Jillius* You are amazing - you are coming up with some great options to consider: - I'm overstating here, but there's a little knot in my stomach about giving up the built in cabinet of the family room and the pantry. I have a lot of stuff for entertaining in the built in and I'm a bit of a over-buyer for pantry staples. The knot could actually be that I'm hungry because I didn't have time for lunch today. =) There is probably plenty of space in this galley layout but I would have to map it out. - The flow to get to the deck requires a long walk around the longer half wall. One of my original goals was to move the entrance to the family room north so there was more of a direct line to the sliding door to the deck. This moves the path to the sliding door even further. Sorry - I was holding out on this goal and that isn't fair! - The 30 inch counters will give my plenty of prep space, but a galley layout (is that what you would say the option w/the prep area to the south would be called?) seems to serve the purpose of a functional kitchen and pass through space versus a center of our main level. - Giving up the kitchen table, could be the problem my existing kitchen table - it is probably too big for the space (42x60 oval) - by the time you add chairs and keep it away from the wall for the 4th seat, it is "in the way". If I downsize to a more appropriate size then it just feels like an afterthought or a dinky table just to have one that is permanently part of the landscape. If island seating doesn't work out, I'd rather give up seating in the kitchen and just have all meals in the dining room. A coworker sent me this link today, maybe this is a design option: Pull out tables - 4 foot bump out - I'll attach some photos in the next post, but basically, the aesthetics of the backyard - both a hypothetical wall closing off part of the deck and a ceiling above the patio with a pillar of some sort means the look & feel of the backyard will be just different and maybe not look "natural" - instead we have this bolt-on part of the house that looks funky. Jenn *I accidentally referred to you as "Amanda" in the last response - I got confused with Huango. Sorry about that.

If you read some of the comments a lot actually fits. I realized I can put all of my plates and bowls in one middle drawer of a 24" 4 drawer stack and most of the serving pieces in the bottom. That allows me to not have to stack small plates on top of big plates and not waste all the "air" that would be above the dishes if not stacked in a three stack. I am basically storing the same things I planned to put there AND got an extra drawer. I would agree that most people need some 3 drawer stacks for bigger things (pots and pans), but after reading this thread and going around my kitchen actually putting bigger things in my one 4 drawer stack I realized how efficient they really are! I hadn't planned on having any but now I am making at least 3 of my drawer stacks 4 drawer. I will keep the two biggest (36") as a 3 stack and maybe do drawer in drawer on one or two of those drawers.

Great topic crl_ ! I spent a couple years figuring out what I wanted in my new kitchen. I had a pretty good kitchen before my reno, but there were definitely improvements to be made. My best changes: Drawers! Love lifting dinnerware up from drawer rather than down from upper cabinet. Love having my coffee cups in drawer immediately below coffee machine. Love not having to crawl around on the floor to access whatever is at the bottom and back of a cabinet. Induction! Probably the best surprise of my new kitchen, for all the same reasons listed above. Wall ovens! I don't know if I love my ovens because they are at the perfect height for me, or because I finally splurged on good equipment. Probably a combination of the two. I can tell you that my waist line is paying the price though! Big single sink. There's lots of discussion here about this. I grew up with double sinks, thought I'd probably get a low divide (best of both worlds, right?) but bit the bullet and got the single. It was, for me, the right decision.

I have thought about making it movable instead of permanently fixed already and may do that regardless. Actually, the space itself overall is really roomy, but since both the laundry closet and the garage door happen to be in the kitchen, flow issues limit potential placement options. The space is best suited for adding a peninsula, but I would have to completely redo the cabinets to get that to work. This is low budget work so that wasn't an option and I'm too far along in the project to go that way at this point anyway. Adding the island is sort of an afterthought. I had originally decided against it because of the the limited placement options from traffic flow. I could just go with using a 30 inch and a 15 inch cabinet together. Not as much visual symmetry as 2 24 inch, but it would solve any overhang issue. Since I painted the existing cabinets, I am going to use cheap 2nd hand cabinets or unfinished big box cabinets and paint to match with the paint I have left over. The lazy part of me was just intrigued about how much easier the job would be to just put a top on a single large cabinet and then still having room for a chair to tuck under the counter (and it's cheaper). I think the seat would primarily be used for work rather than any particular meals, although my family members eat solo enough where it could happen.