If you could answer some question about your family and how you cook it would help drive the design process.
1. Have kids and ages?
2. Multiple cook family? Helpers typcially?
3. Do you bake?
4. Looks like the kitchen is pretty much self contained... true? Do you want to keep it that way? Do you have a separate dining area? Do you want an eating area in the kitchen?

I'll stop there. Look forward to seeing your repsonses.

Remodelfla started you off with some great questions. I have a few more. Do you start things off on the stove to finish in the oven often or can the cooktop and ovens be separated by a long distance? Do you shop at Sams/Costco and need bulk storage? Is your frig a full depth or counter depth? If we move it, would you like a snack/beverage center there? Do you have special wine, etc. storage needs?

Thanks for the responses. I'll try to answer any questions that would be helpful.

My family consists of myself, my husband and my 11 year old son.

Typically, my husband or child are in the kitchen emptying the dishwasher and doing dishes from earlier in the day at the same time I am trying to cook dinner. We are constantly tripping over each other as I need the sink to wash veggies, fill pots etc. That's part of my reason for the prep sink request. I'm working on teaching my son to cook so he does help sometimes.

I do not really bake. I'm more into roasting meals rather than baking cookies/cakes/pies etc. We do make homemade pizza quite frequently including the crust.

The kitchen is definitely self-contained. There are 3 doorways...1 exterior door to the screen porch which is 36" wide and needs to stay that way or we can't get appliances in & out. There are open door ways to the dining area (down a short hallway) and to the side door foyer area. You can stand at my front door and look through the foyer out the south window at the end of my kitchen. I can't really think of a way to make it more open to another room because the half bath is in the hallway separating the kitchen & dining room. The bath is critical because I only have 1 1/2 baths total.

Fridge is not counter depth. I am not completely opposed to getting a new one if it really helps the functionaly layout, although I'd rather try to keep it considering it is fairly new.

We don't really need a snack, beverage area. Wine is currently kept on a wine rack in the dining room. We honestly don't snack too much.

I don't really start things on the stove and finish in the oven, but I do frequently cook chicken in the oven while stirfrying veggies on the cooktop so it requires me to watch both areas carefully. I could probably tolerate them further away from each other as my kitchen isn't really all that large.

I have a bulk storage area in the basement but I definitely want to keep a decent quantity of everyday food items in the kitchen.

Special storage needs would involve a place to put small appliances including my large KitchenAid crockpot which I use probably 2 times a week. I want to minimize counter clutter so I do want to the crockpot away, perhaps in a deep drawer. Other small appliances include a food processor, blender, popcorn maker, citrus juicer, hand mixer, smaller electric skillet and ice tea pot...and the microwave & toaster oven. We currently have a cube shaped microwave that is fairly small. We only use the microwave to heat up leftovers and melt butter. As long as I can fit in dinner plate in the microwave it is big enough for me.

I thought I'd post a couple of pictures of my current kitchen. The shelving over the windows is a test to see if I would like the open shelving concept and I do. I'm even ok with them over windows, although I think they need to be a bit further apart. We would probably replace the windows so they can be any size. We will rip out the soffits.

Any layout design suggestions? It really feels like a bowling alley to me, but I'm not sure what to do.

In my mind, I keep wanting to move your fridge. How about relocating the door to the back porch so that you can place it next to the 1/2 bath wall? That way you could have a really great, built-in look and it would be in a bit better location.

I'll try to post a picture of what I was thinking.

It really helps that you put up the photos of your space...it's much easier to visualize now.

Sandy

Here's what I was thinking:

busybeme--Thanks for the suggestion. I never thought about moving the fridge to where the door to the porch is. I think that could work and it could solve the constant traffic jam going into the dining room. Right now, if the fridge is open, the path to the 1/2 bath and dining room is blocked. The wall next to where you moved the fridge can definitely support 12" cabinets or maybe even 15"-16" ones. 24" would be way too deep. A pantry where the fridge is now would super helpful too.

Any ideas about the other side? I like the idea of french doors to the porch, but I still need to keep room for the dining area. I am willing to buy a new table set or have something built in. We need to be able to seat 4.

Can you enclose the porch?

On the end wall, is it possible to bump out there? Or bump out into the porch?

Just in case, by bump out, I'd mean 1-2 foot deep bay or box window including flooring.

I can't really enclose the porch.

Yes, we might be able to bump out onto the end wall or porch if that would help. Tricky part would be flooring because we were initially planning on keeping the tile which is in pretty good shape. We didn't install it so we have no extra tiles. Honestly though, I'd love to do wood floors so that may be just the excuse I need to do it.

This is a picture of the back of the house. The current kitchen end windows are on the right and then the porch goes off to the left.

So, I took the idea of moving the fridge and worked with. Here's what I'm coming up with? I'm not sure what to do about a seating area if I have less room on the wall to the porch and still need a door.

Please critique!

I envy you that arbor. What was in the window planters that is so blue?

I tried to reproduce your layout on graph paper and got a little stuck. All the measurements should include the casings - so if I ask how wide a door or window is, I'd asking including the moldings on both sides. So an exterior opening where the door is 36" wide might be "measured" as 44" wide, to allow for the molding on both sides.

How big is the doorway to the entry?
The windows over the sink?
How far are the sink windows from the corner near the entry doorway?
How wide are the tall windows on the end wall?
Where are the tall windows from the northeast corner as drawn?
How long is the current ref wall?
How wide is the hallway opening?
The powder room sticks into the kitchen as a 3x3 foot square?
Windows on the porch wall would look into the porch?
Am I reading correctly - we can move anything but the powder room and the entry doorway and the hall to the dining room?