you are going to be very limited in it. blocking the DR slider doesn't have to make it totally unusable. And you will still get light from it.

You won't be able to fit a big table in it but should be able to fit a small one with 1 chair (or 2).

I do think taking down the wall will cause more limitations in the LR. You could open up the doorway closer to the slider some. Depending on reality you might be able to put a shallow flr to ceiling 'pantry' cab in the top left corner of the kitchen.

How wide is the stove are you planning to get? the LO looks like just a 24" stove.

how wide is the kitchen?

the diagonal lines on the LO make it more difficult to 'read'.

There are two sliders on that wall...one in the LR and one in the DR. Do you need both? Would you be willing to either replace the slider with windows (my recommendation) or "close off" the sliders (i.e., accept that you will not be able to use them and do something to "encourage" non-use")?

IF you are willing to replace the slider with a window, I would make the window counter-height and move the Kitchen to where the DR is now and move the DR to where the current Kitchen is.

If you switch the kitchen and dining rooms, you can close off the current dining room door, giving you more wall space in the kitchen for upper and lower cabinets. You could also remove the wall between the living room and the new dining room, allowing you to spread your table into the living room for dinners with a lot of guests. Because it's not as large a span, you might not need columns in the middle to support the beam - columns at the end might do. The wall with the current sink/fridge/DW could have a built-in bench for the table.

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.

First, congrats on getting your first house and second, having such a talented dad!

I love buehl's idea to swap the kitchen and dining room: it gets you another 5.5 feet of kitchen, even if you leave the old dining room doorway in place. One or two big counter-height windows (as buehl said) will let in a lot of light so you won't miss the slider. Moving the kitchen also lets the dining room be closer to the front entrance and join the other public areas.

My previous house had a narrow living room similar to yours with a couple columns and an open kitchen and dining area. Think hard about having your sofa away from the wall, if you can put the TV on the exterior wall (you don't show windows). This might sound a little paper doll-ish but since you have a nice grid layout already, make cutouts and play around with the size of your furniture in the living room. I think you have plenty of room to walk behind the sofa and still watch tv.

Taking down the wall in the middle (where the kitchen currently is) will give you more flexibility to have more living space (for a stand-up party) or more dining space (for your first Thanksgiving dinner at your house!).

HTH

I think Lirio's idea of living there to get a feel for the house and what will and won't work is excellent. A small house can be very workable and can have a good amount of space if planned carefully. My DD just renovated her grandmother's home. It is a small two bedroom house. She made it so homey and inviting that I could live there and I am used to a bigger home.

Good luck with your new home and congratulations. I look forward to seeing your progress.

Thank you all so much for your help and advice! It's always possible that I live in the place as is, but there are some things that need attention sooner rather than later (leaking pipes, peeling laminate). I just thought I would evaluate everything pre-move-in since I need new cabinets, new flooring and a new sink right away.

The sliding glass door in the kitchen actually needs to be replaced soon, so I think I am open to doing a window there instead of a door. One entrance to the small patio seems to be enough. My only concern with swapping out the kitchen and the dining room is putting the dining room next to the bathroom. Is this a concern for anyone else? I'm not sure what is common practice.

Be sure to check whether you can alter the exterior appearance of your townhome. Often the condo documents prohibit changes there.

About the bathroom--right now, you have your kitchen right next to the bathroom. I don't see any real difference in having the dining room next the the bathroom.

Do think carefully about what liriodendron has said. Removing the wall between the living room and the kitchen/dining room would mean that all your living space, as opposed to bedroom space, would be basically one large room.

One big room is great for entertaining. But how often do you entertain? How often are you home by yourself or just with your immediate family? I'd chose a floor plan that works best for most of the time.

Houses that are designed to have open floor plans rarely have the entire living space be one large room. There's usually a den or some other room that can be closed off. Or the living space is L-shaped or in other ways is designed so that there is the feeling of separate areas, even when it's an open space.

Smaller houses that have been "opened up" often don't work well. As you've already noticed, there may be a lack of wall space, making furniture placement difficult. And the space may not flow well for the various activities that it needs to support.

My suggestion would be to move in and fix what's broken. So absolutely fix the leaky pipes.

But you can live with peeling laminate for a few months. Is the sink broken or do you just not like it? Same with the cabinets. I'd spend as little money as possible to get everything working. Then live in the space. You may find that you use the dining room sliding door more than the living room door. Or vice versa.

Then make a plan, after you know how the space works, and how you live in the space.

Remodeling a kitchen is expensive. Taking down a load-bearing wall is expensive. I'd wait and take my time and make sure of what I wanted before making any drastic changes.

The big problem with the 2 sliders out the back is that it takes up traffic flow space and you have little to spare.

I like the idea of swapping the kitchen and the dr as it adds light and a corner to your kitchen...to me lazy Susan's are essentials, ESP in small spaces with minimal storage. In a small house, the potty is always going to be near something, so don't worry about it.

If you make the swap, then open up between the LR and the new kitchen with an eat at peninsula. Leave the wall between the LR and the new dr and you can put the tv on that wall with the sofa opposite... This way you won't have to remove the entire load bearing wall, but just create an opening in it.

Wow. That kitchen is more than small, and I see why it is tempting to do something with it right away. I understand that you have repairs that must be done before you move in, like fixing the faucet, but I agree that you might be able to live with de-laminating counters for a while. Being IN a space, sitting there, feeling the mood, seeing the movement of light, experiencing the way that the space works for you, is very important. But if it really makes no sense to take the time to do that, these experts here will see things that you might not consider.

My family room is right next to my kitchen and the kitchen counters formed the "wall" for about half of the division between the two rooms. The only other thing that divided the rooms was that the family room is 6 inches lower than the kitchen. Across the room from the kitchen side of the family room was a hugely long, dark, brick hearth (that sticks 18 inches into the room, eating up floorspace and making this wall unusable) and brick wall that went to the ceiling - and then a 5 ft sliding glass door to the patio. It was the only window in the room. My family room is about the size of your living room - 13 x 18.

We have one of those big entertainment center pieces that is nice, solid wood. It is 5 ft high, 5 ft long, and 2 ft deep. It went on the wall that was on the non-cupboard end of the kitchen (but in the family room, of course). That put it in front of the stationary pane of the glass doorwall. That setup meant that I had no choice but to kind of line my seating up along the only other two "walls" I had. The fourth wall, opposite the entertainment center, and the "non-wall" abutting the kitchen. So from the kitchen, you saw the backs of upholstered chairs, tops of occasional tables, and lamps all kind of lined up. It looked kind of cluttered from the kitchen.

Looking into the kitchen from the family room, you were looking up from a lower level. This did not add any sense of not being able to see clutter there, because it was only 6 inches! So the kitchen wastecan at the end of the cabinet run sat right behind (or in front of if you were in the kitchen) an easy chair! Sometimes, lazy me would just reach back and drop a dirty dish onto the piece of counter top that I could reach!

My story illustrates Camlan's point about how the "open concept" works better for larger spaces. Sometimes, walls are needed. When we remodeled our kitchen, the new cabinets were really old reused cabinets, and we actually lengthened the span of cabinetry between the two rooms. My contractor only does things properly. He did not consider just backing the cabs with a nice plywood. He put up a wall. That allowed him to run electric lines and give me outlets in the family room that I never had before, and gave me required outlets at the desk in the kitchen. I now have a floor-to-ceiling wall for about 6 ft. behind the corner cab that houses the elevated dishwasher and a 36" pantry cabinet. Then I have a 7ft long 40" wall behind the desk. Sitting at the desk, you can see into the family room. Inside the family room, the new wall made it feel more spacious! I believe it is because the family room now ends, and we can no longer see the clutter from the kitchen behind the family room seating. It feels more spacious. Everyone notices that it feels bigger in there. Because we ADDED a wall.