You guys are great. No I don't really cook and my saint of a husband just wants me to be happy. I would love to make it a space he enjoys more too. We are so used to just working with whatever we've got that I'm not sure either of us would really know how to make it more functional. We lived mostly in tiny spaces in grad school so when we bought this home, it felt like a real improvement. He was so happy to finally have a gas range! I was home alone last night and made dinner and tried to think about how I was using the space but I suspect the things that bothered me (trying to reach up to get things or trying to dig them out of corners) would not necessarily bother him. When I get past the initial estimate stage and settle down with a KD I think I should make a list of all the things that need to be stored in the space- that might help. I think Jakuvall's galley kitchen is GREAT... I think it is a good possibility if I can figure out a way to use a 30in fridge. We definitely can't go down to 24.

With Bmorepanic's layout, I was able to piggy back with tweaking that. What if you were to close off the entry from dining room to kitchen except for a 3-4' doorway at the very end of the room (staircase end). I would then bring the frig to along the DW run. BTW we have a corner sink and we have a small spacer and a 9" cabinet between sink and DW which allows plenty of space for loading the DW). The frig was too far away IMO for everyday use. I would then actually open up completely the kitchen to the family room. This would "enlarge" both rooms. It would also give more natural light to the kitchen. You didn't say anything about wanting to feel less isolated when in the kitchen, but there is definitely a huge trend to join the two rooms. You would then have a few options for an eating area. You could create a huge island with seating. You could place it either vertically or horizontally in the room, depending on what else you want to do with the space by the slider. I'm not big on prep sink, but with the large island, it might be nice to have on on the end closer to the family room. If you don't want to go the prep sink route (I'm not), you could easily accommodate your main sink and DW in the new large island. You could create a smaller island with a round dinette corner in the area to what is to the right of the slider (wall would then be mostly open) Purchase a large table that can be centered lengthwise in the kitchen. If I can think of some of these ideas, it's going to be fun seeing what the others can do with this kitchen.

That would depend on how you'd use the cabinets and the space from the other side. I want to start with a comment on the plan above - the range is drawn wrong. Even if its a cooktop above an oven - its still drawn wrong. Ranges and ovens stick out in front of the counter. The more you spend on one, generally speaking the less it sticks out, but you can plan on a range sticking out 3" to 5" and sometimes more by the time the oven door handles are included. Usually, the entire oven door and handles are completely in front of the cabinet line. SO, all and every kind of corner unit or blind corner unit has issues when you have your exact layout - with a corner unit next to a range - they are all going to be a pita and some you can't do at all in that situation. A corner unit with doors that opened to each side would reduce your ability to access the corner probably quite a bit - you'd have to avoid the 12" door sticking straight out. If you did a blind unit, you'd still have to care about the other side of the corner because things like drawers will run into the range. If you did do something like the corner drawers, they would need to be fairly skinny to avoid the side of the range when they opened. And something like a magic corner unit may need some extra filler to get it to avoid the range. If the doors are hinged in the middle, they'll pile up on one side and together with the range, reduce the available space to reach into the corner. Things like blind corner pull outs need 15-24" of space on the opening side, so the benefit would be in however you'd use the other side of the corner - are you thinking it could combine with another cabinet to make something larger? You'd loose inches from your 30" base on the other side of the range. And I'm pretty sure you'd loose inches from the sink side as you'd need to add in a pretty chunky filler. The way those mechanisms work, you'd have to check the exact clearances to make sure you could place it next to a deeper object like the range. I'm pretty sure you can't use corner drawers either - they'd also get stopped by the range. So - just talking out loud, but I'd really consider an angled base. With an angled base, you can use the corner for prep work. With a regular corner, you can't - this is primarily because the countertop stops your hips! Even tho its more expensive, I'd pop for one where the door was attached to the susan and rotated into the cabinet so I'd never need to fuss with it.

It's been several days since I have posted, but that is because I have been giving these ideas much thought and have been talking to many professionals. What is your style? Do you have pics saved in an idea book of the look you are going for? This is an excellent question. I have looked at thousands of pictures of kitchens, and I haven't seen one that I can say, "That's exactly what I'm going for." So, to best answer your question, I'll show you the materials I'd like to use: ginger maple shaker fronts, white solid surface counter, "oak" LVP flooring, "painted" backsplash tile, and, if I keep some wall on both sides dividing the kitchen and dining room, I'd put the blue paint in the kitchen, yellow above the chair rail and the blue below in the dining room, and yellow on the walls of the rest of the main floor. So I'm not sure what you'd call it - transitional? Although I am very excited about being able to see and chat with people at the dining table while I am cleaning up in the kitchen, I think I do prefer having the more traditional mental division between kitchen and dining room with even just stub walls, and I do like the chair rail, if I am able to keep a bit of wall on the sides. Maybe that is the very definition of transitional? But practical matters of the small house and large family and a limited budget must be considered above my personal preferences. Although the contractor said "it doesn't cost that much to reduce the bulkhead," "it doesn't cost that much to move the sliding glass door," and "it doesn't cost that much to move pipes for the clean-up sink," all of it together - with the cabinet vendor that he uses - did cost much. He just came out this afternoon to do some measurements and discuss ways to reduce cost. This plan below is what I discussed with him: (1) Instead of messing with the bulkhead at all, keeping the wall only as far as the depth of the bulkhead (about 23"), but then have little to no wall on the other side. I can't have 23" on the other side for symmetry, because that wouldn't leave enough room to walk around people seated at the table, but I'm hoping that would look fine if we put cabinets up to the ceiling in the corner where the bulkhead is. He liked this idea a lot, because you just don't know what's in there. (BTW, I offered to pay him to open it up and see, but he won't open it up to have a look, or do any work at all, until a full contract is signed, first payment given, and cabinets ordered.) He did warn, however, that the cost of the cabinets and counter there will probably cost about the same as what he was including for reducing the bulkhead - so this solution does give more storage, it doesn't actually save any money. (2) Instead of a sliding glass door, put in a 30" standard door using the opening for the existing window in the dining room. A sliding door would be much better than a swinging door that hits those seated at the table, but it will be rare that we have people seated while others are going in and out, so I'll do it if it saves a lot of $$. He loved this idea, and said it would save me about $1000, but when I asked about what he'd recommend about the HVAC register that is currently on he floor in front of the window, he said it would be too costly to move it, and I should just leave it. It seems the register plate would get kicked up and rusted with traffic in and out, so I am not sure how good of a solution this is, after all. (3) I thought having a pantry closet with shelves and doors would save money over the cost of cabinets and countertop in that alcove, but he said the labor to put the shelves, doors and drywall would be more, so I'll go back to the cabinets. (4) Lose the second dishwasher. If I have a prep sink, it won't be so bad having one dishwasher with dishes piling up in the clean-up sink. As you can see below, I'm concerned about clearances and flow; losing the dishwasher will cut the cost some but also will give better clearances if I have to keep the 23" of wall below the bulkhead. I played with a few designs with two dishwashers and only one sink, but none of them seemed to work nearly as well as this one. Bbtrix - the range is centered in this design :-) and I'd love to know if you think if the stub wall that would stick out about 6" would still create a strange divide between the dishwasher and door, now that the dishwasher and door are much further away from each other. He liked this idea, but it still requires moving pipes, so let's hope that "doesn't cost that much." (5) I've fallen in love with the white solid surface countertops and the painted backsplash I pictured above, but I may just have to go to laminate countertops with the 4" backsplash if that saves thousands of dollars. He recommended granite over laminate or solid surface. Many granites are beautiful, but my countertops are primarily a work surface that functions better if it is light-colored and simple, and I find granite dark and very busy, and the few granites that are lighter in color seem to stain easily. I've heard laminates have come a long way, I just liked solid surface more because it's more reparable, doesn't have seams, the integrated sink, and I like the soft feel of it - maybe that's not worth the extra $$. Thanks to everyone who has stuck with me and has been liking my comments - I warned in my subject line that this would be a challenge, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into!