I am in the process of something similar. I can tell you a few things. 1. set-up an areas to replace what you will be without for a couple weeks,. We moved our kitchen into front porch during demo. 2. Get some Visqueene plastic(sp?) and tape and seal up all areas you don't want dust. This includes HVAC vents (turn off your system if you can bear the heat/cold) If you have an older house the subfloor is not plywood but pine boards with cracks and all the banging and demolition will drop dust to the area below. Also cover sensitive equipment like TVs, computers, pianos, anything you don't want to get dusty. It will get everywhere not covered up. This may seem like overboard but it is worth it. 3. remove appliances. This opens up the space to work. 4. Have a plan for debris removal. The thick 6mil garbage bags from Home Depot are great for demo trash. Super heavy duty and expensive. You will take out more crap than you would ever think. 5. Once you have done the demolition take stock of your plumbing and wiring. If your house is older like mine you may need to update some of the wiring/plumbing. 6. Take pictures of your opened up walls etc. you can then look back at them if you want to add something later. 7. I'll update as I continue. I am stuck at stage 6, Good Luck.

Have you read the (Read Me if You're New( thread? Buehl explains how to post pics there. There is also a list of questions to think about and write about in your post for layout help. You'll get more help if you include good pics/drawings and a detailed narrative. Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: Buehl's

It is possible to take up tile without replacing the cabinets, at least if the tile doesn't run under the cabinets. When we bought our house, we wanted to replace the tile floor in our kitchen but didn't want to do a full remodel. The tile was all taken up and engineered wood installed. It didn't hurt our cabinets. The tile hadn't been installed under the cabinets. Around 20 years later, we remodeled the kitchen. We didn't want to replace the flooring at that point. The kitchen and family room are open to each other with the flooring covering the whole area. We had a long term plan to take out the large fireplace hearth in the family room which would uncover a bunch of floor so we wanted to wait until that to replace the floor. It worked because the old kitchen footprint was very functional so we were only making small tweaks to that: enlarging the island depth a bit, slightly shifting the position and width of the refrigerator. A bit of the old flooring had to come up since the cabinets would all sit on the subfloor for the larger island and some material patched in to the larger fridge opening. The cabinets are standard height - the way our cabinets come, the boxes don't have the toe kick, it was constructed under the cabinets and the cabinet boxes sit on top of it so they just had to allow for the flooring height when making the toe kicks. Adjusting the floor for the small footprint changes was probably easier with a wood floor than with tile, but it could be possible. We have had cracked tiles in our entry hall replaced with spare ones left over. Do you have any spare tiles? We have since completed the family room update and replaced the kitchen and family room flooring with no issues.

Jan, Thank you for clarifying your post. Yes to the pocket doors! I was even picturing doors with beautiful leaded glass or some sort of a stained glass insert that would match with the home’s era too. What are your thoughts as to the walking distance between the garage entrance and the new kitchen location for bringing in groceries? No big deal? Get your steps in? 👣 What about enlarging the mudroom so it would include a nice big walk-in pantry space as well and then slide the garage entrance closer towards the new kitchen space? Just a thought. JC, Sorry, I know I am getting ahead of myself. I am just having wishful thinking that you might be able to swing the kitchen moving to the FR idea. I know it might be a complete non starter. It would look mighty pretty, just sayin’! 😉 Rabbitt, I posted the PDF and I even think I posted a DWG of the home earlier on, so everything is dimensioned there in a lossless format See now this is kind of what I am talking about.…. ”DWG” and ”lossless format” Huh??? 😵‍💫 It similar to what I am trying to explain regarding your layout format. It is like you are speaking in a foreign language. A language in which only another professional architect (like yourself), a draftsmen, a GC, an ID, or someone familiar with your specific computer design program can understand. It is fine if your program does not have the ability to show the layout in a simple to read gridded format. I just figured it might have that ability since it seems like it is a very high tech fancy program you are using. BTW, while looking for your ”DWG”, I did find another good example of a layout format that is very simple and easy to read. This layout was posted earlier by Sena. See how there is a grid like graph paper? The different measurements we need are labeled in inches making it very easy to figure out that each box is equal to one foot. Sometimes the grids will show each box as 6”. So your program doesn’t do something like that, showing the grid and the walls, windows, doors, and isles being labeled like hers above? Ok, now as I am looking closer at your rendering, I see how the island you drew does not have a seating overhang. I didn’t catch that. Maybe my brain figured JC’s family had super short legs with enormous torsos to sit in a stool tucked underneath those little shallow drawers and wine cubbies??? Oh brother! 🤣 I don’t think it is a problem though. You could just make the overhang start after the island cabinets. I believe JC also said that the FR was a little bigger then you had it drawn. So with 16’, I am thinking there should be enough space for the seating for 5? I know she really was wanting the island seats.