Hello fabulous people of Houzz!! My partner and I just got our offer accepted on a 1985 ranch home in Scottsdale, AZ (it's our time buying together after renting together for 10 years). Anyways, the bones of the house are absolutely perfect for us, but we bought it knowing we'd want to heavily refresh/renovate the kitchen. It feels like we are hitting a brick wall and cannot figure out the best way to layout the appliances and what trade offs are worth it, so keeping my fingers and toes crossed for some great perspectives here.

More about the project:

• 1980s home so it has the kitchen/family room combo with living room/dining room on the other side of the wall (pics included)
• kitchen/family room is about 18' x 20'
• we want to keep the spaces separated (we've seen similar layouts blow out all the walls, but after living in apartments with super open plans, we are looking forward to divided space 🤣). We will be redoing floors and painting cabinets.

What we're considering:
Option 1: move all appliances to the back wall, replace the built in-oven/micro with a stove + a hood/exhaust above it, install a pocket cabinet besides fridge so it can full open, microwave drawer in the opposite cabinets, paint cabinets

Option 2: update appliances but keep flow as is. Have an exhaust hang over stove top [personally, I don't love the hanging exhausts because it cuts line of sight and I feel like the space isn't big enough).

Option 3: on the "island," build a partial wall that comes out just enough to have the stove and hood/exhaust there with some counters, replace built in oven with more cabinets [this sounds good in thought but nervous it'll make it feel really closed in/small]

Option 4: tear out the "island" and create an actual island. Have the fridge on the separating wall, make the corner where fridge was into a coffee bar area, replace built in oven with standalone stove/oven with exhaust, microwave in it