If youre going to spend the money to do a kitchen, might as well do something with that window. Your kitchen can be funky and quirky because it's small. Consider apartment size appliances. Heres a super fast rendering I put together for it

I think microwave above stove should be illegal even though it seems to be a popular configuration lately. Taking hot items down from above is very dangerous even if you are tall, especially if stove is accidentally on as well.

Thanks for that picture. Unfortunately, cannot do anything about that window. Very tricky!

@Natalie Clarke I'll ask why not? The assumption is that there may be some misinformation surrounding it...HOA? Cost?

do you have a picture of the current kitchen? it's easier to see the windows/doors

just get a vent hood cover built to match your cabs. use an insert. that's what I did w/mine

I prefer the look and increased storage capacity of the one with the wall cabinet above the hood.

In terms of the window, we just replaced all of them last year. I do like the light as my house doesn't get much direct sunlight. So I don't think making it smaller is in the cards. I'm in the early stages of getting to plan this out. We are doing a small addition to our front entrance to provide an open entry and closets. It's not in the budget to do another addition so this is the space I have to work with. We know that opening the walls up and having an island will make it feel bigger and give us the counter space we have never had. I just wish I had more room for more upper cabinets! Can't have it all though ...

Also have not looked into having vent hood cover built. I'm adding that to my list of things to research!

I’m 5’ tall and taking hot items out of the microwave above the stove is not a problem.

I've never had a problem with the microwave but I do want to build it into the island as I find at dinner time here we are on top of each other because of it. Someone is always at the stove while someone else uses the microwave.

natalie, check the specs on microwaves first. If you want to use one of those more costly pull out drawer styles, check the rough-in specs.

when I painted my kitchen cabs I modified the drawer under the wall oven. it's low, but I don't use it that often. I was going to put it in the island but built in models require about 24" of space (deep) and I didn't have that much room.

my island drawers used to be open shelves. was going to stick the micro there, but just could make it work w/o really tearing up the wood.

You can see it below the wall oven.

Beth I love that look! I wish I had room to do a built in oven, I would definitely do the microwave there too. I will look at the specs for sure.

I have my microwave on the side of our island (which only holds our cooktop). Just another idea.

If you get narrow cabinets on the side of the range, your spices have a convenient home.