Hi, ok, 3 years later, I see your post - it's probably too late - but here's my 2 cents. I'm skipping reading the rest of the post, I just saw your question. I have a third of an acre, and have replaced most of the grass that was there when I got it with either perennial beds or ground cover. The two types I use most for sun or part sun are herniaria glabra and mazus reptans. Here's what I know from personal experience about each: - If you want to avoid bees, the mazus does bloom. It blooms a big flush in spring and then sporadically throughout the summer, and then a little increase again when the weather cools. I have not noticed bees on it, but that doesn't mean there aren't any. I have noticed an occasional butterfly, even big ones like black swallowtails. - If it's alongside of a lawn, I've read that it will invade the lawn. So that would be a consideration with regards to neighbors. - The main reason I love mazus so much is it chokes out every single solitary weed, and that almost immediately. Truly awesome! :-) - Another nice thing is that it does not spread by seed, so you aren't always pulling seedlings of it out of you beds. - In winter, up here, it goes to a dark bronze but you're much further south so I'm sure yours would be a greener color. Herniaria glabra is the bomb: - It does not choke out every single solitary weed immediately like mazus does. But in time, it will keep the weeks to a minimum. - It does not grow as fast as mazus, but still spreads at a good clip. It's so gorgeous year round. - Visually, it's stunning. I'm in zone 7a, washington dc area, and it is the same gorgeous emerald green in the dead of winter as it is in summer. Way greener than stupid turfgrass! :-) - It lays nice and flat, and feels absolutely glorious under your bare feet. As for foot traffic, I have it planted between my edible garden beds and stomp on it all the time, no problem. It's very tough. Probably if you played football on it you'd tear some out, but even then, pretty tough. - It blooms tiny green flowers that are too insignificant to see, and I've never seen bees or butterflies nectaring off them. - It's very drought tolerant and can handle afternoon sun just fine. It can also handle a lot of water. It will not do as well in shade or part shade as mazus will. - It won't invade an adjacent lawn. I also have portions of my lot covered in creeping thyme. Yes it does bloom, but what I don't like about the bloom is after it's done, it looks ratty for a long time until the flowers finally rot and fall off. One year I mowed it close to get rid of that, and then I said to myself "this is for the birds". Another thing is that creeping thyme will get woody in time, and can't tolerate too much wet. Much pickier than mazus or herniaria.

There are likely always to be a lot of compromises. A goal of our house was passivehaus or near passivehaus. One issue we ran in to is that with US construction methods (wood vs EU's cement) the difference in standard construction and about 90% passivehaus is somewhat affordable. That last 10% is really expensive and you really can't come close to justifying it from a monetary standpoint with paybacks out 100 years. Exhausting appliances was another issue. Our energy consultant is very big on condensing dryers and recirculating range hoods and similar. We've had condensing dryers in in Europe. My wife hates them. Europeans hate them (though more good natured than my wife). We're to have proper dryers that "dry in less than a day per load". This is a modern convenience that she was not willing to give in on. As for the recirc range hood the solution from energy folks is induction and "just don't cook things that create grease or offensive smells". Neither are appealing options. We've used induction and don't like the way it cooks, how differently pans heat up, don't like being limited in pans, and don't like not being able to use any electronic thermometers like Thermopens. We have induction in Florida and make out OK for a couple of months per year but are always glad to be back to our gas range. We also don't want to be limited in what we cook. If the deal was to give up Wok cooking or something that'd be OK but everything that's greasy or has offensive smells? Not gonna happen. We'll have a good fully exhausting range hood. She also wants for our bathroom and two guest baths that condensation clear, mirrors not fog and hair not do whatever undesired things hair does in high condensation environments. Condensing bath fans are quite expensive to buy and operate. Much cheaper to exhaust the air and bring in replacement air via MUA. BTW, we currently have two MUA's with 10Kw heaters in them. These both feed in to the return duct at the furnace. The MUA's are set to heat the air to 44°f which is what the furnace mfr recommends as minimum. We've not had any comfort problems with this setup in summer or winter.

I'd use Cpartist sketch this way: Refrigerator where the oven is, near dining and near pantry door. Keep cleanup area / main sink at exterior wall, just the way you had it (which is the "natural" location Stove where sink is, at refrigerator wall. You will have the triangle considering that the prep area is at the island and you have a sink there. I do know that the stove, the way cpartist placed it, will look great... but I could not stand the sink at a wall. Below is why I will respectfully disagree with Naf_Naf and also the OP's original kitchen idea. The Red arrows is taking food out of the fridge and bringing it to the prep sink to rinse and prepare. The Blue arrow is taking it from the sink to the prep space. The Green arrow is taking it from the prep space to the cooktop. The yellow arrow is taking dirty plates from the table to the cleanup area. OP's idea: Positives: Prep sink is right across from cooktop. Oven is near stove and prep sink Negatives: Very little prep space unless you want to prep over the dishwasher, which might mean opening and closing the dishwasher and moving out of the way multiple times. Cleanup sink is far from table. Fridge if far from prep sink and island is a barrier between fridge and prep sink. Naf_Naf's idea: Positives: Clean up sink is in window area Fridge is on corner of kitchen so close to dining area Good secondary prep zone between cleanup sink and cooktop. Negatives: Fridge is awkward to prep sink and island acts as a barrier to prep sink. Very little prep space unless you want to prep over the dishwasher, which might mean opening and closing the dishwasher and moving out of the way multiple times. Crossing zones to get from prep area to cooktop. Cleanup sink is far from table. Cpartist's idea: Positives: Fridge is near prep sink. Prep sink is near cooktop. Table is direct path to cleanup sink. Good secondary prep zone between cleanup sink and cooktop. Negatives: Very little prep space unless you want to prep over the dishwasher, which might mean opening and closing the dishwasher and moving out of the way multiple times I didn't do Mama's idea because it would basically work the same way as my idea. In all cases I would find a way to either eliminate the dishwasher on the island or figure out a way to switch it so you can prep and have the dishwasher open without having to get out of the way.

So you think I should just keep the peninsula layout? I was hoping to get an island instead, since the peninsula blocks traffic from table to sink and stove. And also the counterspace and cabinets in that corner are so hard to reach. It feels really inefficient to me... Also hoping for some landing space near fridge, which currently has none... so not sure if that wall is best spot for it, especially if oven goes over there now too. Thoughts on this? Agree about the fire hazard stove/oven layout. And yes, it is a tall wood cabinet with less than 1” to stovetop. And also hoping to move stove to exterior wall (where grill is now) to allow for gas to be more easily installed and for an outdoor vent fan, since I don’t think the recirculating one we have now does anything for cooking odors. We are definitely getting rid of the wine fridge and also the grill, since we have never used these items. The undercounter microwave is an option I guess, but we found that annoying/awkward in a vacation home we used. I’m hoping to get a smaller one that could be placed above an appliance garage to keep it close to eye level If possible. Do you think the proposed floor plan I posted closer to the top of this thread is an improvement? Any suggestions on that one?