As you use your kitchen over the next several days make mental notes about how often you use the fridge for various purposes. Do you open it a lot during food prep.? How many items do you take out of it during prep? How often do you open it during non-prep times--i.e. breakfast, snacks, sandwich making, beverages? How many items go straight from fridge to table and back again? I don't use my fridge during prep as often as I thought. If I'm making a salad, I go over and grab all the salad ingredients at once. When I'm making a meal I have a pretty good idea about what I'm going to be using and I try to cut my trips down by taking several things out at once. Most of the items I improvise with (seasonings, oils, etc.) aren't refrigerated and are stored in the cooking/prep zone. Sometimes I have to walk to it for butter or milk or eggs, but not as often as I thought. I prefer to have our fridge near the table and out of the prep zone. It's accessible for non cooking/prepping activities all day long--which is how it is most heavily used. To me, keeping others out of my cooking/prep zone is worth the trade off of not having the fridge right at my fingertips. We tend to use a lot of items from the fridge while we are eating. Having the fridge close by makes meal times a lot more relaxing and setting and clearing the table becomes less of a chore. Our plates and silverware are near the table so others can set the table and get items out of the fridge without crossing paths with me. Also, I wanted to maximize window space in our prep area and there wasn't a good spot for the fridge. I like having lots of storage in my cooking/prep area for the tools I use. This is more important to me than having fridge drawers (plus I prefer to keep things simple-one less appliance to clean and maintain and no hassle trying to find something to fit the same space when it needs to be replaced.) The fridge is placed between the kitchen and dining area. It's not terribly far from my prep area--it's a straight shot to get to it, no islands or peninsulas to walk around.

gsmama...your 4-year old will be a pre-teen & then teen b/f you know it...and that means a full-depth overhang will be needed. I recommend you increase your overhang to 15", at least. My DH & DS wish we had at least 18"...if I ever do this again, I will have an 18" overhang. Even my knees touch the back of the peninsula when seated...and I have a 15" overhang...I'm only 5'10". If you're scrimping on overhang b/c you don't have enough aisle space behind the island/peninsula, then realize that it won't help when someone is sitting there...they will still stick out into the aisle the same as if there was a 15-inch overhang...they'll just have to lean farther to reach the counter. The human body can be "squeezed in" only so much and besides, most people won't squeeze their bodies just to accommodate your aisle...so you will still have to ask them to move to get by (or try to squeeze by yourself). FYI...as we age, counter-height and especially bar-height seating becomes more uncomfortable. Neither my parents nor my in-laws like sitting at our counter-height peninsula...they always choose to sit at the DR table rather than the peninsula (our DR is open to the kitchen). My mother tried it once and really disliked it (she had to put a box down so her feet didn't dangle and her legs could be in the correct seating position/angle.) She's never sat there again... I've even noticed that I'm beginning to prefer the table as well lately...

9" sounds better--I misunderstood the measurement of the island depth on the last plan you'd posted. There are many pics of cooktops under windows (I linked some above), and a few GW members have done the same. Angie_diy and cotehele are two that I recall. You might do a search, and message them to find out how they feel about the issue. If it gives you a better layout, I think it would be fine, and although glass shows spatters, it is durable--more durable than my bead-board backsplash. I would assume that any solid surface behind the hood would help contain the steam and grease plume better than the open cooktop first considered. Where would that grease have gone? I've never had a cooktop under a window, though, so I can't add any first-hand experience. One GW discussion/pros and cons cotehele (and a few others) weighed in on this discussion

Thanks for the reply! I took them out of the wheelbarrow yesterday and spread them out in a single layer on a mesh table in the barn -- it's pretty warm in there. I did cook one today because I noticed it had a hole in it and a bit of mold on the stem, figured that might infect all the others. The skin was hard on this one, so I'm guessing the curing is finished - ? . I'll probably get to trying to store them this weekend, have to figure out the best spot, maybe in the crawl space under the addition, on the shady side of the house. I thought best storage temp is around 50 F - ?. What should I store them in? I don't have any wire baskets, and I'm worried about critters getting at them -- we have mice in the attic, they're probably in the crawl, too. Any other tips/tricks appreciated - this is a learning curve year!