Kitchen Design : the details

To make a long story short, Tim and I realized over the weekend (after attempting to demolish our linoleum floors) that completely overhauling the kitchen from floors to cabinets was way beyond our DIY skill level.  I’m not sure we could handle living in a demolition/construction zone for weeks (or maybe even months) while we try to renovate on weekends and in the evenings.  Not to mention, there’s three kids in the mix.  And I don’t do well with unorganized chaos for very long.
So now, we’re considering hiring a company that will pretty much do everything for us.  In the end, I don’t know if we will go with this particular company or someone else, but either way, I’m trying to settle on my kitchen design so that we can move forward in this process.  I’m tired of living in the disaster that is my kitchen right now.  (see photos above) 
So lets talk kitchen details today, okay?!
You probably already know this by now, but my must haves are white shaker style cabinets, butcher block countertops, farmhouse sink, open or glass cabinets, and white subway tile backsplash.
Here’s a little visual of what I like.

via here
Although I know the style of kitchen I want, the process of designing the actual kitchen, like how many cabinets and how many drawers and what sizes they will be and which cabinets should be glass or open and where exactly the appliances will go and how it will all fit together and be efficient and still give me the look and feel that I want is the part I’m kinda stressing over.
I’m working with a galley kitchen.  The sink is on one side of the kitchen and the oven and fridge are on the other.  There is not a lot of space to work with, so everything needs to be very functional and efficient.
With the help of a kitchen designer, this is the basic layout we’ve come up with for the sink side:
(I don’t know why the crown molding is black in the picture, but just ignore that.  I also don’t want anything that fancy up there.)

Up top, I wanted some closed cabinets, some glass cabinets, and some completely open shelves (cabinet doors will just be taken off).  I also wanted it to be symmetrical looking.  For the bottom, the farmhouse sink will go in the open space.  And instead of getting all cabinets with doors down below, I’ve decided on extra drawers.  And we moved the dishwasher from the left side of my sink to the right side, since I am right handed and it’s just easier that way.
Now we all know that I want a farmhouse sink, but I have been debating between the Ikea double bowl sink or the single bowl sink.
The Domsjo double bowl is 36” wide and 9” high


The Domsjo single bowl is 25” wide and 7” high


What do y’all think? Do any of you have a Ikea farmhouse sink?  If so, which one and do you like it?
Even if you don’t have a farmhouse sink, do you think one big sink is best (like for washing big pots) or two smaller sinks (one to thaw meet or soak dishes in while still being able to use the other side)?  I'm leaning towards the double sink right now, because it’s what we had in our last house and I found both sinks to be useful, but I would love to hear your thoughts. I also don’t have a ton of counter space, so if I opt for the bigger sink, then it means even less counter space.
Across from the sink side, is the range and refrigerator.
The first layout we designed looked like this:
(Again, dismiss the black crown molding.)


The main thing we’re working around here is the Praktfull Pro 36” gas range.


Most ranges are only 30”, so this one will take up more space, but I love it so we’re trying to make it work.  It still leaves me with 21” cabinet space on each side of the range, so hopefully there will be enough storage and counter space.
The problem I keep bumping into, is where to put the microwave.  My first choice would not be over the range.  I really like the look of a nice range with a hood over it, so I was trying not to put the microwave there.
Like this

via here
Plus over the range microwaves are typically 30”, so we’d need a trim kit to make it fit with our 36” range and I’m just not sure how that would look.
Here’s another option that we (with the help of our designer) worked up


In this layout, we scooted the range over 9” to the left and put the microwave in an open cabinet.  This also gives me a small cabinet for cookie sheets, muffin pans, etc, down below, which I really want.  But with the microwave so close to the range, I almost think what’s the point, lets just put it over the range.  Ya know?
I would love it to be tucked away nicely like this one below, but I’m having a hard time figuring out how to do that in my kitchen.  If I put it on the sink side, it totally messes up the symmetricalness of all the cabinets over there.

via here
What do you think… microwave over the range or somewhere else? Would it look weird over a 36” range? I kinda think it would take away from the look of the range w/the hood, but maybe not. What do you think? I almost feel like I have no other choice.
Moving on… one major problem with our kitchen right now is that there is no pantry.  We have some extra wall space in the eat-in kitchen area where we’re planning to add some additional cabinets with drawers.  This would give us a place to keep snacks and other pantry items.  (That space between the refrigerator and the extra cabinets is a door into the garage.) 


My idea is to add some open shelves up above those cabinets and store glass canisters with snacks, crackers, cereal, etc…  I also plan to put our Keurig on top of those cabinets, so it will be like a little coffee area with coffee mugs, k-cups, sugar etc..  I’ve thought about just putting a smaller counter top microwave over there, but I’m not sure if I want to take away the extra counter space.
What to do??
Alrighty, please offer all your opinions, suggestions, advice, tips, or ideas for me.  Especially if you’ve ever renovated a kitchen, is there anything you would definitely do differently if you had to do it all over again or anything that you would make sure to do again because you love it so much?
I’m all ears!