Forgot to include floor plans:

I'd rather stand at a sink with a window facing an alley than one facing a wall.

You may be doing too much second-guessing.

Will you frequently have people sitting at the counter while you areworking, and will you do most of your work on the island? If so, I kinda like having the sink in the island, makes it a bit more social, your back wont be to them all the time. Is it worth moving plumbing? Cant answer that for you.

What is the view in the alley? Around here, "alley" can mean many things, from a roadway bypass, to a place where everyone in the 'hood stores their trash cans, to an area that only neighbors access. Is the view really awful there?

What I don't like about the re-do is that there is no countertop space to the left of the sink. To me, the natural flow of doing dishes means stacking the dirty dishes on one side of the sink, rinsing or washing them, then loading the dishwasher (or stacking the clean dishes) to the other side. It would drive me nuts having only one side for both clean and dirty dishes. It would also drive me nuts to have water splashing from the sink onto the floor to the left because of the lack of countertop space. If it were a small prep sink, I don't know if it would be an issue, but with it being the main and only sink, I can see that being a problem.

You said, "I value aesthetics over function (grew up using poorly designed kitchens)." I'm a bit confused by that statement ... ?

The window view is of my new "back yard" of crumbling asphalt and my new neighbor's tiny dilapidated white house sitting directly on the property line. In the evenings, I'll also have a pretty good view into my neighbor's kitchen. But this view won't necessarily be sacrificed because the sink will be replaced by a large counterspace next to the range, which I expect to use extensively for food prep.

I plan on centering the sink in the island, but I was unsure how to make a cover panel using the Ikea software. I think it will be nice to have people sitting at the counter while I wash pots/pans and load dishes into the dishwasher.

When I said that I value aesthetics over function, what I meant was that I value other people's perception of my kitchen over my own. The exterior of the house currently has little to no curb appeal, so I'd like the interior to be somewhat impressive when I have guests over. Resale value and future rentability are also important.

I don't have much experience in designing kitchens and only recently started looking at pictures of other kitchens, so I'm afraid of making a mistake by going with my gut. I also know that I won't have any problem using a kitchen that I find ugly but everyone else finds attractive.

This post was edited by Tile on Sun, Apr 13, 14 at 21:27

I'd probably keep the first one and get a beautiful piece of stained glass or an old stain glass window and put it in the kitchen window. It seems like you are losing a lot in that second plan.

I think the second looks a little funny with the range hood right next to the window.

I *do* like the idea of using stained glass in the window!