Wonderful, helpful comments. Here is my long response! I fear my sunny day photos made my kitchen look it's best when in fact it is mostly dark (NW exposure- most of my neighbor's have a skylight here and I would love to splurge on this when we remodel). It's also always cluttered due to my limited counters/storage. I keep half my pantry in the garage as well as all my china and serving pieces and a second fridge. The "pretty" side door some of you mentioned or expanded actually opens onto our garbage cans, the neighbor's wall and steep steps (to the left) down to the patio behind the house so I probably shouldn't have called it a side "yard". There is really no yard there that would deserve true french doors or a view. I think I have been convinced that if I do a kitchen only remodel I should keep to the current footprint (with the exception of shifting the sidedoor over or closing the door to the hall- I see that these could be net positives). I really was only interested in the porch addition if it got me a real "family kitchen" with secondary seating. Believe me, we already use the table all day long, but since it is used for every purpose (meals, snacks, homework, projects, multiple laptops, coloring, etc) I was fantasizing about the island/peninsula as a second surface. Within the current footprint I am on board with a C shaped layout, a half wall divider, side door shift and possibly closing the door to the hall (if it gets me better storage). Lavender - Moving the kids downstairs gets complicated because there's only one bedroom down there (the office). And it's not big enough to fit bunks. No matter how creative I get there's going to be kids in our bath unless we add a bath upstairs. (BTW it's very light down there. We're on a hill and the back of the house gets the sun.) tbb123 - Wow. thank you so much for mocking up the ikea plan. Every time I try their software it crashes on me but it is SO helpful to see it in 3D. It helped me feel good about the half wall, although I think I agree with moccasin that I wouldn't want the hood over it to block the view. I've thought about putting the sink there (as Lavender suggests) but run into dish storage issues once you have stove and dishwasher in place, and the back wall/corners of the kitchen becomes very underutilized. I really like the diagonal pantry cabs idea next to the fridge. The "schmoozer" spot is very clever! I fear my kids would fight over that :)and not sure how I feel about it's aesthetic fit in the (pretty traditional) living/dining room. I will try to post more complete measurements for you this evening after kids are in bed. Also check out my link below - those plans might help fill in the gaps. I am very grateful for your suggestions! GreenDesigns - Points well taken. We have looked at the financials and believe it or not we are still better served putting 100-150K into remodeling then moving given the (high) home prices in our area/property taxes, etc. The porch "addition" (as well as a very small side bumpout)was originally explored so we could both update the kitchen and squeeze another bath upstairs. We put a lot of time into those plans but have some concerns about them. I would love your opinion on them...the thread with those plans is linked below. I've been working parallel paths on this project since no matter what the kitchen is getting remodeled! bmorepanic - Thank you so much for the plans. The first would be awesome IF the side of the house was bigger/prettier (see my comments above). The second is puzzling to me - are you saying there is not enough room for an island there but too much empty space in the middle for it to make sense to bump out? Rosie - I actually have a few inspiration pics with a 12 inch wall of storage for that exact wall! Want to share yours? :> I had been ruling out putting the fridge on the short back wall thinking "bad focal point" but I didn't think about a cabinet front. And I wasn't planning on replacing the fridge but maybe I should reconsider if it makes the layout work best. I would also have to find one with a water/ice dispenser since my kids are addicted to that feature on the current one. You guys rock. So appreciate all the feedback. Here is a link that might be useful: My thread with the bigger house remodel options (bath addition)

Hey gozalyn, welcome to the forum. I really think you should reconsider a smaller sink base. I have an 11 x 16 ft kithcen and can't put in a 36" base. Currently, I have a 24" base with a single bowl stainless sink (interior dimensions 21 x 17) and it's really big enough. I'm not saying that bigger wouldn't be better, but I think you'd get a heck of a lot more function from a super susan than a big sink. I can't tell how wide the door to your family room is but if it's 30", you could put in french doors instead of a bifold (which I find are too "delicate" for my household). We had a similar space problem in our master bath. We replaced the 30" door with glass french doors and it works great! I think the carpenter had to modify what was available off the shelf (I can't remember if he ripped bigger doors or added to smaller ones). I can show you a picture if you're interested.

mom2lilenj... I'm working on trying to draw a complete layout of the kitchen, bathrooms, and current master bedroom with dimensions. The family room and 2nd bedroom aren't impacted at all as they are in the front of the house. I'm strugging... but I'll get it. cotehele... thank you so much for your words of encouragement and awesome suggestion. I try to talk to DH about things but he's so sick of hearing about it it's difficult to engage him without feeling like I'm a nag. I admit... I'm beginning to feel totally obsessed. He was all in with this elaborate layout the architect came up with for the bedroom extension till he started thinking about it. All along I said... I really don't need that much but he (DH) kept saying that doubling the size of the extension wouldn't cost that much more. Now he wants to live with it as is. His words... "why don't we just throw 10K in there and it'll be fine. There are no appliances, a tiny orginal builders blue laminate 1960's kitchen, and the master bedroom is currently only 9'W with one 4 1/2' square closet and 4/12 ' square bathroom. I'm more then willing to make accomodations; but I can't live in that. I put forth the idea to him that we could enclose the screen room and push the kitchen back. Then I could widen the bathrooms and bedroom into area of the kitchen where the dining area is. It'll be easier when I figure how to draw the whole thing out both current and proposed layouts with nothing in there. I'm not too concerned about load bearing walls since we can always have an beam dropped in for support. This entire layout started months ago with a support wall and odd wall juts that I wanted to work around. The architect said we will drop an ibeam in for support. Anyway... I truly appreciate all input

I like Chesterfields or any sofa that has rounded and high comfortable arms, but frankly I think a sofa with fabric upholstery would be much more attractive and friendly-looking than that leather monolith. Yourexisting leather sofa has clean lines and looks fine in the living room, although a more substantial coffee table, a large rug and some end tables would help to finish the look. With what you have in the family room I would highly recommend a non-leather sofa to integrate with what you have there already.