I'd start with loosing the wall.

Could the laundry be relocated as well?

I don't think the garage is big enough for the laundry, so it may have to be there.

Chinchette: Great news on the flip!! Hooray for you! When it closes, post pics so we can chime in!

Not a fan of the diagonal wall, does it work to straighten it somehow? Or make an L?

A few more dimensions may help generate more suggestions. The one dimension you gave is a bit like a geometry problem. Is the grid roughly accurate to scale?

Right now the layout seems to have way too much space dedicated to eating and cooking (heresy in this forum) and not enough living space. The angled wall adds interest, but only in a very contemporary design.

What I am concerned about is that it is a very small house. The kitchen would be big, except that most of it is not usable because of the division, with part being a breakfast room, or another family room. Right now there is a couch in what would be a breakfast room. There is a doorway dividing the breakfast room from the cooking area, and that makes it hard to turn the breakfast area into cooking space, due to traffic. The door is to bedrooms and bathroom on that side of the house.

The width of the kitchen and the width of the living room are small. Only 20 feet from the kitchen counter to the end of the living room. That is what makes me wonder if taking the wall down will make it seem more spacious, or will it be the reverse, where the living room furniture seems on top of the kitchen.

I do have pictures already, but with the owner's junk. Exceptional amount of junk. So hard to see through it. Will post later.

This post was edited by chinchette on Tue, Jan 29, 13 at 8:53

perhaps undo the L kitchen-clear the walls and swap for double islands with movement around. Then up in breakfast room build a banquette with some comfy chairs around the open side for real seating and relaxing. Give up the dining room on the living room side. Keep the angled wall and the entire left side becomes a living room/the angled wall may be a feature to embrace. You will migrate to the right side with islands and banquette and patio door it appears.....so the living room's style can evolve with artwork/minimalistic furniture/a great floor/interesting lighting-whatever. Oh-this is a flipper? I could see this could be fun to live in.

A more detailed plan, to scale with measurements will help, indicate where the doors to bedrooms, bathrooms are too. My first thought was to make the breakfast area the cooking area to get more of an open concept plan, but don't know if it will work. Also it is important to know what the budget and potential buyers will be looking for. Is it a $100K neighborhood or a 600K neighborhood? Pictures (regardless of how much junk the POs have) would help too. I am wondering if the wall is what gives the home drama, or style or if it needs to come out.

This post was edited by gmp3 on Tue, Jan 29, 13 at 11:59

This is a $160K to 170K house when it is fixed up. The one's that sold for that much had non-gardenweb newer kitchens. : ) Its a middle class neighborhood.

Pictures coming...

Wow. $160-170 for an actual house. In my area, that might get you the chicken coop. Moving on...

If you mean that when you put your backside against the stove it's 20' to the outside LR wall, which you can't see from there, that does limit your layout possibilities. This may be a case where an open layout is the best choice. I've never seen a load bearing wall that is at that odd angle, so that is likely to be good news. Is the breakfast room actually large enough to be the dining room? Are there overhead cabs where the sink and DW are now? Since you probably have to keep the laundry where it is, maybe you can re-configure to make it into a small mud-room in the back hallway. You'll need to do some actual drawings (my DH says you clearly missed the architectural drawing class in HS! Yah, my HS didn't have that either.) and photos will help, but I think this is a very workable project.

When you were looking at houses, did you see any in the neighborhood which had that odd wall? What did they do?

The co-owner of the home is still in the home so are drawings and measurements are rushed, and we are not good at it. However, I can get more specific when we close. In the mean time, here is a picture of the front. The dining room is to the left of the garage, and I think you can get the idea from that, its narrow. There is a little entry hall, bedrooms to the left as you walk in, and bedrooms to the right of the kitchen. I will do another post with another photo. I have not seen other houses in the neighborhood, just ones on the NMLS. They are all modest.

And here is the kitchen... More photos later. There is a dropped ceiling in the kitchen. Typical cabinets over the peninsula. "Walnut" formica was very big back then. Not in good shape. The laundry closet is to the right in this photo.

I was thinking that Ideally the kitchen should move to where the breakfast room is, and the wall should come down, making the living room bigger. However, not sure how that works out $ wise. Its on a slab and I don't relish the idea of moving plumbing.

How about you take down that diagonal wall. Put a small-ish [maybe galley?] kitchen where the laundry is (no need to add/remove plumbing). Have a dividing wall for the d/r with a pass-through maybe.

Put a laundry closet/pantry where the current kitchen plumbing is and keep the breakfast room where it is. Take down the wall separating the breakfast room from the l/r and make that an open family space.

That's sort of interesting. I need to get back in there and look at it. The washer and dryer could go where the sink and dishwasher are. That would give more counter space. They don't have to be in a closet. They could be under the counter.

There is no window in the kitchen.

True, there would not be a window in the kitchen. Some people would find that really hard (I may be one of them). There are some interesting ways to manage this issue, though. You can ask on the forum who's done this - I'm sure there are some who have.

With a big window in the breakfast area and a pass through to the DR (with that window, too) there may be enough light that it doesn't matter. And think about a solatube or skylight in the ceiling to lighten the space up too!

I didn't draw this well. I don't think there is a pass through possibility to the dining room. The attached breakfast room has a slider. That should give decent light.