Congrats on the new house! What a great space and plenty of room for a beautiful kitchen and large eating area :)

I think your second picture is upside down, but normally (not always) the slider is in the dining area, so you don't lose so much wall space in the kitchen and it eliminates some of the 'walking through' your kitchen, to get outside. I like the idea of including a banquette, but that big window would be a wonderful place to put the kitchen sink. How about a banquette on the wall or even an L-shaped banquette, in the corner?

Do you know what kind of kitchen layout you want? Did you want an island or more of a U-shape? What kind of appliances did you want? Do you need a wall oven? A bigger fridge, a prep sink? Do you have pantry storage downstairs or does everything need to be stored, in the kitchen?

The more you can tell us about how you need your space to function (like you did about your entertaining needs) the more help you can get with your design.

How did the boundary walls of the two rooms go from a rectangle to a rectangle with a bumpout, (besides being upside down, I guess)?

You're right, the closeup of the kitchen is upside down. I did the whole 1st floor plan a while ago and then just the kitchen today and didn't orient them the same. Also, when I did the 1st plan I didn't realize there was a bump out (that was before we actually moved in).

The windows we have now both in the kitchen and dinning room are quite big, 75"wide and 80" tall or there abouts. So I don't think putting the sink under the windows would work because then we'd need new windows. We have no landscaping in the back yet and some day I'd like to do a patio that we can access from the kitchen. Right now, you have to walk down the stairs to the family room to get outside through the laundry room (which someday I'd like to move to the basement and turn into a mud room but that's another project for another day... or year!)

As far as layout, I have a U shape now with the fridge outside the U and it works fine, although not very big. It is efficient! I would like to have either a bar or peninsula which ever makes the space work better.

Appliances- I don't want anything 'cheap' but I don't need/want high end. I'd rather spend the $$ on cabinets and counters! No prep sink and a regular size fridge is fine for our needs. My mom has a double wall oven which is so nice but she cooks and has big crowds over way more than us so I think I'd rather save the money and go with a range.

There is a bit of pantry space in the laundry room (down the stairs to the family room) but I'd prefer to keep most panty items in the kitchen itself.

I really appreciate all the help and expertise here. This is quickly becoming an addiction!

Flipping the space is going to be expensive. Add at least 5-7K to the plumbing budget and the same to the electrical budget. Unless you are a complete DIY, that is, and then you might be talking $1200-$1500 worth of material and hours and hours of labor.

So, add 10-15K on top of an average 40K kitchen budget, and you're at 50-60K for just an average kitchen. Can your neighborhood comps support such an expenditure in one room? What about your own personal budget for the whole house? Do you really want to spend 60K on one room, or would you rather spend 30K and then have 30K for the rest of the house's projects?

Here's the kitchen floor plan rightly oriented and bump out added to the whole floor plan if that helps:

That is what I'm afraid of Hollysprings. We don't plan to ever leave this house but $60k is totally out of the budget. We're (DH!) is thinking 20K but wanted to flip it and I do like the idea... It's fun to dream!

If we stick with the footprint we have now I'm really limited by that window. Do you think I can get a banquette in that space as is? I have a U shaped work area with a table that seats 4 comfortably in front of the window. I think I just answered my own question. LOL I just hate how the dishwasher opens right in front of the sink but I can't see how to work around that. I'll try to add in my current kitchen details to the floorplan tomorrow.

20K for a kitchen is a VERY low budget. It means pretty much all DIY for everything. No paid labor. Or else it means builder grade components---which you are presumably trying to upgrade from. What type of DIY skills can you bring to the table to stretch that budget?

We DIY'd our last kitchen so we have some skills. And I'm pretty frugal and deal hunt like my life depends on it. :) We did out last kitchen ourselves for less than $4k but that was basically just a facelift- professionally painted cabs., new to us applicances, remnant granite, I did the tile backsplash, etc. I think $20K is totally doable for this space as long as we don't move the plumbing (but a girl can dream!) In fact, I'm pretty sure I can do remnant granite again if I have the same sqft as I do now. That was a huge saver.

I guess now, my question has evolved to- Is there anyway to move the dishwasher in this current layout? Opening right in front of the sink is a PITB. Or is there a better layout for this that I'm missing?

We will for sure be doing new cabinets, counters & flooring. Right now everything is harvest gold!

Sorry, I'm back with more. These pictures show you what I'm dealing with. These were taken on the day of our inspection but we haven't touched this space much so it's pretty much the same minus all the stuff on the counter and the table.

Table area:
{{!gwi}}

Switching from one room to the next may not automatically add 5-7K to the budget. It depends on where the plumbing stack is and where the gas line comes in, etc.

I flipped a kitchen from one end of a townhouse to the other and it added only about $1500-2000 to the budget because of the proximity of the plumbing to the new location and because the electrical had to be upgraded in either location so that was a wash.

On the other hand I moved some things a foot or two in my own kitchen and it cost more than that. Both of these projects were in an area where the multiplier is between 30%-40% higher than the national average.

So it may add a lot to the project and it may not--it could be something worth at least investigating.

hmmm..I'd inventory all those cabs-line up the numbers and sizes there and look carefully at condition. They may be of good construction to re-use....or some of them. Can you strip and redo..or paint over? Just sayin because you could save money. They look of the time era when cabs were built on site...and may be better than much of what's avail now on a budget.

I'm looking into reusing the existing cabs. They are solid wood but I would need to redo the insides to make them more efficient. That's possible, right? Like adding pull out features and baskets, etc.? If we were able to use the boxes I would definitely get new doors. I have a quote in to one company for maple paint grade doors I would either paint myself or find someone to paint.

It's so funny, my grandma loves my kitchen as-is. She said she always wanted one just like it back in the 70's but couldn't afford it. LOL She especially loves my stove and the electrical outlets on it!

Don't decide anything, until you talk to a couple of contractors. Ask them how much it would cost to swap out the two rooms...moving a sink and electric (not gas) range, shouldn't be that expensive. Do you have a basement under this area...that makes things much easier.

There's nothing wrong with asking for some free estimates, even if you plan to DIY. Just ask them what they would charge for the job and how difficult (and expensive) it would be to flip the spaces. If you meet a contractor you like, even if you decide to DIY later, they might help you with jobs that are over your head...or recommend plumbers, etc.

That last plan is upside down again, right? :)