First question, how tall are the windows?

Second question, do both windows have to stay or would you be open to losing one?

I would also try to stay open to moving the sink--one thing we learned in remodeling our kitchen was that the cost of moving plumbing is not as crazy as it seems like it could be (**unless you're on slab and the plumbing is in concrete--then leave the sink where it is!)

Our kitchen isn't quite as tiny, but is also small--the big plus to small spaces is that you don't have to spend as much time thinking about zones and appliance placement because there just aren't that many options, and you won't spend as much on cabinetry...but getting the right layout is key to maximizing both the use of and the storage in the space. I would start to play with layouts, but wait until you move in and have lived in the space for a few months before actually starting the work. You'll probably find that some things really bother you and others aren't as important.

Congrats, and have fun!

Is there nothing on the other side of the kitchen? If the doorway into the dining room was a 24" away from the empty corner, you could have a whole wall of cabinets there. Can cabinets go under the windows, or are the windows all the way to the ground? It looks like you have plenty of room, just a bad original layout.

The stove appears to be a smaller one? Do you want full sized appliances?

Don't be afraid of moving plumbing, electrical, or gas lines. If you can't DIY it, the cost should be minimal.

wrap the window walls with appliance choices and slot them in on paper. Do an L shape kitchen for starters. Use the fridge spot-that upper corner for the seating if you think you want it. Say-small banquette/36 in round table/drop leaf table/etc, Appliance searches are important with preliminary choices and how they would fit on those two walls. think 24 inch liebherr fridge/18 in dishwasher/smaller single sink/drawer microwave? Look at the dining room-hunch tells me there is some space and character if this an older home, and it is more central,whereas the kitchen is not. So, omitting seating in kitchen and perhaps widening opening to dining room means you can do more in the kitchen.Also,what about a back door entry installed in kitchen if you move seating out of the space? That might be handy. It is wise to spend time in the home first,but obviously start some plans and thoughts.

@stacylh - We're not in the house yet, so I haven't been able to measure the windows. Here's a photo from the dining room that shows a window that is the same size and height as the ones in the kitchen. The opening on the right is the kitchen. (These are just realtor photos so far, so that's why they're not from ideal angles. I'll try to get some better ones during the inspection on Monday.) In the picture I posted before, you can see the edge of the window frame a bit too, extending down behind that table.

As far as losing a window, I guess we would be open to that. If it would help the layout significantly, we'd definitely consider it.

@artemis78 - Thanks for the advice - and the encouragement! I'm going to try and keep a more open mind about any layout options that present themselves. It's an old farmhouse with an unfinished basement under this level (not a concrete slab foundation) so moving the sink shouldn't be a big deal.

@debrak_2008 - Yes, the stove is smaller. We would like to get a bigger one to replace it. The existing fridge is also small, but that's not staying in the house. We are hoping to do it mostly DIY, between my fiance and both of our dads, so hopefully moving things won't be too much of a problem. I'm sure it wouldn't seem like a problem to them, but it just intimidates me because I know nothing about it.

@hosenemesis - Here's the layout of the whole first floor. It's pretty basic but hopefully that'll give you an idea of where the kitchen sits in the house. (There are no dimensions because when I turned them on in the online program I'm using (Homestyler) it showed every dimension - between every window and door to the nearest wall, etc. and it was too crowded to read. If dimensions are really needed, I can try to redo it in another program or add them another way.)

The photo I posted above also gives you an idea how far the opening into the kitchen is from the front wall of the house. The windows don't go all the way to the floor, but are fairly low (ie. I don't think we could fit cabinets/counter under them, but maybe we could find some shelving that would work.) Thanks for the encouragement too - I was a little scared when I originally saw this kitchen, but I'm trying to have hope that we can make it into something great!

@herbflavor - Thanks for the advice. I think we can do without seating in the kitchen, since it's so small to start with. If anything, we were thinking about putting a counter/bar with 2 seats on the wall between the kitchen and dining room (which would have to be partially removed) but those seats would be in the dining room anyway. But we will probably do most of our everyday eating in the dining room area.

I hadn't thought about looking for specific appliances at this point in the game, but I'll go ahead and start doing that. We hadn't thought of adding a door, but that's an idea to consider too. There are so many other exterior doors in this small house (4), it might be unnecessary. Your hunch was right - It is an older home, with a country farmhouse feel, and the kitchen seems secondary to the larger and more central dining room with a fireplace.

The best floor plan that I could come up with would be the following:

*Leave fridge location where it is.

*Shorten the height of the window on the end of the house and place a 24" single bowl apron front sink in front it, leaving enough clearance to the left for a DW.

*Place a 30" range with an ATR microwave on the same wall as the sink near the corner. You'll likely have to add a filler piece on the right hand side of it so that the oven door will clear the other cabinets when opened. You might possible be able to fit a 30" range in next to the fridge but if the fridge is 36" wide x 36" deep, you will likely have trouble with clearance in the corner because of the countertop overhang from the run of cabinets on the long wall. (You definitely need to start looking at appliances so that you can figure in the exact sizes into the plan.)

*Upper cabinets everywhere possible.

*Move the door opening to the dining room toward the fridge so that the fridge doors can swing into it and have enough clearance to open greater than 90 degrees. I'd make the door opening between 42-48".

*Create a breakfast bar between the dining and kitchen that straddles the wall. You could even use cabinetry as the base of it so that you gain add'l storage. It would be up to you which side you'd want the stools on. I personally would put the stools on the dining side (with cabinetry on the kitchen side). You could always pull back the stools so that you could use the breakfast bar as a serving area.

HTH!!

think about flow:looks like a lot of spaces/rectangles mish-mashed. A better kitchen might be installed across back wall straddling kitchen and dining room....Make a hall of sorts across top of "living room" with half bath and stairs and different entry to bedroom coming off this hall.Don't like diag cut across liv room to bedroom door. Then the smaller liv room could be a quiet den,along with kitchen now opened to dining room for a "great room".You should really live here first for a while I think.

"...We are also willing to take out part of the wall on the right (but we need to leave the beam as it's load-bearing)<...>"

Would you be willing to... Remove the entire wall b/w the DR & Kitchen?
Leave the header (it could be worked into cabinetry or disguised)?
Take approx 12" from the DR?

If so, how about something like this?

• This gives you a nice Prep Zone for a kitchen this size...33" b/w the corner & sink (21" + 12") and another 12" b/w the range and corner.

30" Range + 30" Hood with 12" of space on the left for emergency landing space
MW...a small countertop model could be be put in the deep corner.
The Utility cabinet could have a decorative door on the side facing the DR.

Totally agree with living there for awhile. Buy an inexpensive rolling cart with a drop leaf for some extra work space in the meantime. I can absolutely understand why you'd NOT want to keep that kitchen very long. However, it looks like you've got some cool possibilities for the overall floorplan that would only present themselves after a little bit of time. My 2 cents.

:)

Thanks for the advice everyone! We were in the house today and I took some measurements in the kitchen, so we're working with exact figures now. The kitchen is longer and narrower than we thought (12'x7'8"). We've come up with two options that I want to post and see what you think are pros and cons of them, as well as ideas to improve them.

The first one is below. I like that the appliances are close together, but with the fridge at the top instead of near the windows, there isn't very much counter space. And my biggest concern is that there isn't enough room to work between the sides.

Here's our second option. The section on the right could have a cutout to have a breakfast bar. My concern about this one is that the fridge is a bit far from the other appliances, but maybe it's really not that far. There still isn't too much counter space here. Maybe we could put a cart on the empty wall near the entrance for more storage as someone suggested. Other thoughts on this one?

TIA!

I'm confused as to whats a door and whats a window. In your 2nd layout what is between the Fridge and the stove, window or door?

That is a window between the stove and fridge in the second layout. There are two existing windows - one on the left side of the layout and one on the bottom. There is an existing door/opening on the right side - although in the first of the two plans I just posted, we would be expanding that opening to have space for a breakfast bar.

Just for clarification, the white thing in the bottom right corner is a pantry or some kind of cupboard. Both layouts also have a dishwasher next to the sink, and we would put upper cabinets wherever we could, even though they're not shown in the layout.

Thanks!

As stacylh has said, you really should think about shortening one or both of the windows to allow a countertop run to go in front of it. You don't need to lose the whole window, just put in a slightly less tall one. Then your layout options will grow by leaps and bounds!

Change the windows to fit a counter in front of them. You will end up with a much better kitchen.

I agree that we could make a better kitchen with changing the windows, and we are willing to do that if we absolutely have to, but I don't think we're to that point. It seems like we should be able to come up with a workable kitchen without changing the windows, and I'm curious to see what we can come up with within the confines of the existing room.

Anyone willing to throw out some comments on the two floor plans I posted yesterday or suggest another layout?

take the 2nd plan of the last 2 shown: reverse the sink and range....install a smaller single sink...and to the right of the range install counter that turns the corner and runs down the 6-11" wall but at 15 or 18 inch deep.Keep the fridge down at the 2-8'' location and skip the double door storage cabinet. Instead,get a freestanding worktable/island or whatever you call it for the remainder 5 feet of that wall.Whatever storage you need from that cabinet can be placed in reduced depth drawers installed up to the right of range and along that right hand wall. You'll have about 48-50 inches inside the U shape up there and with the free standing set up next to fridge you'll get a decent kitchen. It would be far better to hold off-do this with Ikea or a basic cabinetry line and not too expensive counters so you won't feel bad in 5 yrs if you want a bigger master plan. Don't worry about the fridge down in the lower left, but don't do the double door pantry or storage cabinet....a nice wortable can allow a microwave/toaster/coffee/drinks to be set up, food laid out, so people can have access without bumping into the cook at the center and top of the U. An old vintage table for this could be fun...or find some antique legs and have a top made to fit.