We are totally gutting our kitchen and starting over, because it is horribly laid out, the cabinets are falling apart, and multiple appliances are not working (due to bullet holes left by the previous, foreclosed-upon owners). The house is a custom 4k square feet on one acre in Las Vegas, built in 1997, in the 600K range, so not a "million dollar home," but fancier than most tract homes. We are a large homeschooling family with five children under 8, anticipating more kids in the future. The whole family is active in meal preparation/cleanup (one person clears the table, one person puts away food, one person loads the dishwasher, one person washes at the sink, one person sweeps the floor, etc.).

The kitchen opens out to an empty eating area shown in the drawings (we currently have a large farmhouse table there). Beyond the table, the eating area is open to a 20'x20' living room (not shown in the drawings). We do a lot of homeschooling at the big table.

We plan to remove the two existing islands and replace them with one longer (10'), narrower (39" wide) island to create a galley-type work triangle on the left side of the kitchen. The walkway on the working side of the kitchen will be about 49". The walkway on the right side of the kitchen will be about 42", with bar seating on that side of the island. The 135-degree wall in the back right corner will be pantry space. I'm sorry my pics show open cabinets--I just haven't picked the drawer/door arrangement yet. None of the cabinets will be open.

We will remove the useless soffits, extend cabinets to the ceiling (with about 4" for crown molding), and run the cabinets out as far along the side walls as possible, making use of the currently dead area of "triangle cabinets" and soffit arches.

On the left wall next to the eating area is an area that currently has a desk-type cabinet. We'll raise the desk to counter height, with full-height storage on either side for big trash/recycling cans and broom and floor sweeper, which are used 3x/day (see inspiration photo). The counter-height desk is pretty important as my "command center" for homeschooling at the kitchen table.

We have an ice maker slated for just right of the sink. I'd rather it was at the end of the island across from the fridge, but the contractor says that's too far from the sink water/drain. In a perfect world, I'd put it nearest the eating area on the right side row of cabinets to make a drink station outside of the work triangle, but we don't have a drain there, and I don't like the drainless ice makers.

My question is about the appliance puzzle: fridge, range (or rangetop and wall oven), and microwave. Here are the options I've thought of:

1) 36" pro rangetop as shown, with wall oven and microwave on the 135-degree angled wall. I don't like that oven/microwave cut into my pantry, and that they would have no landing. I also don't like the expense of a built-in microwave (or worse, a micro/oven combo--one breaking affects the other).

2) 36" pro rangetop as shown, with wall oven under counter next to the fridge and microwave in upper cabinet above oven. I would get to keep my full pantry, and I like that both the microwave and oven would have a landing between, but somehow the work triangle feels more cluttered and stuffed.

3) 36" pro range (or 36" cooktop with wall oven below) in location shown, with microwave in upper cabinet next to fridge.

To complicate the puzzle, I want to consider replacing our 36" wide counter-depth fridge with a built-in pair of Frigidaire full fridge and full freezer columns, which would be 60"-66" wide total instead of 36" wide. To keep them where the fridge is drawn currently would eat up a lot of prep space next to the range/rangetop, and would put them right behind the primary island prep space. We have a big and growing family, so the larger fridge space is attractive, but I don't know about a freezer taking up so much real estate. Should I

1) separate the fridge/freezer columns and put the freezer elsewhere in the kitchen?

2) put the fridge column in the kitchen and the freezer in the garage (we will have a separate ice maker in the kitchen),? Or

3) scrap the idea of fridge/freezer columns and stick with the standard 36" fridge/freezer?

(Full disclosure: I posted in GardenWeb also, but have not gotten many responses, so I could really use more input. Thank you for your time!)

Before pictures:

Plans (I used Google Sketchup and Ikea cabinet sizes. Sorry for the rough edges.)

Left side:

Right side (oops, ice maker should be just right of the sink):

Work station:

Here's the inspiration:

Overhead view (oops, this shows the oven in the alternate location, next to the fridge):