This past weekend we got all of the perimeter cabinets in and we got as far as roughing in the base cabinets for the island. None of these cabinets is attached to anything yet. We need to do a lot of measuring, fitting (and even make-believing that we're sitting at the island hanging out, eating dinner or cooking) to figure out what it will take to get this island together.

There are a lot of things to consider:

• Cooktop, oven and downdraft all have to play into that center base cabinet. It's going to be tight
• The island should be generally centered on the lights and the room and we need to maximize walking space around it
• We need to shape the island so that when people are seated at it major traffic through-ways aren't blocked
• We need to get power through the floor for the cooktop, oven, downdraft and outlets
• We need to be able to get a 10" diameter downdraft vent through the floor into a very tightly packed basement ceiling (packed with wiring, plumbing, etc), into a remote blower (which will also be attached to the basement ceiling) and then out through an exterior wall
• We need to make the island functional enough to work and cook on; some space will need to be designated as a prep area since the cooktop is so wide
• We don't want the island to be so big that it takes over the room
• We need to add otherwise unnecessary vertical support to the island because the base cabinets aren't strong enough on their own to withstand the weight of the concrete countertop Rude will be installing

Anyway, you get the point. This will turn out to be a drawn-out engineering brouhaha.