Initial reaction....you have no work area to the left of the sink! I would feel very cramped trying to do dishes there....even if you do use a DW!

So, how flexible are you? Are you willing to move/change walls or windows? Plumbing, gas, & electric?

Have you read the "Read Me" thread? It has a section about layouts. It asks several questions for you to answer to help us help you.

Welcome and good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Read Me If You're New To GW Kitchens!

Is the sunroom to the left of the kitchen? Would you be willing to dedicate some of your sunroom space for kitchen? It would offer you some wonderful natural light. Let us know how flexible you are and then the ideas will flow.

I wouldn't mind using some of the sun room for the kitchen, I just couldn't figure out how to make it flow. I could flip the sink around and but I'd rather not move the plumbing for that. We could run a new gas line for the range as long as I have a wall behind it to run it through. My frig is 30" wide and I'll change out the range but it'll still be 30" wide. I already have my sink I bought for the house I'm in now and it's 24" wide.

I forgot to mention that each square on the layout is roughly 1 ft. All door openings to the kitchen have pocket doors. I definitely need more counter space around the stove but I'm not sure if it would be enough to make the cut out for the stove smaller (it's 44" wide with a 30" stove). I don't think having no counter space to the left of the sink would bother me. I will gain a little when I change the sink out to a 24" sink.

I thought about putting a bar/penisula over on the sun room side but hubby wasn't happy with that because that room doesn't relate to the real living areas of the house. I don't want to do it on the other side where the dining room/living room is because those rooms are already really, really small and it would eat up valuable wall space in those rooms.

would you be willing to take out the wall between the frig and 54" cab run and the sunroom? I guess it depends on how extensive ($$) you want to get.

If all were to remain the same, I'd consider building 12"-15" depth floor to ceiling storage to the right on the upper window for either dishes or shallow pantry storage. I'd flip the DW and sink even though the window is fixed; I'd rather have space to the left of the sink. I'd scootch down the the stove run to the end gaining that extra 12+" of storage and if you move the pantry to the upper space; again a 36" counter and another 12" counter. You could always do 24 and 24 if you like symmetry. Good luck!

I should apologise, even tho you couldn't hear me. When I saw that pie-crust sofit, I lol'd myself.

I don't think there's a lot without doing attacking walls. The kitchen area is about 8.5 x 16, right? And you have four door openings and two windows. So these are some ideas...

Part of how you could use the sunroom is by recessing a cabinet/appliance wall into that area. This doesn't seem worthwhile, but its a thought to remember if you see a floor plan opening for it.

Another might be to move the garage doorway north so it aligned with the opening from the kitchen. If the dining room door moves north too, a nice long corridor has been established instead of the ping-pong feel of the existing path. It permits a longer cabinet run on the range side. Moving the dining room door is the most "bang-4-buck" change you can make - but it still doesn't get you a kitchen hangout place.

Another thought is to remove the living room/dining room wall completely - use the current range run space (with extended space) as an island with sink and move the range onto the ref wall. You get a great hang out space. Depends on how open you want to be..

The real budget buster idea is to remove the wall between the kitchen and sunroom completely. Flatten that space by cutting off the sticky-out towards the foyer part of the kitchen with the problematic sink window AND removing the doors on that end of the sunroom replacing the slider with a counterheight window. Perhaps make that a walk thru pantry/laundry room or a bar-pantry.

You don't actually gain all that much (kitchen becomes 8 x 21 with a 3 foot walkway added on one side).

If our places were reversed, I might spend some time steeping in 1950's haute design. A lot of 50's kitchens were well thought out, innovative and compact.

We also have a 1949 ranch with a very similar layout, without the sunroom. And I've tired every possible configuration. I'd also suggest moving the door into the DR down a bit to give you a longer run of wall.

Do a search on Cook1 in this forum, and you will see many possible layouts (and problems with them). Many of the wonderful people on this forum have spent a lot of time trying to help me. And it has been a great help.

Good luck.

Thanks for the ideas. I'll play around with it a little more. We may be stuck with what we have.

We laughed at the pie crust designs too. There is another house on the market in the neighborhood with the same kitchen but they whacked off the pie crust trim. What they didn't do was hack a cabinet apart to slide a dishwasher in. My cabinets are messed up but at least I have a dishwasher for now.

Is there a good place to look at pictures of 50s haute design?

Cook1, we do have some of the same problems except for me needing an eat in kitchen for 5. I just need space for a couple of people to lean against or pull up a stool.

It doesn't look like anything I do will gain me much space. I could try moving the doorway over to the dining room but then I would lose the large pantry space. If I recess a pantry space over on the sun room side it might work.

Thanks for all the ideas. Back to the drawing board to see what I can come up with.