Off the top of my head, if it were my kitchen, here's what I would do:

Along the appliance wall:

You really need more separation between the stove and the sink, especially if the stove is electric. Take out the corner cabinet, move the stove to the right, and rebuild the cabinets to fit, with uppers and lowers as your husband suggested. The cabinet at the left-hand run is visible from the front hall; keep it decorative, Maybe store the dishes in it; if you can put frosted/obscure glass in the uppers, it will give it more of a furniture look.

Along the pantry wall:

Take out the pantry. Build a wall of full-height cabinets along that wall, from the r-h corner to about 2/5ths of the way down the wall. Yov covld even do shallow closet with nice doors and shelving inside. This wovld be yovr new pantry. To the left of it, essentially centered on the wall, place the refrigerator. Next to this, build a decorative bar, or convert a piece of furniture into one -- possibly with glass and bottle storage above, a countertop, and a base cabinet with drawers for corkscrews, napkins, and accessories below. It would be so nice to have the bar next to the refrigerator! Even better if you can install a small sink there, bvt that might be dreaming!

The weird area: I don't think I'd close it off. Instead, maybe vse it as a sitting area, along with a spot for the dog's bed. It wovld be nicer if the stairs started at the kitchen side, so yov covld vse that left-over area for a cleaning storage closet ... bvt changing stairs is a big job.

The dog's bowl: We vse a base cabinet with a slide-in door for ovr pet feeding station and food storage. It closes off between meals. Yov covld pvt this in the line of cabinets along the former pantry wall.

I think an island or peninsvla wovld be awkward and chop vp the space too mvch.

Sorry -- my "u" key is sticking!

My first thought would be get rid of your existing pantry -- it makes your kitchen look smaller and more closed in than it really it. Then take the "weird area" and line in with a combination of attractive open shelving and some closed cupboard to replace the storage area that you are losing from the pantry. Also, without the pantry you have many more options for the kitchen layout.

First, embedding the two most impt. pictures:

I largely agree with changing the cabinet to the left of your range (as viewed while looking at the range) into uppers and lowers with a counter. Like chibimibi, I was tempted (very tempted) to shift the range away from sink. One potential problem is the propinquity to the back door. (BTW, how much use does this door get?)

So, instead, I will suggest: change the tall cab into uppers and lowers+counter as discussed. Get rid of range and move DW to left of sink. Get rid of the drainboard and use a 36" sink base. To the right of sink, put in 40" stretch of counter, then your 30" range. This leaves 21" to the right of the range for additional counter space.

I also agree with the idea of getting rid of the big square pantry in favor of more extended storage (wider, shallower) along that wall.

Bumping, as I hope the real layout experts will chime in!

Hi All

Thanks for the input so far.
So we are all agreed that the pantry should be DESTROYED! Great news.
The battle of what to do with the range has been brewing between the DH and I for a while now. He initially wanted to shift it over but I feel like there's still not enough space for it(?) And Yes Angie - that back door does get some use. (Husband over shoulder shouting "I use it all the time!". lol) He has a fantasy about turning the covered porch into a solarium/conservatory but that is an amazing pipe dream. I was wondering if the range should be moved on the opposite/pantry wall? It's very interesting also to think about moving the range to the other side of the sink - I didn't think about that before.....
And yes (Chibimimi) - that cabinet on the end - I can see it when I am in the entry hall and it drives me crazy! I thought about removing that one cabinet...but maybe if I just make it more decorative it won't bother me as much.

I want to scan a pic of some kind of bench seating I saw and get your opinions on if it's going to look crazy or not, but first I have to find a scanner...

I had initially thought to suggest moving the range across to the other wall. You may be able to vent through the roof, or, depending on which way the joists run, you may be able to easily run the vent across the kitchen ceiling.

The only reason I didn't suggest this, however, is that would put the range across a 6' aisle from the sink. I don't know what the experts think, but that seems a bit far to me. That is why I suggested keeping it on the sink wall and shifting it to the other side.

If husband and budget were willing, I would consider moving the sink (and window?) in order to create more space between range and sink. You could either move it left and put range on right, or vice versa. However, I figured that was not realistic for your situation, which is why I made the suggestion I did originally.

So I have another qvestion regarding the stairs.

The stairs going vp back to the weird area. Can the stairs going to the basement go beneath them instead of taking space from the kitchen area? Is there enovgh headroom, and does the basement layovt work with that? This wovld free a tremendvs amovnt of space in the floorplan and give yov more more flexibility.

You know, maybe I was too hasty to rule out putting the range on the (present) pantry wall. Six feet is not ridiculously far. NKBA recommendations are that each leg of the work triangle be between 4 and 9 feet. (See excellent link below.) I just mocked up a 6 foot aisle, and pretended to cook and use the sink. It is not too bad. Instead of a pivot-step, it is a pivot-step + half step.

If it were my kitchen, I think I would prefer my first solution of putting both range and sink on outside wall. However, I think a layout that puts one of them on the inside wall would work, too.

Here is a link that might be useful: NKBA recommendations illustrated

I forgot to say WHY I would prefer them on the same wall. It is principally because I don't want to cross an aisle between cooking and sink, if I can avoid it.

If you take out the corner pantry, you've got 174" on that wall, right? That's plenty of space to do this (L to R):
retro fridge (hoping it hinges on the left)
about 75"-80" of counter with prep sink (not sure how wide your fridge is)
30" range
30" drawer stack cab

Cheat the prep sink closer to fridge than range so that you preserve as much counter between prep sink and range as possible but not so much that you end up with no counter next to the fridge, eliminating your landing zone.

Set up a beverage station, visible from your front door to the right of the existing sink. With glasses above the counter (assuming you'll store these near DW for convenience) and the fridge only a few steps away for ice, tonic water, etc, you're ready to entertain.

Turn the existing tall cabinet into a pantry with roll-outs. Build a new cab where the range currently is. Duplicate the open shelving below the upper cabs to the right of the sink where the MW is now.

When you get around to turning that back porch into a solarium, I'd be tempted to add a tall, narrow window on the hinge side of the door to bring more light into your kitchen.

Idiot me, forgot to post the plan I drew up:

This is only one idea but you've definitely got the room to have water, fridge and range on one wall.

One more thought. If you enlarge the opening and replace the single swing door with a slider (fixed pane to left, closest to range) you eliminate concern about door swing in your kitchen.

I like Lisa's design. Also on the stove wall I recommend deeper lowers or if it's not in the budget stick 2x4" behind the cabs and pull the lower outs. Your counter will be deeper and you will LOVE that extra space to prep! You have plenty of room

In the 111" "weird" wall you could add more cabinets or go the IKEA route and use Besta cabinets. If using Besta in the lower portion use doors and hide seldom used pots or appliances. The uppers can be used as a bookcase plus additional storage. Add a comfy chair and light and you have a library.

That weird wall has a half wall to the stairs. You could put small desk there and use it as a bill/computer/calendar/phone area.

Hey Guys
I kind of like Lisa's design too - though the DH doesn't have good visualization skills - is there a free program I can download somewhere to do some sort of a mock up of the kitchen?
for the range hood - yes we can vent out of the ceiling - this is what actually propelled the DH and I to ask for help on the forum - I suggested that if he's going to cut a hole in the ceiling we'd better make sure it's in the right place!
Chibimimi - With regards to the basement stairs not being placed under the stairs to the 2nd floor - we looked into it and discovered that all the ductwork and wiring to the 2nd floor is passing from the basement to the 2nd floor through the space under the stairs to the 2nd floor. Disaster. The 2nd story was an add on on the late 70s and my husband is trying to convince me not to touch anything that doesn't absolutely need to be touched.

I really like Lisa's plan, too. This is not a surprise -- she is one of our layout aces!

My concern with her layout is that it may be tough to implement that excellent layout on a $5k budget. I hope I am wrong!

For visualization, I used Google sketchup. It is free, and has a wonderful database of 3D objects created by other people. However, it has a steep learning curve.

Others have had success with a free app from Ikea. You might also consider plunking down $30-$50 and buying a kitchen-design-specific CAD program for something this important.

You can always do this a little at a time. Take the pantry out, get electric prepped, fix the walls, get some cabinet frames from ikea and do the basic install.

If you have to wait to get all of the door/drawers, then wait. It's easy to buy and install cabinet frames and then get innards when funds permit. It's also a way to slowly replace some of your existing cabinets until you're happy.

I'm just sorry to say I think you'll end up replacing them all.

Oh guys, I'm starting to get worried about my conservative budget! Is it inevitable that we'll end up replacing all the cabinets? I thought maybe we could throw a little paint on the cabinets - shuffle some things around and get a few more years out of the kitchen...but not if it's going to look hodge-podgey. There's that sort of "parisian-chic" type of vintage kitchen with some old furniture thrown together with the horrible old cabinets and it all seems to work together - but then there's reality and maybe I don't have that kind of kitchen. At the point we're at - wanting to reface cabinets, new counter, backsplash, sink, appliances and lighting - maybe we should just rip everything out and start from scratch after all and eat macaroni and hot dogs for the next few years - but atleast we'll be cooking them in an awesome kitchen.....

I'm not arguing against doing the save/more/money route for sure. Refacing cabinets is usually more expensive than one would think and doesn't seem to last as long as one would hope.

That's why I'd be doing a little at a time (pay-as-you-go). You are going to have some "casualties" in any re-arrangement.

For instance - you move the range to the other side of the room - you get a spot without a cabinet on the current sink wall. For the short uppers, you could load a pot rack or plate rack underneath or place another open shelf underneath so it matches the other side.

I know you'd really rather have less cabinets on that wall but your existing cabinets look built-in-place and can be hard to move. They are also the wrong sizes - like there isn't a 31" base cabinet and it doesn't look like it could be made. Someone would need to create a new built-in place cabinet for the hole where the range was AND for the hole beyond the dishwasher where you want to shorten the run AND for the uppers beyond the window. It becomes a lot of parts and materials.

That's why I'm suggesting starting in a way that can be "stopped" and restarted later. Ikea cabinets (without the door or drawer fronts) are seriously cheap. It's a reasonable way to approach the design you like without incurring a big price tag and a long down time where you can't use your kitchen.

You could also think about creating that great "accumulated look". Again as an example, find something cool looking that could be the pantry - like an armoire. Take out the tall cabinet beside the "range hole" and the wall cabinet that was over the range and put the new cabinet in. Put together a 68"-70" sink unit with a trash pullout, 36" sink base and dw. Find a hutch and place it on the hallway side of the new sink unit for dish storage.

On the other side - match or complement the new section. Very little funds, great new look.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sample lift door cabinet.