@##%^$$##@... you can't read that! I'll try this and then give up!

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

Try scanning your layout. Even if you have to do it in sections and post a couple of pics. It's hard to see detail and dimensions the way it is right now but could try with graph paper or one of your 'putor programs sinse you have all the #'s already : )
HTH

Or at least, can you get a photo that's more straight on than from an angle? (Stand on a chair and take the picture straight down over it)

Is there a jog in the wall in front of the oven, or is that just the paper? If it's a jog, is the prep island right up against a wall? I think that's the main sink in the ctr island, but I don't see anything the right size for a dw.

Is there a reason the ctr island overhang isn't as long as the front part of the island?

It's hard to tell because of the angle, but it looks like it might be tight between the NE corner of the island and the cabinets to the East of the table. (Using the top of the design as North)

That's the best I can do at the moment. I'll be looking forward to getting a better look at your plan. :-)

That was graph paper and I used each 1 inch square as 1'. Within each 1" square were 3" increments. I was standing on the dining room chair when I took it but I don't think I was leaning over the table enough. I'll try it one more time but think I may have to re-draw it smaller. My printer/scanner at home is not compatible with my Mac. I'll have to wait till I go back to school to use a scanner that is and I just started my Spring Break (WOO-HOO!!!!). This plan is my one of my vacation projects.

OK.. I just tried to take two new pics. I layed the paper on the ground outside and stood over it. Hopefully, it'll look better. If you can read it, I'll post explicit explanations of my pitiful drawing.

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

I tried to create a layout in Excel. I couldn't upload it to photobucket because the format wasn't compatible. Then I tried changing the format but that didn't work either. Lastly, I tried saving it as a web page but photobucket wouldn't except that so I"m now trying to past it directly into this message. I've spent so much time on this I'm trying not to get upset. I hope this works.

file:///Users/teacher/Pictures/layout%20(version%201).htm

Almost.... but still isn't coming out right. Can someone please tell me what else to try?

I'm wondering if you can change the resolution or picture size on your camera so that it will create a larger image--Because it's straight on enough now that I think we could read it fine if it was large enough.

One more thing...Do you have any way to email the picture? If you email it to me through the link on 'my page,' I can try to do something with it to get it posted. I tried to transfer it to my computer from here, but wouldn't be clear enough in a larger size.

remodelfla, You might just have the options set to "downsize" the picture when you upload it to photobucket. In photobucket, when you go to upload, above the 3 "browse" buttons, you should see something that says "max image size" with an "options" link next to it. What are the dimensions of your image size? I'm guessing maybe 320 x 240? I would up that to at least 640 x 480, preferably 800 x 600, by clicking on the "options" button, changing the size and then hitting "Save". Once you have switched the image size, try to upload those two images again an maybe they will be legible.

jaymielo... you're brilliant... I think it's going to work. rhome... I sent you an email through this system. I wish I could post the Excel layout. It's so much better then my drawings. OK... here it goes!

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

glad to help. If you were on windows, I could help you get that excel version uploaded, but I'm mac challenged. Sorry. You could try printing and taking the picture of the printed page... Or, here is a link on how to take a screen capture on a mac. You wouldn't want to save it to a PDF (photobucket doesn't support this format), but if you got it to your clipboard and then pasted it into your favorite image editing software and saved, I believe you could upload it to photobucket. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

To post the Excel layout (that's what I do, but in a Windows world) - Open your Excel sheet and a drawing or painting program in another window. Then copy the area of your worksheet that has the drawing and paste it into your drawing program. Save in a picture format. You can also copy and paste into Power Point, then save in a picture format. Both will work.

Remodelfla, I'm also on a Mac, so if you want to e-mail me the Excel file, I'll convert it to a post-able pic for you.

I got the Excel drawing, but it didn't include walls or reference points (like a grid) for measurements, so I redrew in Chief Architect to see if we could go from there. I see I missed a 6" pullout by the cooktop. Some of the other measurements aren't adding up, though, so if you could check the overall measurements of the room and give me more detail about what is going on in the areas I've circled in red (are the stove wall and dinette wall offset? How far? Is there a doorway to somewhere in between? Are there doorways between the stove wall and the fridge?), and make any other corrections, I can make the drawing as accurate as possible. Hope this helps.

Is there a reason for the small dishwasher? It seems you have room for a 24". Is that column full height? If so, not sure you'd want it blocking half the view from the sink?

OK... lets see if I can answer some questions and I can see that my measurements are a little off. The area you have circled on the NE wall that is offset is going to be a doorway leading to a bathroom (want to make it handicap accessilble) so I planned on a 3' doorway. The jog in the wall below it is do to a structural column that is 11" in length and 6" in depth. That wall is what used to be the eating area of the old kitchen and is set back 28" and is 10' in length. This is where I am thinking of putting my cooking area. I also messed up in that I have the width meaurements in that area as 19'. I figured that would force me to get an 18" DW otherwise I wouldn't have enough passage space between the cleanup area island and the east wall cooking area. The way I figured it (which is probably wrong) I would have 42" to that structural column and 45" or 48" where the cooking area is set back a little. Everytime I did it I came out with something a little different. Now, where the column is by the sink... the area now has a 3' length of concrete that goes to the ceiling. To the north of that (eating area) is what is now a sun room that had been added to the house before my DH bought it. DH told me was can take out part of the wall but must leave at least 14". I thought 18" would work because I can hang a cabinet that I could use for glassware. I 've been back and forth about that column. Tried placing my cooking area there and thought I could somehow hang my hood in front of it; but I just couldn't get it to work. That by no means says it won't work; I just couldn't figure it out.

OH.. the south end you have circled. We are taking out the pantry that is currently there and the wall will then begin where the refrigerator is. Below that is the family room. On the east side is the small hallway that will lead to two of the bedrooms. There is no wall on the south end; it is completely open with the only wall being that 5' one where the refrigerator and cabinet is. I had calculated a 21" cabinet because I plan on getting a 36" counter depth frig and build around it for make it look built in. I figured with the 3/4" for the side panels and air flow clearances, I would only have room for a 21" cabinet.

I'm so sorry my drawings are off and so bad. What's even more pathetic is how very many hours I spent doing them!

I hope this answers at least the beginning questions. I'll try some of the options others suggested though apparently my Exel drawing isn't on the money anway.
Thanks again,
Elyse

I have a drawing from the DH's closing papers but it only shows exterior measurements and no interior walls. I didn't think it would help but could take a pic and post it if you think it will

I'm getting a bit lost...Can we start with the overall measurements? I have 3 noted on the drawing. Tell me what they should be instead of what I have...Then maybe I can make sense out of the rest. The ol' brain isn't catching on today...

I'm trying the suggestion that sweeby and jay suggested and getting nowhere. I never realized how technically inept I am.

Holligator... how do I email you? Your "my page" does not have an email address and even if it did; I can't attach anything. Never mind that my Excel drawing is off!

rhome... it is SOOOO not you. It is completely me that is confusing everything.
OK.. 1. eating area width (north end by planned french door : 16ft.
2. width from prep sink (west) wall to cooking zone wall (east) 19ft.
3. Length on SW side where 5' wall (frig) to North end eating area 20'
4. Length from SE side (cooking area) to North end I have as 21'. I don't know why the 1ft. discrepancy. I've measure and remeasured. But I do think that east wall will end up being slightly longer. We are pushing that wall in some to widen the exisiting hallway which runs to the east of it to 2 of the bedrooms. OMG... I hope I'm making sense.

Better? One thing we'd better be sure about, location-wise is the columns, etc. that won't move.

YES!!!! I"m so excited. The only major column is the one in the middle of everything. THe other two are little jogs in the wall. The one right by the south end of the large window and the one at the north edge of the cooking zone. Neither of those impact the plan, I have options as to where I keep the one which will be in the middle of the room. As it exists now it is 6' from the bump out on the west side and it is 3 feet long... all to the ceiling. We can take out about half of it but it must remain ceiling height for strucutual reasons. I can take out some from either side or all from one side as long as I keep about 14" or more. Made of solid concrete block (I think), or at least either end is... it's going to be a pain. I guess it was built like that when the addition (sun room to be eating area) was built. Is my plan ready to be critiqued? THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!

Here are 3 ideas that are somewhat different...

Now, moving things around...

Moving things around even more...

Not sure I'd want the fridge blocked so much from the working part of the kitchen by the island...So I prefer Buehl's 1st plan, which is pretty much your original plan. One thing we haven't discussed, though, is traffic. Is through the kitchen/past the stove a main path from the fam room to the bathroom?

rhome... you are so amazing! I can't believe your talent and genorosity.
Here's the latest... now DH has finally started really looking at my concepts, thanks in part to your input. He doesn't like the idea of the cooking area being on that southeast wall because to the right of it is the hallway to 2 bedrooms and just below that is our only family room area. It's a small house that I've conceded to move to in the interest of a lower cost of living and comfortable retirement. I was trying to work around that huge 9' window that is also roughly 7' in height (8' ceilings) and 9' long. I would have love to have my kitchen in the back of the house leading to our screen patio and HUGE backyard pool area. He NOW says he's willing to replace that window with something more workable so I can use that wall space. We may even be able to cut out that little jog in the wall (west side just below window) which is 6" depth and width but I'm thinking it may be easier to just work the cabinetry around it. with a little tweaking. So I feel awful that you spent so much time and now that we can see it, are going to look into completely changing things around. I am repurposing the old laundry room into a pantry. That space is 10' long x 6' wide. The entrance is that doorway opening on the west side. The water heater is also in there. It leads on the south end to what used to be the garage but is now a third bedroom. I won't need an additional pantry closet but would love pullouts for spices/oils by my cooking area.

I love love love the idea of the TV on a swivel/pullout. We were planning on putting one somewhere in there. The front of the house (south) will be our main TV area but not viewable from the kitchen. I definately want some informal seating in addition to the round table. So now I have to put pen to paper (since I'm too lame to effectively manage the programs I've downloaded) and come up with a new plan utilizing the back of the house as my kitchen. I was thinking we could use the section below the sink island as the eating area. What if I were to flip the sink and and then overhang to the opposite sides of where they are now on the island? The sink and DW is in that basic location now so I thought it would be easier when reconstructing. As it is, he's getting crazy with all the changes I want to make. I'm going down to that house on Monday and will take pictures of what existing now. I'm hopeful that will help in making sense of my nonsense.

My husband can't get over the value of the information available on this forum. All this time he thought I was just goofing around. You guys are THE BEST!

buehl.. I just realized you too posted 3 layouts! I can't wait to take those pictures and start drawing again. How did you all learn to use those programs so effectively? Are the Mac compatible programs that much less workable or am I just lame?

LOL! I don't use anything fancy, I used MS PowerPoint for my layouts. I copied RHome's last layout into a PowerPoint presentation and then added boxes, circles, lines, and descriptive text w/arrows. [I used the squares in the background to figure out how big to make the boxes...in this case, 1 square = 1 foot]

When done, I saved it as a JPEG file, cropped & resized it, and uploaded it to PhotoBucket. (I use MS Office Picture Manager to crop & resize the pictures prior to uploading.)

Here's one moving the refrigerator...a moot layout, though, since you're changing everything around...

Wow! You guys really are the best! remodelfa - If you still want to post something in excel, and don't have powerpoint, follow jaymielo's and sweeby's advice for screen capture and then paste the image into "paint" (I'm pretty sure your MAC should have a version of it). From there you should be able to save it as a JPEG/JPG file. I'll try to look at your layout when it's not so late at night.

OK...I wasn't sure how much of space you plan on using...so I used it all! Two versions for your review...

Layout #5...42" Straight Window, Counter-height

Layout #6...Corner Window, Counter-height [54" long on west side, 48" long on north side...they could both be 48" if symmetry is important]

buehl...I wrote this loooonnggg thought out response to you and the battery died on my computer ... UGH!!! Here I go again.
First I'll say thanks again. Do you ever sleep?
Layout #5: I love the function of having the island form a galley type working area in the kitchen. DH has a very steep learning curve here. HE's amazed at how people on this forum work with each other and now wants me to send him the site so he can check out the electrical/plumbing forums. However, he doens't understand kitchen funtion. He wanted to put the frig next to the stove and the DO where the frig is. I had to explain to him about landing space and pathways. One thought he had which I like would be to put the main sink in the island. I'd like to be able to unload the DW right into a 36" base drawer unit. I'm only 5' tall and want to avoid as many uppers as I can. Could we put a 24" DW, 36" drawer base, pullout for dishsoap/DW detergent, and sink there? Last night I ROUGHLY drew something like that out and had a prep area under the window where you have the sink in this layout. I envison a garden type window with a ledge where I can keep fresh herbs. Outside that window is an area with a trellis and watering system where we'll have flowers, orchids, herbs. I'd love to stagger the height of the base cabinets. Definately a lower prep/baking area and in a perfect world; lower the cooktop height too. I figure I will eventually shrink some; though I don't have much lower to go! The sink would be across from the cooktop so very convienent. The only problem I'll run into here I was going to try and use IKEA bases as much as possible due to $$$. Again... DH though lovable is kinda clueless as to how much things cost. He thought 15K for all the cabinets was an exhorbitant amount of money.

Layout #6: I love corner sinks. But hubby told me that all exterior corners of the house have concrete structural columns so that would be a problem for him. Again, we want to DIY this as much as we can.

I love the overhang on the islands. IT's exactly what I wanted. They way you configured it is much better then what I came up with. Seats more people.

Tomorrow, Monday, I'm going down to the house and will take lots of pics of the house as it exists now. Especially of those pesky interior columns that I will have no choice but to work around.

Thanks and have a wonderful day! We're off to a family B-day party in Ft. Myers (about 2 hours from here in the Ft. Lauderdale area) I'll be back tonight,
Elyse