We are renovating a center-hall colonial (built 1920) including the existing gally kitchen. We are keeping it gally style and can't seem to figure out how to place all the appliances that we want.

Here is a description of what is going on:

Left side: this side houses the window and the kitchen sink below it. There will be cabinets on either side on top and the lower cabinets will house the garbage pull-out, dishwasher and some base cabinets. At the end of this run, there will be a built in 36" refrigerator which buts up against the bathroom door.

right side: this side will contain the 30" gas cooktop (maybe 36") in the center (opposide the window and sink) with a custom wood hood and some pot drawer underneath. On the right side and left will be upper and lower cabinets. to the end of the right side (almost opposite the refrigerator but not exactly since the left side is a bit longer than the right side), we will install a single 30" wall oven with cabinets above and below.

Mud room: This will be an extention of the kitchen. It will be opposite the bathroom door. There is one wall that can hold cabinets. We will be putting glass cabinets on the upper part (to hold our glassware) and the lower cabinets will be mainly for storage. There will be a cut out in the center looking out into the breakfast nook.

The issue for today:

1- microwave. We rarely cook with the microwave but its a necessity since we have a small child and often heat up her food/milk in it. We would like to avoid a countertop unit (since we have limited counter space as it is). We also don't want to mount it to the bottom of the upper cabinets because we are looking for a clean streamlined look. The only options we could think of is

a) putting the microwave under the wall oven. While this seems like the best option, i'm not sure how convenient it would be. Our single wall oven is going to be placed at eye (?) level -- basically, once the door is open, it will be flush to the countertop (our kitchen designer said this would look best). Putting the microwave underneath is might be too low. I would like to avoid having my daughter play with those tempting buttons and melting a few of her toys in there! Also, that might be uncomfortably low in putting food/liquids in there.

b) putting the microwave under the wall oven but installing a drawer microwave which is easier to load/unload. Our issue with this is that i've been reading mixed reviews of those units (repair issues). Also, the fronts of those units tend to be rounded or have bumpouts and might look funny under the streamlined flat look of the wall oven. I always figured we would match the microwave and wall oven for a clean look

c) putting the microwave above the wall oven and lowering the wall oven. I'm not sure how convenient this would be in using either unit. Will the microwave still be too high? Also, would we have to put the wall oven much lower (which kind of defeats the point in my opinion).

d) installing the microwave in the mudroom -- granted its still very close to the kitchen but it might be a bit too far away. Plus, I never envisioned that area to have anything to do with cooking -- more storage.

I don't know. We have a whole house to remodel in record time and I feel like we are getting stuck on the smallest of details. Unfortunately, I don't have the time I would love to dedicate to design this kitchen so I would appreciate any and all advice on the microwave and anything else that might seem "off". Thank you!