You should maybe tell people that the yellow drawing is what you did after the last posting, and now the more professional drawing is what you're considering now?

What about the storage for your pottery?

The funny thing is, you don't have to have an angled wall, but you have one anyway!

So do you think you like the plan as drawn?

I think I would want to stretch the left pantry wall over to the fridge, then bring back the pantry wall that's up by the stove so that it lines up and creates a rectangular step-in pantry. This will give you more room on the window wall for better counterspace around the stove...and maybe more window. I'm on the wrong computer to make drawing changes, so maybe I can draw it tomorrow if you're having any problem understanding what I mean.

I can't remember how you felt about a prep sink, but you could use one in this plan.

Sorry for the confusion! The builder plans are just what the draftsperson threw in as a kitchen :P I am still loving the general layout of the hand-drawn kitchen the one you (rhome) had helped with. I think we will put in a prep sink in the island, probably opposite of the fridge. I'm just not sure what to do with the stove. I'm half tempted to do a faux angled wall because I love the plan so much and it would give me plenty of space for venting. I do prefer the idea of a step-in pantry I think.

Thanks!

I'm sorry, the bad views are where? Top, bottom, right, left on the drawing labeled main floor plan.

Off hand, it seems a long distance to the back door from the kitchen. It might not matter to you, but if outdoor cooking or meals are important or frequent, it might need some thought. Same thing with the "supply lines" of car to back hall to kitchen.

Kinda have a concern about dining and stools back to back. It's long and geeky, so hang in there. If your dining chairs are oversize, it might be worthwhile to look at the amount of room the table+chairs need when no one is there and the amount of room while in use. Generally, a 3 foot wide table needs another 4-5 feet when in use for the depth of the chairs and seated human bodies or 2-2.5 feet per side.

With the stool seating at the counter, you need to allow around 2 feet from the counter edge for a seated person and the stool. Put them both together and you'd think ok, 4-4.5 feet between the edge of the table and the edge of the counter, but wait, there's more!

For both the stool seating and the table seating, the allowance for a seated diner temporarily expands to 32" when a person is becoming seated or leaving the table. And you need some passage space between the two sets of seating. It's said that between a diner and a blank wall, you need 44" minimum for a walking passage behind the diner - its a passage only 20" wide. Because I'd bet on carrying food platters, I'd want it about 36" wide - it also helps maintain some sort of passage when people are leaving or becoming seated. So, I'd take the 2-2.5 feet of clearance for a seated person times 2 for both sides and add 3 feet but ignore the getting into and out of chair part, figuring that when both sides are being used, the extra 16" can pretty much come out of the center aisle with some room left over.

So the table edge should be positioned around 7-7.5 feet, perhaps +/- a little, from the counter edge, add 3 feet for the table itself and approximate 2.5 feet for the chairs and the space to get into them. FINALLY there...

If I'm reading correctly, they've allowed 10 feet for 12.5 feet of needed width. You might be able to squish it a little depending on your table and your guess at how often both spaces will be used simultaneously, but I wouldn't want you to be taken by surprise if it felt cramped.

Two tiny miscellaneous thoughts. If your roof lines permit, you might do some solar tubes in the long hall. Back door should probably open in the other direction - so it ended up opening towards the wall and could park there when you're going back and forth with trays of stuff.

bmore---the bad views are to the left of the plan, it faces the street. The views out both the front and back windows are quite nice. Garden on one side, a view down the street and across the valley on the other (we get great mirages!)I'm open to transoms on that left side, just not regular height windows.

-I had the same concern with the table/chairs/stools spacing. I *hope* it will be ok as we're now operating with the same table/chairs in a 9ftx11ft dining room and I plan on modestly sized stools. I'm not sure if we have another option.

-good call on the solar tube, we plan on putting one in our master bath. Attaching the garage to the house solves a lot of problems but it creates a few too (like the lack of windows)

-LOL! about the door swing! That was the first thing both DH, my Mom and I jumped on.

-I know it's a long haul from the back door into the kitchen but again, I'm not sure how to remedy that. We BBQ a lot in the summer but we tend to eat inside. The spot from our BBQ to our kitchen wouldn't really change, distance wise. I thought about a pass through to the mudroom but I'm not sure it would work with the differance in elevation. Having a big mudroom is crucial here (we're in northern Alberta)

- I am toying with the idea of flipping the Kitchen and Great Room but again, that's still being played with. It would allow me french doors off the back which would be wonderful. The coat closet in the hall by the front door is currently used as an appliance pantry/cleaning cupboard and I could see re-using it as that since we only use that front door for Halloween. If I flipped the kitchen/great room I might change the stairs up from the back entry so they enter the Great room (clear as mud?)

-oh and I think we're going with a one level island too (despite what the plans say)

-not kitchen related but there will also be a man door out the back of the garage, in line with the door from the mudroom, as we park the trailer back there and that's also the side of the house my studio is nearest.

I'm going to work on some more drawings and hopefully I'll have something else to post soon.

Thanks for letting me bounce ideas around. My friends just look at me like a deer in the headlights when I show them floorplans.

I think I had an creative moment! I can't scan anything in right now (I have to send it to DH's work) but what about this idea....

-switch the kitchen and great room
-do an 8 foot long, 2.5 ft deep bumpout on the left side of the plan close to dead center-
-put a built-in bench in this alcove with transoms above, we can keep our existing table and just use 2 of our big dining chairs on a daily basis.
-close to square, smaller island, room for 2 stools
-turn the existing front door closet and linen closet into one step-in pantry (I actually have an existing too-deep closet above the basement stairs that is my current pantry, I had planned on turning that into another linen closet, anyway.

-do a built-in desk inside of a set of doors just to the left of where the desk is positioned on the builder plans
-man-door off of the Great Room onto the back step

Doing this would allow me to keep part of the current wall between the current kitchen/living room and I can add a bit of wall on the left side, so that there can be a square 'arch'opening to the dining/great room .It will delegate the space more. We only have 8 foot ceilings and I think this will make it more architecturally interesting.

I still have to play with the actual kitchen some more but I think this could work!

Looking forward to seeing your new idea drawn out.

I completely missed the raised bar! I think we went over that last time though. :-)

Here is my latest drawing (and my measurements are more accurate than the 'real plan'--not perfect though)

I drew more in after this was scanned but this is a fairly clean slate: