Thank you all for the wonderful suggestions! My knowledge has increased exponentially in the last 24 hours (but needs to increase some more). I intended to get back earlier, but had toddler troubles and was also trying to put my thoughts together. aokat: Love your kitchen! I aspire for a kitchen that lovely.. i have selected some of the same things, including the pendants :) And that ref does have some muscle! cefreeman: sorry about the acronym confusion!... can you tell I'm a novice here? Muskokacsp: That is one beautiful kitchen!!!... love love love it and that view! We are building on a lake, that is at the top of drawing... "behind" the dining and living rooms. That was the motivation for the open concept, and therefore this extremely spread-out kitchen. Bee, thank you for reminding me of the factory seconds option. I have come across that in some of your previous posts and appreciate you sharing your "secret" :) Lav: Wish it would work! That end of the long wall, where you suggest the Ref is a passageway. So, it would hv to move in 2ft closer to the rangetop in order not to open into the doorway. And i cant think of a good use for the 2' of counter beyond the ref. I have some basic questions: -We are still in the planning/drawing stage. Have been at this stage for a few months now, so at this time, the basic footprint of the house is more or less set, there are minor changes remaining. I am trying really hard to figure out the placement of the important appliances in the kitchen at this stage, so that if I have to increase or decrease the size of the room by a foot here or there, I can do it. Is this the right way or should I just let the plan be finalized and then fit in appliances? The latter is what my designer thinks, but I cannot fathom being stuck with a plan that doenst work as well for me because I didnt lay things out while I still had a chance? -Where do young families generally end up eating most of the time? Island or dining table? I understand this obviously varies from family to family, but what does experience say? I ask because I will try to place the refrigerator likely to hold the kiddie stuff closer to that area. -How bad an idea is it to have upper cabinets instead of window above the sink? Reason: nxt q. -I've read that it is a good idea to have 2ft of dedicated counterspace on the dirty side of the sink and 2ft landing area nxt to cooktop. That makes 4 ft minimum counterspace between cooktop and sink. How important is this piece of wisdom if one has a separate prep sink? I realized today a lot of the dirty stuff nxt to my sink (i have only one now) is the prep-related stuff.... the cutting boards, knives, sundry spoons, etc. These I hope will stay on the island. In that case, can I reduce the counterspace between cooktop and cleanup sink to about 3- 3.5 ft? If not, I'll have upper cab above the sink. -How practical is it to completely separate prep and cleanup sink? I am thinking mine will be a bit of both. Island sink: 70/30 prep/cleaup and periph sink 80/20 cleanup/prep. I will have a DW nxt to each. The only thing is, I air dry the things that handwash, namely pots and pans. And I dont want a pile on my island. And, I dont keep the washed stuff in the sink, either to dry. I always feel they get dirty from splattering. -How silly is is to integrate some appliances and not some others? I like the hunky look of a SS ref (we all have our flaws) and would rather not hide it behind cabinetry. On the other hand, if I have an UC appliance (say ref drawers) in the short side of the island at the dining end (that is super visible from the dining table, I might want to hide them and have them flush with the cabinetry. Thinking about it, I do not use the ovens and freezer as much as the cooktop, ref, and sink. So, if something's gotta give, those 2 will have to go to the short wall. OTOH, for the times I do start something on the cooktop and finish in the oven, I'd be taking the hot stuff all over the kitchen. I would hate to put the cleanup sink in that wall... then, it will hardly get used. And all the junk will pile up on the island. And its a single level island- i would hate for that to happen. I came up with the following options for layout... please tell me what you think: 1. 36" ref only at the dining end of the long wall (drawing attached) Pros: -close to rangetop, so I dont have to separate my cooking items -close to dining room- for drinks, etc. Cons: -close to dining area, so kiddie stuff, juices, yoghurt, drinks- will be in there, too. Not sure if I like little butts looking in there when I'm trying to get something. OTOH if island is where kids will mostly eat, putting ref drawers with milk, snacks, etc on the short wall makes the problem go away. -No water/ice dispenser from door. We absolutely LOVE the ice/chilled water thru the door with a side-by side ref and freezer. What are our options? Freezer with icemaker? What about chilled water? We're down south, so tap water is not very cool in summer. -Options for freezer: SZ all freezer columns may too much freezer for us. Min is 27" W. Thermador has 18". How would it look to have a SZ ref and a thermador freezer. They would be far from each other- actually, diagonally opposite corners of the room. Could I hide the freezer behind panelling? Combination ref/freezer drawers may be too little, if that 1 drawer is the only freezer we have in the entire house. -Symmetry issue: Nothing on the other end of the wall to balance out the SS chunk of ref... how about a tall cabinet with appliance garage? It will not be SS but at least tall. Option 2. 36" ref only at the pantry end, like lavender suggested, but alas, this wont work... I like it, too. Option 3. Option 3. 36" or 42" ref/freezer side-by-side at bottom wall (like in original plan) with ref drawers near the rangetop, maybe in the island. Pros: -ice and water thru the door Cons: -separation of cooking items into frequently used vs not-so-frequently used. -Kiddie stuff: will have to go into the main ref, which i dont prefer. Mommy ends up with the drawers, little ones end up with the big fridge. Not fair ;) Hmm, pretty darn confusing! What do you say? And really sorry about the novel!

Red Lover - You are my hero! I think this is the perfect solution to my problem. I have several emails out to granite fabricators but have not heard from anyone. I had thought about trim to fill the gap but thought we might have to fabricate ourselves. Thank you for responding so quickly. I knew I could count on my friends at GardenWeb!

Thank you all for great info! Wolf's cold spots in the middle is a little bummer. I wouldn't expect this kind of design on 5 way bridge cooktop. The elements suppose to be made by French company Jaeger Hiflux. Their Crescendo model is quite different from what I have ever seen in induction cooktops. Check this out.. http://www.jaeger-sas.com/#!induction-en/cl7w Anyway since Wolf has no flex in bridge mode then we might take another look into 36" GE Cafe model which was #3 on our list. It has only one no flex bridge mode, but it's much cheaper than Wolf or Miele. That model has many positive reviews including #1 on CR rating (99 out of 100). On both GE & Wolf we like simple, clean interface. GE is better with 17 vs 10 levels on Wolf. On GE minus side is power sharing (not quite sure how much problem is that in real use) and only 1 year warranty vs 3 year on Wolf. However much bigger problem on GE Cafe is SS color. My DH says that specific color is clashing with our choice of Silestone Kensho countertop (light gray). I don't see it as bad but we might loose it on that argument. No question the decision between Miele vs Wolf vs GE Cafe is giving us more headaches than any other appliance.

Than you all for the comments and feedback so far! Some responses of my own: 1. Agreed, drop the peninsula near the diningroom. That is going away. 2. I know seating on both sides of the peninsula is somewhat limiting, but that's imporant to me because I love being able to have a cup of coffee in the morning and sit and look directly into my beautiful sunroom and watch tv. Having an eat-in kitchen separate from dining room has always been important to be because friends and family always hang there. 3. Agreed on doing some counterspace on the fridge side! 4. Agreed that dishwasher should not be on the same side of sink as the range. Some questions: 1. It seems my kitchen proportion wise can handle the 36" range? The pic with the dining peninsula has the 36" range for scale (first one has 30" range). 2. Do I need a second oven or convection/microwave combo? I currently have a 30" cooktop and double wall ovens (27" I believe) on the fridge wall, but I NEVER use them. I just hate the feeling that I'm "losing" something and I worry about resale value. If I do get a second oven, it would likely have to go on the fridge wall (as seen in one of the pics, and that might mean losing that open counterspace (because the full pantry is on other side of fridge and that is a must). I'm thinking maybe just full 36" range and then a good microwave hidden in the pantry maybe. Other potential option is a convection/micro combo beneath the counterspace, but then it's not super easy to use (should be eye level or close to it).