Like at least one of the posters above, my single sink gets used for prepping veggies and other food in conjunction with the adjacent counter spaces, along with dishes. I live in a rural area, and on work days, a certain percentage of my daylight hours are at the kitchen sink where I can watch a range of wildlife and can enjoy the adjacent garden and the various birds it attracts. In my 60+ years, I have not ever lived in a house without a large window (double or triple width) over the kitchen sink, even in some very modest dwellings. I can’t imagine not having the joy of a view when I am cleaning veggies and prepping food. It might be enough to make me stop cooking! (And I am someone who cooks almost all our meals from scratch.). For me it has much of the calming sense of being outdoors without having to actually deal with ticks, mosquitos, or cold winter winds. Perhaps it’s a function of how one uses the sink and how much time that involves as well as what alternatives there are to look at such as kids playing across the room or a TV.

Dear Typeandrun, You are making the same mistakes, everyone makes, that ends up with a new kitchen everyone else loves, but one that just doesn’t work for you for as long as you’re in this home. You have and continue to do a tremendous amount of work to get, well nowhere. Nowhere close to where you want to end up. You have 2 sets of plans, interior elevations, and perspectives and god only knows how many hours wasted chasing your tail. Your answer to your kitchen design dilemma is so Obvious you don’t see it. Almost everyone forgets the BASICS! The so obvious stuff that will Never occur to you until AFTER your new kitchen is done and you’re moving into it. Moving In is the time when You ‘ll Realize all of the Mistakes you’ve made. They were Always there you just didn’t see them. At this point you will have no choice but to ADAPT to what you got and make do. I know this is NOT what you want to have happen to you! The Obvious Stuff You have a kitchen that doesn’t work for you. You know what the performance benefits are and the performance problems are esthetically and functionally. So you know what benefits you’d like to keep and what problems you need to resolve, fix, or eliminate to get to the world’s perfect kitchen for you and the space you have to work with. That said, Why didn’t you start there with your existing kitchen layout? Did you assume, like everyone else that takes on a new kitchen project, that if you design a new kitchen to replace your old one that all of your kitchen benefits would reproduce themselves, and all of your kitchen problems would resolve themselves? You didn’t think about this and it will never occur to you. If you dig below the surface of what you wrote that’s what you’re asking. Is your new kitchen going to be, in the entire world, the perfect kitchen for you to spend the rest of Your Life Living In for as long as you’re in this home? It is the right question. I don’t know the answer and you don’t either yet, because you are filled with Doubt and Uncertainty. Why? Because you are staring the design of your new kitchen journey at the END, and Not at the Beginning. You’re trying to justify the layout you’ve come up with, because you’ve Started at the END and There is no place else to go. Then after you get some feedback you post another. So you struggle because deep down you don’t know if you’re doing this right. Working on the same layout trying to make it perfect is chasing your tail, you’re going in circles making very little forward progress. Trying a second just makes you more confused and overwhelmed. You begin any journey by knowing exactly where you are, deciding where you want to be, and then getting directions. Getting from your existing kitchen to the kitchen your truly want and expect to be living in AFTER you’re done is No Different. Your Kitchen Design Dilemma is Easy to fix but you’re going to have to start from the beginning. 1. Using your existing kitchen layout analyze it and make two lists, performance benefits you want to keep, and performance problems you want to resolve. Now you know without doubt what you need to do to get from the layout that you know from personal experience doesn’t work for you to one that does AFTER you have created it. 2. Using your entire first floor plan draw in your existing kitchen layout. Get trace paper and a pencil and rearrange your appliances and cabinetry so that you create every unique combination possible. You should have at least 5 different new kitchen layouts. You want to do exhaustive space planning so you can see every new kitchen option possible. Almost No One Does This! The layout you have existing is One, the layout you posted is Two, the second layout you posted is Three...and so on. Keep going AFTER you’re ready to quit until you have exhausted every new kitchen possibility. Draft them all up to scale and by direct comparison and process of elimination you will discover your perfect plan. Eliminating your doubt because you have seen and compared every working new kitchen layout option. You can get DIY Help space planning by using this link. https://www.kitchendesignco.com/diy-kitchen-layout-help/ 3. With the perfect plan interior elevations and perspectives are easy. Once they are done locate all of your kitchen items. So you know you have the right cabinetry configurations and accessories to store and get all of your items efficiently and easily. So your new kitchen will work intuitively. You can get DIY Help locating your kitchen items by using this link. https://www.kitchendesignco.com/new-kitchen-doesnt-work/ Final Note You are NEVER going to redo this kitchen for as long as you’re in this home. I believe you can get a much better layout, and a much better kitchen, dining room, home connection, if you invest your time in space planning. So you can have your existing kitchen Evolve into the kitchen you really want and expect to get to live in. Don’t get hung up on the wall locations, or the openings, or room names. You are Playing on paper, brainstorming to discover EVERY Unique New Kitchen Possibility. Don’t get hung up on what you Think you Can and Can’t do. It’s only paper not construction so don’t be AFRAID to make mistakes. That’s How We All Learn. To get to your perfect plan you need to Finally run out of mistakes and what doesn’t work, so you can discover what does. Hope this has been helpful. Joe Brandao Kitchen Design Company

Please trust me when I say that I am looking at and considering all suggestions. I welcome any and all advice. As for symmetry, I gave that up a long time ago. I only wanted the same amount of space on either side of the range hood because of the floating shelves I am putting up and I thought the corner would look odd with it being bare. As for the movement of the fridge, I haven't fully decided on that. I am just having a hard time with moving a fridge that close to the patio door, where it opens up into an island, and will stick out 4-6" more than the oven cabinet into the aisle. We have looked at a large fridge panel for 14 years just on the other side of the kitchen (on the wall that has no cabinets in our drawing). I was trying to avoid this because it has always driven me crazy. Even though it would be a "counter depth" fridge/freezer, it still sticks out quite a bit. I maybe should have given this information from the start, but we are not doing a full gut. We do not want to get into making changes to windows or doors. The vent on the floor at the end of the sink run can definitely be moved, right now it is actually parallel to the wall but it will have to be moved perpendicular as the drawing stands now. The fridge and sink are actually moving closer to each other than they are now. I have never once given this a second thought. It has never bothered me. The fridge will be 4 steps away from the sink (and I'm 5'2" with short legs) As for having to get things for grilling from the fridge, I am happier that the dishes, and utensils are closer to the patio door. There is also room to get by if someone is at the stove top, we have tested this out. Having said all that, I am going to do a second plan today with the suggestions of switching the 2 (fridge/oven) and see how it would look and if it makes more sense for us. Wilson853, thank you for the picture. That IS very similar to our layout and I love it. I will be adding uppers on that wall in the new drawing to take a look. I can't believe I have lived in a dysfunctional kitchen for this long. When I think of the reasons we are doing this reno, changing the flow of moving around the kitchen hasn't entered my mind. One because it is not a huge kitchen and two, because it has never bothered me in the past. My must have changes were: -white cabinets and light quartz counter tops -going from a peninsula to an island -having as many drawers as possible and only drawers in our lower cabinets -not having uppers if possible -a spot to hide our appliances (without using a traditional appliance garage-not a fan) -sink moved to under the window -hopefully having the oven and microwave in a cabinet -2 pendant lights over the island -potlights at the sink, above the 2 sets of shelves on either side of the hood and one in front of the tall pantry cabinet I am willing to make some sacrifices if it makes sense for how our family uses the kitchen on a daily basis. Thanks again for your suggestions.

It's the Read Me thread -- what could possibly be triggering your filters? Perhaps if you tell me, I could edit it to remove whatever is triggering the filter -- assuming it makes sense to and does not make the thread unusable. Your Development Team should know what the various triggers are. This has actually happened on several different threads, not just the Read Me thread.