What part of the layout is causing you doubt? Is there something in particular or is it the entire layout? Are you looking for comments on your plan (you might want to include it) or are you just asking for other people's experience?

What did you love about your previous kitchen? Is there anything you wish you could include in your new kitchen? Is there something you feel is missing with your new plan?

I'm still in the planning stages, but I was having some doubts about the prep sink and dishwasher placement. I posted a thread on this forum and on another forum...and between the two got some good responses and felt better about the plan. I realized that the prep sink looked really good on the plan...but it was taking up too much of my baking space. Lack of counter/prep space is my biggest problem in my current kitchen! Once I got rid of the prep sink...everything seemed to flow much better...and the rest of the plan, fell right into place :)

We have the basic layout picked out and I feel (mostly) comfortable with that. When I posted the layout for comments, Buehl thought of another idea that I liked too. The problem is both my original layout and Buehls have negatives. We decided to ultimately go with our original plan but as I said I still have doubts.

Our last kitchen we remodeled and we loved the openess and stove on the island (which is the preferred layout on this remodel). Originally when we bought our current house, we couldn't even imagine having that big island again. After really thinking outside the box, we figured out a way. We were ecstatic!!!

We only had a 4' window in our last one. Though I would have kept it the same, because of structual issues etc. we would have liked to have a larger windows. With the layout we are considering, we are going to put somewhere between a 8'-12' window.

With doing these things there are concessions and that's where the doubt comes in.

I had doubts, still have one or two. But I have to remind myself that there were certain physical constraints in the kitchen that we had to work around. And of course there are always those nasty budget contraints. I just remind myself that the new kitchen will be SO much better than the old one. We have been able to fix all the problems that the old one had (lack of landing areas, blind corner cabinets, not enough counter space, lack of storage). We also had to put a large part of our budget into the "unseen" fixes (crooked walls, unlevel floors, new plumbing, new electric, dry rot and termite repair, new insulation, etc). So over all the house is a much better house, even if the kitchen doesn't have all the bells and whistles that some do.

There are always some tradeoffs. And there will always be times when someone's finished kitchen shows up on GW that will just blow me away.

When you are remodeling, there will always be trade offs because your basic space is already defined.

I wish I could have come up with a way to have my baking center closer to my ovens. I have to keep reminding myself I considered all options, and this one had the least negatives. But I don't remember all those other negatives I DON'T have to deal with because this layout worked the best, I see the one negative I'm still left with.

So I have to remind myself that this is the best - and enjoy it because it sure is a lot better than what I had.

And I also have to be careful looking at other kitchens - my time for new ideas is about over LOL!!!

Yes.. I should have put in a 30" door to the backyard instead of a second 55" window. It would have been better for the traffic through the house. But the windows were put in a year ago (this is a very slow DIY layout) and the siding is up, so I will just have to deal with the extra counter space and slight inconvenience. By not having the door, I also don't have a traffic path through my cookspace.

I also would like my ovens closer to my cooktop, my dish storage right next to the dishwasher instead of on the other side of the sink, an in-the-studs wall pantry (Fiance has nixed), and an extra foot to my island so I could put the prep sink at the other end and still have 4+ feet of clear prep counter.

Then I remind myself that I am very blessed to be able to do this renovation at all and rid myself of the cramped galley kitchen, which was 6 ft from the front door and severely lacking in storage and space. I am blessed to have a fiance that is very handy and does 99% of all the work on our home all by his lonesome.

As trailgirl said, there will always be some tradeoffs. Especially because we are remodeling and not building, we have to work with what we have, and it rarely lends itself to the "perfect" kitchen. All you can do is compare the pros and cons of each kitchen and go with what will serve you better.

My stomach was in knots when I placed our cab order despite having gone over every inch daily for years and having tweaked it to death. I even made a last minute change when sitting there about to put the order in. Something occurred to me at that very late point. You can seriously drive yourself nuts if you wait for perfection.
OTOH - we made some changes in the last weeks leading up to ordering that really seem to work and yet we had had ages of thinking we had the layout set. If you keep feeling a nagging sense of it needing to be fixed, then just hold off until you feel better about it. Your subconscious may be trying to tell you something....

When I did my kitchen in my old house (about 8 yrs ago), I went against the KD's advice and laid it out in an unconventional manner. I did not have the triangle! My fridge was around the corner from my sink-oven-range galley, horrors! But I did it because I also used fridge drawers across from my range, where i kept produce, meats, etc. I also thought through the ergonomics of very element of my kitchen. I loved my kitchen. I had only one regret ... i had a small trash under the sink, and a huge one far away. I ended up never using the undersink one ... too much trouble.

With our new (old farmhouse) home, I initially was changing finishes primarily and not layout .... but they had a 19' island... in a galley kitchen! My DH finally insisted that was silly (although it actually didnt work as badly as it sounds, when we made a meal there a few times before starting demo).

We had final plans with a 19' island. Then DH totally redesigned it (poor man, he has no design training but I have made him watch so much HGTV).

I love our new design. But it sure has flaws, some of which i know already and some that I will no doubt learn. But honestly, looks mattered a lot to me too. And it's not like some of the design nuances really render a kitchen inoperable. This isnt the banquet prep for the Four Seasons. I'm sure we all grew up in kitchens where no one once gave a thought to ergonomics!

Don't sweat it so much.

We had a very challenging layout situation and had brought in a KD to help us. We were somewhat worried about a pinch point between the eat in part of kitchen and the working part of the kitchen. Once the cabinets were brought in, two months after we had gutted the place and gotten used to the wide open space, I really started to freak. The KD thought I was going to get a bald spot because I was rubbing the top of my foerhead so much.

Turns out the layout works great! Even better than we could have ever dreamed. Even the concessions we had to make because of the small, weird space have turned out to be a blessing because we ended up with a unique but very easy space to work in.

If you haven't committed too far along yet can you do a mock up that you can "practice" in? If your layout is really different from what you currently have can you tape out a space in the basement or garage and pretend to cook? I did this and it helped to eliminate options and made it easier to commit to some expensive alternatives for us (we moved the kitchen and changed the windows).

I went thru a lot of layout plans but when the KD brought out this plan I knew right away it was good, we never even looked at her other options. Our doubts crept in as we were trouble shooting and doing mock ups but I have to say we were more like 95% confident in the plan, not 80%.

Dianalo, I'm in agreement with you about waiting till it feels right. If it wasn't holding up so many of the other projects, it might be easier to just sit back. My philosophy has always been, when it feels right, it's right.

That said, we want to get all new flooring throughout the house but with changing the kitchen floor plan we can't. Plan to put some cabinets in the laundry - can't because the kitchen layout will likely use a few inches in there where they butt up. Want to do the upstairs remodel before we tackle the walk-out basement due to rewiring and replumbing. Perhaps we should move onto our masterbath remodel (and agonize over that).

Then tracie.erin tweeked my interest about the door to the backyard. I'd LOVE to have a door to what would be our sideyard, which would lead down the steps to our beach. We figured we'd put a door from the garage to the outside but it would be nice not only for guests but ourselves, if we didn't have to go through the laundry room, thru the garage go get outside. Currently, everyone has to go through the house, down the steps and then outside...it's quite the trek.

heee.... hee.... hee.... Good Lord. I had many many doubts. I actually feel that some ol'time GW'rs might be snickering and thinking of me!

Wait... forget the kitchen... did you say "your beach"?? I'd be living out there!!

I agree with Dianalo. If you have this nagging feeling that you are missing something, or that something is really wrong with it, then I'd hold off a bit. For the last 17 years, I've been dreaming of this remodel and I knew that for hardware, I wanted cup pulls--plain ones, on the drawers and round knobs on the doors. However, when I went to actually pick out cup pulls for my kitchen, I stalled. I brought home pull after pull and just couldn't actually commit to any of them. I hemmed and hawed and posted pleas for help here--I just could NOT pull the trigger on the cup pulls that I'd chosen long before. It was awful--and silly, I'm sure, to have so much angst over cabinet hardware. They just didn't seem right. So I re-shopped them, and ended up with a totally different design, and when I placed that order, I felt completely at peace with it.

I'd encourage you to post your layout here and let the experts take a look at it. Really, some folks here are SO good at layouts that perhaps they can tweak it a little and help you be happier with it.

Best of luck,
Cj

I am in the middle of our renovation and keep having mini panic attacks that I made mistakes. I am SLOWLY coming to realize that the "perfect" kitchen does not exist.
It sounds like you aren't just nervous about the floor plan, but rather all of the other improvements as well, which seem to be directly related to the kitchen renovation.
Take a deep breath, and make a list of what is most important to you. Them move from there. Does your kitchen provide you with most of the items on your list.
You are certainly not alone about having doubts. Apparently it is much more common than I had realized!

However, when I went to actually pick out cup pulls for my kitchen, I stalled. I brought home pull after pull and just couldn't actually commit to any of them. I hemmed and hawed and posted pleas for help here--I just could NOT pull the trigger on the cup pulls that I'd chosen long before. It was awful--and silly, I'm sure, to have so much angst over cabinet hardware.

FloorsToYourHome

aloha2009-

Umm, we've been in our house for almost 4 years, our mostly DIY, pretty unfitted and 95% done kitchen has been in almost 2 years (before that it was plywood and temporary sink city) and I *still* have second thoughts, plot changes, think what I would do if I got a bonus at work and decided to spend it on the kitchen, etc. For me, part of being TKO isn't just knowing the cab manufacturers, naming faucets, etc., it's thinking how I can continually improve what I have, and sometimes those improvement dreams involve refining the layout, the electrical plan and the plumbing (as well as accessorizing, organizing and paint colors, which are things I can actually afford to do).

Some may think it's a sickness, but to each her own, I enjoy thinking what color Pyrolave, style of euro stove, honkin' range hood, exotic backsplash, etc., I would choose if I won the lottery. And, hey, it keeps me off the streets (and buying lottery tickets).

sandyponder

aloha2009 wrote, "I'd LOVE to have a door to what would be our sideyard, which would lead down the steps to our beach."

somebody else already pointed this out, but I'll do it again and say "bingo".

you already said you know about things feeling right; trust your intuition.

We had planned to move our kitchen to the back of the house where there was more space so that we could have that "must have island". But I was never comfortable with what that would then do to the eating area/family room which would move to the area where the kitchen was. We were about to sign the contracts and stalled.
We hummed and hawed and mocked up and pantomined. We had big family dinners and used our relatives as guinea pigs as we watched traffic flows. I then I saw a floor plan idea that I really liked. Drew up the plans, left the kitchen where it was (but moved a wall out 4' and changed the triangle work areas and are thrilled with it. If your not happy, wait until you are comfortable with it. Post the plans and tell us where it is that your mind is having trouble accepting and people will either suggest a minor change or reassure you that your headed in the right direction.
I'd be tweaking to get the door into the kitchen if possible. Repost the plans and note where the beach is.Because if I remember that has never been noted before.