For sure, don't waste your money on new counters with that burn hazard in the middle of the kitchen and those old cabinets. Save your money until you can get a better and safer layout to lock under expensive rock.

Is this a new to you home? I ask because you mentioned an inspection so thought perhaps this is a home you just purchased. If that is the case, then do take some time to evaluate how the kitchen works for you. A cooktop in an island - especially one as small as yours with the potential to have cooking food splatter onto the floor or someone walking by - is considered the least desirable placement for a cooktop. If it is possible to move it to a perimeter spot and maintain a good work triangle, that would be best. You also will need time to assess the durability and finish on the cabinets. Many people paint their cabinets to help sell the home, and often the job is substandard. It can take several months to a year for a poor paint job to reveal itself. However, the cabinets may prove to be in fine shape.

If you must keep the cooktop in the island, getting a smaller one makes sense. I don't know about the under counter components.

That antique safety hazard is an integrated downdraft. The downdraft and cooker are the same unit, on the same circuit, joined together You replace one, you replace it all. You do not have room in that poor skinny little thing for a separate pop up downdraft and separate cooktop. It has to be a useless integrated unit, exactly like what is there. Or, do an overhead vent. Which would be a better choice, as heat, odors, grease, steam, and smoke, all naturally rise and are not ever captured at all well by any downdraft system.

In a year's time, you will regret this expenditure and will want to do something else. I only hope that it is because you are so extremely frustrated with the downdraft and not because someone has ended up in the hospital burn ward..

Wow. Harshly delivered advice. If it makes you feel better, Lori, we've had an electric stove on a narrow island with a separate downdraft and no one has died, been burned, nor have we burned the house down. We are replacing it with a 30" induction cooktop and with a separate downdraft. The oven goes against and opposite wall down a ways and we're not putting the cooktop against the wall because it's puts all the appliances in one row and we don't like that. My mom said by the time we sell the house, the buyer will want something different anyway. Go with what works for you.

There is no 30” induction cooktop with integrated downdraft. There is a 36” Jennair, but it’s 7K. Two separate units of a cooktop and a pop up downdraft will not fit in a standard 24” cabinet.

Separate downdraft for us then. And you're right. Her center island appears to be too shallow to do what she is hoping. I wonder what she did!

Thanks for updating us!! Is that electric? Looks good!

What exact stove top did you end up going with? Looks beautiful!