[LWJ]

More thoughts:

I get the computer nook idea. We have that and it is great. On second thought, my peeves are very similar. Our kitchen prior to remodel was way too close for comfort. Annoyed the hell out of me. I can hear similar tones in you. I really like the space you have given yourself for clearance- 42 and 66 inches is great. We have simlar and it is much more comfortable. I don't have any answer about the wok BTU needs but I get it. We went to a Wolf 6 burner gas range. I typically have a tea pot on one burner and have only used 4 in cooking. It is great for having extra real estate to work with. Incidentally, if you do use a 6 burner plus a wok range, you may have to increase capacity of your gas line, as they need to be sized for max possible utilization.

Other thoughts. We have a Vent-a-hood range hood. The guy at BASCO said they were good and I agree. Our last Broan (I think) was as loud as a jet. It did move the air well however.

Work spaces are a big deal. We like to make pizza on Friday dinner and we needed a space to roll the dough. Something that I thought would be cool but the wife shot down was having part of the counter made of wooded cutting board material. I still think it is a good idea as you don't have to fumble with grabbing a cutting board while you are working. We currrently have granite. It is attractive and fairly functional.

Summary: I get what you are trying to do in the kitchen. It makes perfect sense. I think plan #1 addresses most of your needs with the exception of a wok range. The only consideration that I see is will a future buyer be as function driven as you in the kitchen?

I have to say that it is a heck of a lot more fun being able to shoot ideas to someone else who is grinding on a kitchen remodel than being the one who is doing it. I remember having the same sort of processing going on during our design. I think we took well over a year to completely dial it all in.

Larry

PS - Something I really like is our "peanut" corner storage device. Our cabinet folks are old-school german folks who found this cool german device that solves the horrible lazy susan problem. Highly recommended.