if you are planning to build in a standard fridge or freezer you need to make sure you have got really good ventilation all around, and especially behind the fridge when the cabinet doors are shut. . . . Other wise your power bills will rocket. Fridges and freezers need the air flow to carry the heat away from the coils at the back to maintain efficiency. Liitle or no air movement and the fridge motor will run for much longer periods,

Just a thought, have you checked your lovely flooring will persist under new cabinets or more importantly the gap created by the island bench. Possibly put a simple narrow breakfast bar (with power point of course) across a couple of the window sections, lovely to sit and look out of the window and preserve the look and the light. Then you would save some depth into the living space, as the current breakfast bar is quite large and deep.

annb1997 - I’m not sure if I was clear. The microwave and the fridge are currently side by side. Currently the fridge is to the left and the microwave to the right. I was asking about swapping them around - ie the fridge to the right and microwave to the left. Reason was to create better access for the fridge as it’s further from the island bench. The APP cupboard near the external stacker doors is just a normal full height cupboard - it was supposed to be the appliance cupboard but decided on a normal cupboard. Must update the plan to reflect this.

Hi Siriuskey, thank you, that is really a great option. Floorplan-wise it makes sense and makes use of the hallway space (hallways being somewhat redundant). Also makes use of the radiant power of solid-fuel heating to heat the bricks up. I would estimate around $7K to do the structural work, just cant do that right now, but I may keep that up my sleeve for down the track. I think you 'get' the sense of scale, by not putting any cupboards on the wall it's a good way to open the space in this reno The more I get into it I realise the difference between renovation and restoration. Probably been edging on the side of restoration (ie heritage focus) but am getting more pragmatic. Thanks again, cool layout