"There's no available counter space"

Hello
Try removing everything off all the counters and see if that helps. Enlarging the kitchen may also help. Remove any lighting that may be over the counters.
If the issues remain, it may sound odd, but remove any counters that may be in a nearby bathroom, and only have a free standing sink. Sometimes sims want to use counters in bathrooms instead of kitchen counters.

I don't have anything on the counters, I'll try enlarging the kitchen.

I hope that it helps with your issue.

Also those are the only counters the bathroom sink is already free standing

I tried enlarging the kitchen, and I replaced the fridge. Same issue

Try having your sims move to another home. Then have them move back to the original home and see if the issues remain.

So I finally got around to trying this.. it didn't work :(

Try saving the kitchen room to your library. Then delete the kitchen. Then place the saved kitchen room back into your home and see if the issue remains.

Do you have any mods or cc in your game? I had the same issue. Briefly removed my entire cc folder out of the game and then tried again, had no issues then. It's really annoying, but then it's just a process of eliminating cc that broke due to the patch.

But if my sims have nothing but CC on and I remove the CC won't it break the game or something?

Also rose, how do I just save the kitchen?