Hire a really good kitchen designer and contractor. Youre going to need a lot of smart help for that really expensive and difficult to integrate choice.

Thanks for that comment Verbo. When we bought the house we had a prominent masonary stove person come give us a retrofit price, it was beyond our price range. In the intervening years, friends have a Tulikivi stove. The experienced masonary stove builders in the surrounding areas have retired, so when I found a dealer an hour and ten minutes away I asked for his prices. Do you have any advice on questions to ask a kitchen designer for this kind of integrated job?

Always wanted a Tulikivi - fabulous stove. Please remember to have an engineer "pass" the flooring support. Lucky you.

Thanks chiflipper---we have a TUlikivi specialist and a builder, but will also now get an engineer into the planning stages. Thanks for the suggestion.

How can we help you have a specailist that is who needs to help you.

Patricia thanks for your comments, I don't have a kitchen designer or as structural engineer to approve this idea. I'm thinking of having the stove be the divider to the living area, it's a small ranch house, so not much room anywhere. I'm hoping to have the island be in the left and front of the stove. I want it to be both a prep sink with seating island. I appreciate any assistance of help. I've got Silver's Kitchen Design with cooking in Mind, book. I've worked in professional kitchens and want the dishwasher raised, and then have the clean-up sink and counter area be made of stainless steel for clean up. Any advice is welcome.

Pictures and a floor plan might help everyone to help you.....

Thanks, Debra. I'm working on a floor plan and will be adding to pictures after tomorrow's meeting with our trusted builder.

A hot stove in the middle of a room as a divider is not the most safe and functional of ideas. Yeah, people do that. People with large spaces that can afford the empty space all the way around them that they require.

You really need that kitchen designer. Start with basic, safe, code approved, space planning, for the elephant.

Thanks for that advice, Verbo. I know that tulikivi has a safe shield option that would cut down on some of those empty space requirements. Do you happen to know of a kitchen designer who's worked with a retrofit? Thanks for the comments, tis a long held dream elephant with a 37" by 27" depth that's 5' 5" in height, according to their catalog ;-)

Send me a message. I know a couple that may be able to help.

Thanks for any assistance, Verbo I sent you a message.

@3 Peaks Renovations - Thank you for sharing your expertise, it's much appreciated!

Dear 3 Peaks Renovations and chiflipper, I can see others are thinking about this issue too. We have 8 foot tall ceilings in our living room and kitchen. So, that's why I'm looking at the classic 2000/93 and the modern 2000/94 both at 5 ' 6" tall. I need the rear facing bake oven as we often have powe outages. I will let our builder know about your ideas, thanks so much!

Sorry for the first attempt, this is from sketch up. the kitchen dimensions are 15' 9'' long and 9'8" wide(north) but only 9' 4" wide(south). All the square boxes are doors, except the one on the red axis which is our 52" by 24" closet that contains the stove pipe for our current soapstone stove that has one year left of life. There is 7' 9" on both the north blue axis wall and the south wall both with one outlet at 41" high. the window is 40 " wide with moldings. The 33" wide door on the white wall leads to a raised walkout deck. The dark square outside the line is the south end entry 31" door with an additional 7 "space to the corner. Yes the kitchen has 4 openings--north wall 46", south wall 31", east wall 33" door and the west wall has a 46" opening, just before the closet. I forgot the wall on the red axis from the blue axis to the closet! Any advice appreciated.

Here’s the updated floor plan. I learned by doing this 3 times, neither kitchen opening is in line with the opposing wall. Also the drawing of the rear stove pipe is inaccurate: in reality it’s in the center of the rear of the (22” by 29”)stove.

I'm striking out trying to find a kitchen designer in my area. Only people willing to offer assistance are custom cabinet people. :-) I'm having a hard time visualizing where my baking center should go, it's going to be a dresser type cabinet for ingredients with a wall mounted baker's rack above. Any suggestions? Thanks for all your comments so far. I want all the baking and hot pans above counter height as we will add some rescued Newfies( dogs) to our household. I don't want burnt noses in case we get some countersurfing food motivated Newfies!

Re the Newfies - most countersurfing can be avoided by consistent correcting. Establish the "no entry beyond this point" and firmly enforce it. As a servant to two Irish Wolfhounds I speak from experience.

Thanks for the comment. l understand about being a fur parent/servant. 😉 Since this kitchen remodel will leave us with a more open concept living space, it might be hard to enforce the ” no entry beyond this point”, in the past we used special 6 feet long dog gates to close off rooms. Anyone have creative solutions, for open concept and pets?

My dog isn't allowed in the kitchen cooking or prepping area, but he loves to watch what I do. He uses a stair landing to "watch over" or lays on the floor in the middle of everything (open concept mostly). Can you position the dog beds in a way that they can see you?

I am trying to be proactive, since this will be the smallest space I’ve ever had Newfies in. We live in a one floor ranch house with a walk-out basement. The dogs will have a fenced backyard, and ramps to come in and out of the attached breezeway. Newfies like cold and wet places, so l’m trying for a kitchen that’s washable and easy to mop.

I’m thinking about the stove and range hood placement, l have a 30” electric coil oven, do l need a 42” range hood for an external wall?

Thanks for any suggestions on a kitchen designer for online consulting. Many thanks,

Sarah