The granite is down the difficulty and expense scale from the cabinetry issues that you have.

Thank you for getting me thinking about the oven door- I hadn't really even thought of it. I think I will be OK there is 48" from the island to the sink perimeter. Is there an optimal distance between oven and cabinet? I tested it out just now and although no one will be able to walk behind me when I am taking the turkey out of the oven it is plenty of clearance for me to bend over and take something out. I do see an issue with the dishwasher essentially being across from the oven door, but we just won't be able to be loading dishes while taking out a pizza- not a huge deal. thanks for getting me thinking!

I grew 'Superior' potatoes a few years ago. I missed a nice potato when I dug up the crop and found it the following spring when digging up the garden. Since it had sprouted, I moved it to a good site and marked the spot with a stick. It grew well and bore 5 nice potatoes and a few marble sized ones. After harvesting my "free potatoes", I planted the marble sized spuds back in the same place in the hope they would grow the following year again. Success! They are up so I have another year of "free" potatoes. The crop that keeps coming back. I grew dill last year. This year I have little volunteer dill plants everywhere. One bad lesson I learned is to NEVER plant morning glories in the garden. After planting them, I have had volunteer plants come up the past 6 years! I try to pull them all out but a few get away from me late in the season and run up the tomato plants and flower. Seeds fall everywhere so the problem comes back every year. I have had "volunteer' tomatoes come up where the previous year's cherry tomatoes grew. Sometime so many come up on their own, I have to wonder why I keep starting more from seed under my lights each winter?

@Aglitter Thank you for all your thoughtful comments and discussion. I know that some people like to upgrade just based on a whim. (I have an ex-MIL that was like that... folks on her street called it the "Bob & Lil" show, because the uproar within the family for her drop-of-the-hat choices was like a sit-com. I'm very aware that every modification or upgrade I make needs to make sense. There are things that I'd "like" to do or have done - but since they are not necessary, they aren't getting done. I'd love to get this old paneling, which was painted over, off the walls... it's in the kitchen, and part of the entry area, and part of the living room, and in part of two bedrooms. And in some cases, which walls have paneling doesn't make any sense I can see. Four walls in the living room, and one has brick, another has painted paneling, and the other two are regular drywall. Kitchen has two walls of paneling. Dining room, none. It's annoying... but something I'm not going to bother changing, not unless I hit the lottery (fat chance, since I don't play), or unless it's part of a hopefully-far-in-the-future sale agreement, because it's merely annoying. It's not dangerous, not a hazard, not necessary. Fence? Yep, I have dogs, both of whom would (and have) happily try to hunt down deer. Luckily, before the fence went up, I had a firm grip on their leashes whenever we went out. Prior to the fence going up, deer sometimes slept on our patio, right outside the kitchen. I've seen them sleeping even by the front door too. Shed? Yep, needed a place for yard equipment. Bathrooms? When both started leaking into the room below, damaging the subfloor, etc., and every contractor said they couldn't fix/find the leaks without destroying the ceramic tile and walls around the tub in the one bathroom, and the 30"x30" stall shower in the other bathroom - it was time to bite the bullet. Everything was going to be ripped apart anyhow and need to be re-tiled, so that was the right time to redesign those bathrooms. I didn't have access to a HELOC for that; I found three credit cards offering long-term 0% interest on purchases, and kicked off the project that way. And paid off every card before interest would have kicked in. For the oil-to-gas conversion - it was time. Heating with oil is usually about 2.5x more expensive than gas, at least around here. We'd had to have the oil furnace repaired for various problems each year during the past few years. Annual cleaning/maintenance is more expensive for oil furnaces to. And my central AC unit's stated efficiency was so low that it's not even legal anymore to sell AC units with that low of a SEER....and I'm sure that over a couple of decades, the actual efficiency wasn't getting any better than the SEER advertised in the sales literature. But honestly, what kicked my butt into gear was one particular morning... I always have the oil company notify me before coming to my house, because the oil fill valve is in my backyard, behind the fence line. Meaning they are supposed to call me to ensure that I don't have my dogs in the yard - that's to protect both the oil guy (since my dogs are both rescues, territorial, and not fond of strange men wandering around on their turf) as well as my dogs, because I can guarantee you that if they are in the yard and the oil guy were to come in - he's not going to bother trying to shut the fence gate while running back to his truck. Anyhow, one early morning I woke up, was going to let my dogs out in the yard, but instead decided to heat up some tea first. So I go into my kitchen, wearing a thin set of PJs... and find a strange guy staring at me through the window of the kitchen door from my backyard. Turns out the oil company didn't have enough people to get oil out, hired some sub-contractors, didn't give them the instructions about where the oil fill valves are nor about contacting customers before wandering around their houses and getting the early morning thin-PJ peep shows.... and frankly, I was furious. I very easily could have decided to let the dogs out before making that cup of tea, and that would have been a disaster. Everyone thinks the pit bull I have is the big danger; she's so old, her teeth are pretty worn down and she takes 7 pills a day to combat congestive heart failure. If she latched on to an intruder, her teeth would barely break the skin, it would likely be just bruises. It's the little guy people have to worry about - he's older, but he has all his teeth, they are still sharp, and the little bugger is fast and agile - a mix of Chihuahua, Jack Russell, and Miniature Pinscher. He's nimble, can jump, does agility, and can climb ladders. Small at 18 pounds, but mighty, and when he perceives danger - he won't hesitate to draw blood. Doesn't matter if it's a stray raccoon in the yard, a stag, or an menacing adult human. The heart of a Malinois... in the body of a itsy-bitsy ankle-biter mutt. But a love bug otherwise, especially with children. Anyhow... that near-event with the oil company's sub-contractor was enough for me to call the local gas company, discover that they were running a rebate program so that I wouldn't have to pay a cent for them to install a gas line to my house from the street, and from there, I was off to find the most appropriate HVAC system for my house. I used the HELOC to help pay for that, and expect to repay that by spring (before kicking off the kitchen for certain). Driveway resurfacing was done because the grass had grown in on both sides of the driveway by 14-16 inches, and the grass was working on breaking up even more of the driveway. Rather than wait for the grass to completely destroy the driveway over the next few years, I had it widened back to the original width, dug down, and then resurfaced. I'd been using a driveway crack filler for the past few years to try to slow the damage down, but it was time. My point is - there are some people who will renovate just for the sake of renovating. I won't commit to any kitchen work until the HVAC conversion is paid off, that's for certain. Doing research to make the most of the possible budget (the HELOC is for $50k, but I want to keep my limit at $45k to allow for unexpected issues) is part of how I operate on big-ticket purchases. Even the best-laid plans can go wrong - but if there's no plan at all, it's asking for disaster. I met with a GC last night - the one who did my bathrooms. He confirmed which walls are load bearing and which aren't. I showed him possible plans - one for expanding the kitchen, the other keeping the kitchen in the same footprint. He confirmed that the subfloor of the kitchen was at the same height as the rest of the house - there's multiple layers of flooring in the kitchen now. His opinion? It would be foolish to replace the existing kitchen with the same or similar layout. He suggested I consider doing the expanded layout in stages to help keep the budget in line. Stage 1: Demolition of the existing wall, removal of the paneling, flooring, doing all of the planned electrical and plumbing, the perimeter cabinetry of the "L", replace the one window over the current kitchen sink (we could feel the draft from several feet away), create the pantry/closet, create the second entry into the room. Hold off on installing a central island and use a table instead while getting used to having the perimeter cabinetry. Stage 2: Do the 6' "butler's pantry/china cabinet" where the bench is, assuming I still want it. (Yeah, I will). Keep using a table, and be prepared to move it around to figure out the best traffic flow around it in the kitchen. If it is the type with leaves, try living with it both ways - shrunk without the leaves, and expanded, with the leaf or leaves. Stage 3: Add in either the island I want, or keep the table. He doesn't particularly like islands; and once they are in... they are "in" - not easy to move or change out. He doesn't think I'll need the storage space that under-island cabinetry would provide either. His point is that if I opt in the future for the island, it won't matter if there's a slight difference between the granite for that vs. the perimeter cabinetry - and I might even want a contrasting surface at that point. And likewise, if there's a subtle shading difference in the cabinet paint/stain for island cabinets - it won't really be noticeable since it's separate from the perimeter cabinetry. His suggestions make sense; although I would then incur a templating charge for each phase for the countertop, it might make sense as well to stage some of the work given the budget. He knows (from experience) that I won't automatically agree with him on every suggestion. For example, during the bathroom renovation, I replaced the old tub with a cast-iron whirlpool bath. Heavy as anything, he and his team has to carry it up the stairs to get it in. He was certain that I wouldn't get much use out of it, saying that everyone he knows who gets a whirlpool tub uses it for a month or two, then the novelty wears off and it's a waste to have upgraded to that point. Except.... I use it. A lot. It helps with joint and muscle pain from psoriatic arthritis. If time allows, I could spend hours in that tub. Anyhow.... he thinks that we can get it done within the budget, as long as I'm not going crazy with some of the finishes. For example, it might be cheaper to subway tile a backsplash, vs. running the granite up the wall as a full backsplash. He agreed the plumbing costs would be relatively minimal, but electrical work might be a bit more. So we're going to work on pulling together project sub-budgets, like x-amount for flooring, etc. as part of the planning phase.