Honestly, if I had known how much the kitchen layout would matter, I would have sketched the whole thing out first. The peninsula idea seemed good on paper, but once we measured the walkway it left barely thirty inches. So now we are moving the prep zone to the north wall instead and keeping the old pantry exactly where it was. My sister thinks we should knock out the small closet near the back door but that is load bearing and I would rather not deal with a structural engineer just for a spice rack. We did find a nice rolling cart with a butcher block top that can sit near the window and still leave room for the trash pull-out. The contractor said he can rough in a pot filler above the range if we decide before drywall goes up. I am leaning yes because carrying a stock pot across the room is the worst part of making soup. We also talked about under-cabinet lighting and I think we agreed on the slim LED strips that plug into a hidden outlet. They are easy to replace and do not require hardwiring. The tile backsplash is still undecided, but we narrowed it down to a soft ivory subway tile or a matte terracotta square. The terracotta feels warmer and would hide splatters better. Dad keeps saying we should just paint everything white and be done with it, but I want some texture near the stove. Anyway, if you still have that measuring tape with the printed fractions, bring it Saturday and we can mark out the island spot before lunch. I will make a big pot of chili and we can test the new sightlines from the living room while it simmers. I finally got around to reorganizing the spice drawer and it turns out we had three jars of smoked paprika and zero cumin. Not sure how that happens, but I guess every time someone made a dry rub they just bought another paprika. So now there is a list taped to the inside of the cabinet with a sharpie attached by a string, and whenever a jar gets low you put a tick mark. It sounds like overkill, but the drawer is shallow and things roll around, so having fewer duplicates actually saves space. I also moved the bay leaves to a small tin and got rid of the plastic bag that had been there since Thanksgiving. The whole project took maybe forty minutes, but now the drawer closes without a fight. We talked about doing the same thing with the utensil crock by the stove, because it has four wooden spoons and not a single silicone spatula. I think the spatulas are all in the dishwasher at any given moment. Next weekend we might tackle the freezer, which is a different kind of project entirely. There is a brisket flat in there from who knows when, plus a bag of frozen peaches from last summer. I want to label things with a date and a quick note, but everyone just writes the month and year and calls it good. If the power goes out again I would rather know what needs to be used first.