Nice to see a G-shaped kitchen on the GW. It's not the most common layout and it's one that may be helpful to people with certain needs. Thanks for posting! I remember when I first read about this kitchen style in a BH&G kitchens publication. It really captured my attention. Ours is also a working kitchen. We're gardeners and DH is a hunter and forager. Our G area has 12 x 16+ but the closet and nook are outside this. No island. Although one goal was for two cooks to work nicely together, the space is a glory for a single cook as well. We do not do quite the same kind of prep & storage & cooking as you but it sounds like you give your kitchen a workout as we do. We put the range at the bottom of the G, the double sink on the long side and the large prep sink on the short side alongside the plunk space from refrig, walkpath to garden and walkpath to dining room. Refrig on the tip of the top of G is close to the dining area and across from the end of the peninsula's plunk space adjacent to prep sink. I'm the one with all the pull-out boards to add work surfaces. One is in "cockpit" chopping station where I do much of my prep, seated on a stool (see photo) and where there is a temp compost receiver adjacent to the cutting board plus the trash pullout below that. Fabulous cutting situation! Another pullout board is wide and serves the baking area but also serves as receiver/launcher of items going to and from oven. This is especially helpful if the entire countertop area between mixer and oven is full of the detritis of battle. Another pullout board serves the microwave area at upperleft corner of G and has a good view of flower garden for morale. One pullout is next to refrig and serves as sandwich, coldcuts, toast, etc. prep area. It is also receiver for items going into and out of refrig. We pile all the returning refrig items onto it after meal, then open the refrig door only once. We have butcherblock either side of range--allows cooling of hot items, knives in a slit on one side of range and 3 canisters of utensils countersunk (pun intended) into area at back of the other butcherblock piece. We don't have to open drawers for knives or common utensils while working nor during put-away. Our entrance from garden is same as yours--lower left in your photo. Our G is flipped from yours but windows appear to be in same place. You might want to cruise our Flickr stuff--after looking at blueprint, go to the newest and ignore the in-process stuff. Not sure if I can give any more ideas but you never know. We also had a door in the hallway alongside the peninsula to deal with. We turned it into a pocket door so that it wouldn't interfere with the walkpath. Our major sink is a Kohler "Brookfield" double sink and our prep sink is a Kohler "Mayfield." Be sure not to stint on the size of your prep sink--a gardener can use it. Plus, if you find it to be too big, just use a dishpan or pot inside it. We've enjoyed splure on wire unit for bottom of prep sink--holds things like lettuces above the sand you wash off of them. Requires bother of removing and stashing it sometimes also, though. This prep sink is big enough for our regular pressure cooker to be wrestled with and definitely holds the blancher. Not sure if it would take the big canner. Here is a link that might be useful: G-shaped gardener's kitchen blueprint--flip upside down to compare

Thanks for all your thoughts! However, I've been researching and talking to a real estate agent, and I found out I was WRONG -- DEAD WRONG -- on something massive: When I went out and looked, I was looking at the wrong lot! Yes, I was being completely and totally STUPID. I have two college degrees, and I was shut down, befuddled, and confused by street signs and a map. My husband also has two college degrees, and ... well, in our defense, none of the lots have "for sale" signs. No, that's not enough: We have no defense. We're only part-time idiots, I promise. So ... the correct information: The above-shown map is correct, but the roads look totally different in person. The lot is actually located on a cul-de-sac; yeah, I know, it doesn't look like a cul-de-sac on the map. Only two lots are placed on the cul-de-sac, and the house that's already built doesn't face the cul-de-sac. The thing is, the cul-de-sac isn't going to STAY a cul-de-sac. The road is going to be extended out towards the aforementioned Town Center (right now it's connected to the neighborhood with a trail, but it'll be a real, driveable road eventually). They're planning more houses between the neighborhood and the Town Center, which I knew; I just didn't know that road would be extended in that spot. That's why the rectangle looks odd: Eventually this rectangle will face the road straight-on. So the lot has plenty of road frontage, but that road frontage is going to change at some point in the future. So ... I don't think I'm interested in buying a lot with a road that will DEFINITELY be changing significantly. I think it's too much risk. And it seems pretty certain that at some point I'd have to do some re-work on the driveway /mailbox. However, there's another lot for sale by owner -- why don't people put up signs? -- slightly larger at 1.5 acres, 30K more money, and backwards (meaning that the back of the house would face North). BUT it has really nice hardwood trees, and it's on the road leading towards the will-be-altered-cul-de-sac. In response to your above comments: - The city owns the triangle in front of the lot -- knowing that this will eventually be a road, it makes sense. This may be why a lovely cul-de-sac lot is available ... but, then, a couple other very nice lots are owned but not built upon yet. - No, having seen the lot personally, that's one of several piles of wood in the corner of the map. Not another house. I had to study it carefully and think back to what I saw to figure it out! - Now that I am looking at the right lot, only one house is next to this empty lot, and it's a comfortable distance away. The other side is empty for now ... but eventually when the road opens up, other houses will be built on the other side. How close? Can't say. Again, this is awfully uncertain. - Yes, we're retiring in about five years, and we're building this house with the intention of living in it the rest of our lives. I do not welcome the idea of building, and -- at some undetermined point in the future -- having to re-do a bunch of stuff. Sounds expensive and problematic. And if the road doesn't follow the anticipated path, which could easily happen, they could end up taking a portion of my lot against my will. I don't think that's likely, but it is possible. - No, no rush exists at all. I'm not hurrying into anything, and I will definitely talk to zoning people -- if I decide to pursue this lot. I'm well aware that the real estate agent has "an agenda", and it isn't to make me happy long-term, so I'm not taking everything he says as gospel truth. - This is a really great neighborhood, but it's not the only game in town. If I heard that someone else bought it (and the other lot I just found out about) this afternoon, I would not be upset -- I'd just figure God didn't want me to have it. I will not be the person who buys an unbuildable lot. - No, I don't really have big concerns about my 45 acres of farmland being near the school. I agree that it means extra traffic, but really only twice a day. And it's not like I'm right next to the school -- they're set back over perhaps 30 acres plus a two-lane road. That's one reason I suspect that IF my husband's fears ever come true and the school annexes someone's farm, it'll be one of those other two, which are closer /more convenient to the school. I'm near but not right on top of the school. Incidentally, the exisiting school is a middle school, so no teenaged drivers; however, our fear is that they might build a SECOND school adjacent, and an elementary school would mean more pick-up parents, and a high school would mean teen-aged drivers -- that's what I really don't want. If my husband suddenly said, "I give up the idea of a city lot, let's stick to the farm", I would be happy. Some things about a city lot are appealing (good places to walk being one of them), but so are some things about the farm (like more privacy). - As for living in the country, I'm well aquainted with it! I grew up in the country -- real country, on a farm. And for the first decade of our marriage, we lived in the country. We really only came to "the city" for the schools we wanted our kids to attend. We want to go back.

I love a two story room with a wall of windows. I designed my current home with ten foot ceilings on the main floor, and I would like them higher. I would have gone two story but couldn’t swing it because I was unable to free up space on the second story due to constraints with stretching out the first floor (creek in the way). I think though that 15 or 16 feet might give you the feel you’re looking for if you made sure to add lots of windows. We custom built one house where the family room had 15 foot ceilings and it totally satisfied my need for a two story. Loved that room....it had floor to ceiling windows. Many say they don’t like tall ceilings due to a lack of coziness and intimacy . Tall ceilings never strike me that way. I LOVE the space and open feeling....especially with lots of windows. What I don’t care for is a two story room with large swaths of sheetrock where windows could have been installed. That, to me is a total waste....tall ceilings need tall windows.

Any advice?