Hi may_flowers and jams, thanks for your suggestions! jams, I think I'm with you. Although I might still keep small containers in the kitchen and larger ones in the mudroom. may_flowers, thanks so much for your suggestion on the tile. The beauty of the photocopy is that I can try it both ways! I did try the tile on the sink wall but it looked somehow a little off to me, especially because I have a big switch and stuff there. And the Moroccan tile looks a little nicer next to the warmth of the wood. The rest of the BS is plain glossy white 4x8" 'subway.' Although I like the tile a lot, I don't want to run it throughout as it starts to have a wallpaper look that isn't what I'm going for. This post was edited by robotropolis on Mon, Feb 24, 14 at 13:17

I have seen this cabinet maker's pictures he showed me, so I do have a good idea of what his final look would be with the glass shelves. Would they be sturdy enough for every day use? I think so, but hoping to hear people's views on that. I will try to find Grace and Paigeysmom's pages. The more the better. I do also see functionality in the cabinet location, as we will be putting our dishes in one side and taking them out on the table side for setting. Probably all of you have much longer narratives to your remodeling decisions as well, but biochem you have hit on a key one that has held up our remodel by a couple of months, and that was seeking other storage options. We were right on your page, and had lots of people visit and study it in person. You are exactly right, there is not room to add a hutch unless you dig into a wall and borrow from another room. We really only have one potential candidate, but the problem is that we are in a tri-level and the family room is enough lower, that any cabinets cannot go very high or they would be in my upstairs shower. Then, if they are low, the clearance to the table (or any table) is not very much. I have masking taped it out, and the max cabinet door width would maybe be a foot. Otherwise, you have to move the table and make people get up to open your cabinet. After all the drawings and meetings and measuring, I finally concluded that wishing something to work was not going to happen. I needed to be practical. (Of course, the true solution would be to bump out into the back yard. We wouldn't have that kind of money until the kids are raised and gone, though.) Sorry if that was too long, hopefully it will help others with smaller kitchens with their thought process. On other fronts, we are back to our original U to accommodate the the 9 inches behind the stove, which people here wisely pointed out that I needed. Do I try filling in that few inches with extra cabinet (it's not enough room for a real breakfast bar). Or just have the granite overhang? That is one question. And the other question to finish is the glass cabinet, glass or wood shelves. 3" rails or narrower, and if narrower, then be consistent through the whole kitchen? My goal is to be nearly complete by the end of the summer, that is still within our reach if I get my order in really soon. Thanks for all of your help and thoughts already. I truly appreciate all of them....

Whether or not an island will fit in your kitchen and allow adequate space between the island and perimeter cabinets, depends on the size of your kitchen. A u-shaped kitchen that is 10x10, for example, will have approximately 6 feet of floor space between the legs of the U (subtracting out 24 inches for each leg of the U). Sure you could fit a cart or utility table in the U but maneuverability would be limited. Assume you want nice wide 48-inch aisles. The kitchen would need to be at least 12 feet plus whatever dimension island you want. That means if your kitchen is 14 feet wide, you would only be able to fit a 2-foot wide island. These are design guidelines, of course. If you were ok with 36 inch aisles, then you could go with a larger island of 4 feet in width.

Yes you're right, it's everyone's favorite room (guests included). Spinning my wheels again and wondering if a peninsula will be best. Do either of these layouts seem like they'd work. The program was a little glitchy and kept moving the garage door and doing something strange with corner but... 1.) Drop in range on the peninsula with a recessed vent. I know people don't like the idea of a cooking surface in island or peninsular, but being that I have one now it has never been an issue. Plus we will probably be going the induction route. 2.) Drop-in on the garage wall with range vent hood. Basically everything else is that same. For both options we'd have to go the semi-custom route especially with the garage door corner.