Option 2 is exactly what I was thinking of before I even got to your pic of it. I need some time to study it but I love the idea of a kitchen opening onto a screen room.

I actually would rather have a breakfast room open to a screened porch with it's possible breeze and indirect light, but have windows for the kitchen for more direct natural light.

I don't know that the kitchen all the way in the back there is very convenient. That seems like a long walk from the garage with groceries. How do you feel about seeing the kitchen on the right side from the entrance foyer? That is really a very nice big space there that you could probably do a lot with. I do think you need to figure out the location for the powder room. I know you're looking at big $$$'s for the whole addition scenario, but I do believe moving waste can get pricey. But having your PR in the middle there seems problematic for making the best use of the space.

Have you asked your architect?

I agree with malhgold, I think the kitchen next to the garage is a very convenient spot.

How about if you move the powder room next to the office side of the stairs and move the doorway from kitchen to the office. That would free up a bunch of space to re-work your kitchen.

I know where you are coming from with scaling down an addition to using what internal space you have. We had to do that for money reasons and I also couldn't get an additon to look right (working with a designer) on my old old house. I had to give up the dream of a large mudroom and my kitchen layout isn't perfect, but it'll be nice anyway. And a great improvement.

Sorry I have not replied, I have been away from the computer to follow up here. To answer some questions,before we started thinking about an addition,someone suggested the kitchen behind the FR and our first thought was " that's a long way to go from the garage with groceries to get to the kitchen and we will be be trekking thru a dining room or some other space at the back of the house " Then I thought that the big grocery trip is just once a week so not so bad but still not sure for future use and for resale purposes if that space would be awkward or not.

The right side of the house (in current office/kitchen space ) is definitely a possibility as well -I just was hoping to make more of a connection between the kitchen and FR but it certainly is not a deal breaker. I will play around with some drawings on this scenario.

The hardest area to deal with seems to be north of the basement door into the 'nook area' -it is such a long space with little use.

We have not approached the architect yet re. what possibilities there are of not doing an addition-it took a long time to get where we are with the addition plans that I don't want to approach him before we get more estimates and make our final decision on which way to go- addition or no addition.

How would you feel about putting the office in the breakfast area, then "north of the basement door into the 'nook area' -it is such a long space with little use" put your dining/breakfast area in the center of it all. Then expand the kitchen into the office area.

It puts the office in the nicest spot, but if you spend lots of time there that may not be so bad. Or you could put the office in the south part of the family room (if it doesn't need to be closed off) and expand the family room into the dining/breakfast area.

I am going to make some kinds of generic comments based on one of my favorite remodeling columns as well as a well-known architect.

The remodel-column guru always hit home to me with her proposed solutions because they were based not on adding so much square footage, but on identifying why certain rooms in the house weren't used much, and why folks gravitated to one area, and then flipping or re-orienting the spaces and traffic flow to use all of the home to best advantage. Whereas so many typical remodel solutions seemed to involve converting a garage or adding yet another room when the original home had significant sq footage already.

Of course the innovative re-purposing solutions still might have involved some additions, bump outs, wall removal and so forth, but quite often involved taking into account the best views or adding great windows, French doors when needed to access the deck or yard, flipping the kitchen so it was oriented to great views rather than a less-used dining space, and so forth.

So an example of a common "mistake" is that someone might add a large sunny family room or sunroom to the back of a home that already has kitchen, DR, FR, LR, etc ( at high expense)in order to have light and air, but not connect it well to existing spaces, and then the whole family crowds into the sunroom and drags meals out there ("we spend all our time here"), but still does not like being in the existing kitchen and DR and FR, which still must be heated, cooled, and cleaned, instead of getting the right design help to remodel the existing spaces to work together and have the light and views and connections needed to "feel good".

That would just be an example, and is not to say that one can't add a terrific sunroom that was the best thing they ever did!

You're already thinking along some of those lines. Continue with evaluating the light and views and what your family expects to do together and apart; as noted, screened porch provides access to fresh air, but the effect on light entry is to be looking out into shade and dimness ( unless you add skylights to the porch, which is also an option to consider in remodeling,for just that reason). You would know more about how you might use the kitchen-FR connection (this was a useful combination for my family in order to allow kids to be on computer, do homework and feel connected to the kitchen).

As another form of inspiration, you might also like to read The Not So Big House. It also speaks to the features of home design that contribute to the "feel" of the spaces so that we create spaces that are really used and enjoyed every day as opposed to lots of "rooms" that are not.

I think many architects and designers are more comfortable with "additions" rather than the idea of re-arranging existing space within the home.

Frankie - thanks for sharing the info on the remodel column guru. It does help reinforce not to simply move something to where there is space but consider something as simple as 'light' . That does remind me of one of the concerns in putting the kitchen behind the screen porch -it is one of the darker rooms in the house. And I definitely have seen some amazing kitchens created here on GW without doing any additions! So .....

mom2lilenj: thanks for all your ideas-they aren't too far off of all the scenarios we have discussed over the years. Re. an office, all i truly need is a spot for a computer and ideally for a file cabinet -so I wouldn't want to devote the entire breakfast room to it. We also tossed around the idea of shifting the FR to the North in the photo (1/2 in existing FR, 1/2 in the breaksfast room) to connect it a little more with the kitchen -but the fireplace would then be stuck at one end of the FR and not in a good spot (since it is almost centered currently)
Moving the kitchen to include the space in the office is something I am playing with currently.
Maybe it's all coming down to the fact that the addition will help get all the connections we are looking for but I am still evaluating all of this to see if re-arranging the space can help out -it's not as easy when you have a galley style kitchen to start with! I will check out the Not So Big House !

My brain's not clicking, so only two notions pop. One, as I recall, entertaining is big with you, so make sure your final floor plan has a circular flow.

Second, that garage-to-counter groceries thing. Sure, it's nice if it's short, but the question of how necessary is seldom questioned, and these days 90% of layout issues are subordinated to attaching the garage to the side of the kitchen, too often to the home's great detriment. Anyway, to each his own. It's not big with you, though, so set it aside. A charming home always sells well; as a real estate appraiser, I saw again and always that people take one look at them and cross all sorts of items they assumed they needed off their lists in order to have them.