I thought I posted something yesterday, but I guess I was still in preview when the boys took over the computer. My issues are different from yours, obviously. With that in mind, I was also suggesting that you look at turning the pantry to get rid of that awkward set back and get better use of the pantry space. You could even put a shallow tall on the end plus a doored pantry and/or shelves -- maybe even a spot for a TV facing the nook. In the process, if you pick up just a few inches for for the range wall -- as few as 2 inches would allow you to have a 21 and a 24 cabinet flanking the range. If you put a 24 on the end towards the nook, you could put the micro drawer there. That would keep it close enough to the range for use when melting or thawing for cooking and not too far from the fridge -- but it puts it closer to the table where you eat the things you heat up. I'd rather walk further with a cold dish and a shorter distance with a hot one. That would be pretty similar to what we have here, and even with my teens and others in the kitchen, it has worked out well. Doesn't look like you need to make major changes, but I was wondering if the enclosed back porch is deep enough to put a dining table in there? If so, you could look at swapping the door and window at the entry and making the existing dining room an entry/den -- keep the bedroom and have the option of guest room, study, sewing/craft room/library. Not sure if that help the front traffic flow. We enter through the side of our house,

My suggestion is that you combine the living room and dining room functions, but keep the kichen separate. Don't get yourself wrapped up in trying to replicate all the features of much-larger spaces. A dining room table can be easily intergrated into a living room and do double duty there as long as you don't try to copy the big table with chairs all around it plus sideboard. Think of a table (with leaves) that generally sits behind a sofa, for instance. Some times it's a sofa table, some times it's a dining table. The chairs need not stand around it all day long. They can be spread around the room, or even in different rooms if you don't use all of them for every day meals. The sideboard function can be handled by a cupboard, or a hutch, with some books as well as linens, serving pieces, and other DR accoutremnts. Bookshelves that are wonderful in a livng room are also fab for the walls of the DR space. You may be able to get a few seating postions (one or two) at a small island in the kitchen for those times when you have a kitchen companion hanging out with you, or when you're just grabbing a quick snack. I would concentrate on making the kitchen the most efficient and highly functional that your space allows. Since this is working area, function will really make or break the space. Think of your downstairs as having two rooms: a sitting room with the dining table in it AND a well-designed kitchen with a great place for another person to hang out with the cook. "Opening up" the rooms is a currently a popular trend, but its pouplarlity will wane (like all highly sought after and endlessly copied things). Meanwhile if you have made major structural changes in your building you will be stuck with them. Save yourself angst and money and make two great rooms -- you'll be way ahead of the style curve and you'll have two wonderful rooms that really work. Don't worry about "sliders here" or "sliders there" question at this point - think of the rooms' uses and work on those questions first. Once you have that worked out you can see how to integrate the fenestration pattern with what you already have. I think part of the current urge to open up the kitchen to the other rooms is because of the enormous size of most houses. In smaller houses there isn't as much os sense of estrangement between the people sitting in one room and those in another. Don't think you have to copy the "remedy" for the faults of houses that aren't like yours simply because that's all you see in shelter mags. Small houses are special, not the least because they are very human scaled and require you to think very carefully about your space and the choices of how you use it. I suppose you are familiar with the work of Susan Susanka of the Not So Big House fame. If not highly recommend getting her books from your library. She is a master of wonderful, small space planning. Above all else, don;t think you have to rush into a renovation. The most successful ones are those which start with a period of living n the house to see how it feels. This is the standard advice for new owners of old houses, but even less-than-antique houses have much to teach you about how they feel that you can't tell just by walking around in it a few times. Live there for 6 months ot a year -then you'll know what needs to be done and you'll have fewer regreats about your choices. HTH L.

The island is large enough to have a good zone of safety around the cooking zone, but not large enough to serve as the prep zone. Your prep zone in this layout will be the corner between your fridge and DW. And that would be fine for many people. If you want to prep and socialize with visitors at the same time, then this isn't a layout that will work for that and you'd need to move the cooking zone off of the island and put a sink there so that you'd prep facing out into the room. Whatever you decide, I'd make the entry to the pantry in the hall adjacent so that you could extend the cabinets down all the way to that hall and move the fridge down further to make access easier from the great room. That will also give you a good place for a MW next to the fridge. I'd personally also prefer a peninsula for some separation between the kitchen and dining room while still remaining open for the connection. I'd also prefer the cooking zone to be off of the island so that it would b easier and cheaper (and more effectively) vented to the exterior straight through the wall. Flank it with some windows to make it a focal point from the great room.

They're bigger, but still not legible - at least the top one is illegible. Rotag - can you zoom your PDF to fit your monitor screen and then take a screen shot? Then, save the screenshot as a JPG file and post it here? Can you also post specific measurements rather than general? I.e., the width of each window/wall/door/doorway and the distances b/w each window/wall/door/doorway. You do say windows/doors can be moved - any/all of them? I can already tell that most likely your overhang is too shallow - you have plenty of space, so increase the island to 41.5" deep. I also think you need to move the DW & sink over to have more landing space to the right of the sink - you risk splashing water all over the floor as well as knocking things off the counter (like glass!) You could move the DW as far as you can to the left into the corner and then have a 27" cabinet turned 90 degrees on the other side (facing the seats) rather than deadening out the space. It could house seldom-used items or items for the living/dining area.