Gary (Indiana), Most excellent reasons. I envy your penetrating analyses. Two dishwashers seems quite practical in light of your logic. Go ahead, sound like Andy Rooney, I like him and his analysis a lot. I confess, I have 3 large square Bellgian waffle makers (all alike, bought at same time) because you can't serve waffles to more than two people fron a single maker. They can't be "held" properly in a warming oven, a "cozy" lets them steam themselves, and so on. I usually only fire up two but with guests for breakfast, it takes three.

If I recall my history correctly (and someone here will correct me if I go astray, please) The kitchen "work triangle" layout, counter top heights, counter depths, shelf depths, and so forth were determined by a Government sponsored study (Rosevelt inspired?) The results of this study became "THE BIBLE" for kitchen designs and there are hundreds of thousands (more likely millions) of examples throughout the USA. As you note, Gary, the average size of (domestic bred from resident stock) Americans has increased in height over the intervening decades and the sizes and proportions are not neccessarily a good "average" fit anymore. If I notice a "pain in the back" at ONLY 6-2, then at 6-8 you must really need relief.

We too are going with 9 ft (actually 9 ft 1 1/8 inches from top of slab to rough ceiling) throughout basement and ground floor except in vaulted spaces. Upstairs headroom will vary and some clearances might not suit you well. Ceilings will mimic the 12:12 pitch roof ,at least aout near the periphery. The minimum wall height is planned to be 5-6 which will just clear the head of a 6-6 person standing with a shoulder against the wall. You'd have to stand a couple inches from the wall to clear your head.

Gary, I have no problem seeing your need for taller counter heights, I just didn't understand the 6 inch "waste space." Now I get it. It is just standard cabs, raised to your required counter height.

Excuse my concern for the waste space. I lived on a sailboat for 9 years and got used to the idea of trying to use all available space efficiently. My current house build has over 1,000 sqft of perfectly good upstairs space that I am unlikely to finish out. I might (just maybe) install a door to access about 1/2 of it. I have no idea how to keep my wife from filling it up storing useless stuff if it is accessible.

Given your average reach is greater than the "standard" of over half a century ago, will you be making your counter tops a bit wider (deeper?) than the average? All along one wall of my "U" shaped kitchen, except where the range is located, the counter tops will be 3 feet deep instead of 2. the extra foot will be taken up by appliance garages with rollup (tambor doors). My kitchen messes are larger than one foot in extent so the one foot left after having an appliance garage on a two foot counter was not sufficient. If I were as tall as you, I'd consider making the counters wider.

Are you going to "settle" for 6-8 doors? To avoid the expense of custom height doors, you could fir down standard doors a couple inches at the bottom and hide the extension under an aplique, a brass kick plate.

Thanks for the neat ideas re the dryers and dishwashers, I'll consider them carefully.

Patrick