Thanks, that's just what we were thinking. We tried putting the (double) vanity on the outside wall to add a window (between the mirrors and have a lower lever makeup table) back to the room which moved the shower to the inside wall. I would love a walk in shower(for wheelchair access) with a tiled floor/drain and no shower pan, we found some river rock tile to use for the floor. I put the shower in to walk around the wall to get in for privacy--just saw a commercial for a rain shower head to eliminate water splash. Will try to attach the revised drawing (or find one of my kids to do it for me!) Any thoughts?

I tried to fit the peninsula into your layout, but I'm not sure it works. My kitchen was actually a little smaller, but open to the hallway with a shallow pantry across the hallway. My isles were not the standard 42 inches, but they worked well in the kitchen (better than the the kitchen I have now with the 42 inch clearance) The stove sink and peninsula as drawn are similar to what i had. I'm not sure you have room for the bar seating in front of the sink. My fridge was a little further from where I drew yours and I'm not sure if where I put it is ideal. Also I took another foot from your garage to give you extra width. I am definitely not an expert in this area. I went to a couple of kitchen designers to get layout help before we finalized the floor plan and one designer was excellent and had great ideas. Actually, I like your original floor plan and shallow pantry. Putting a 30 in cabinet next to the fridge should help when setting things down and using the fridge. I don't think you've allowed enough room on either side of your stove and I don't think I would want to switch it with the sink.

This plan is from a plan that I found online that was close to a house that we've toured and really like and then we've had an architect modify it. I do agree that the kitchen needs to be completely overhauled, it was bigger and then it got cut down to this b/c of costs. The room called "Living room" is the dining room but since we never use a formal dining room we thought we'd leave it there for resale but use it as a living room. I really wanted a mudroom so that is why they put in the closet beside the fridge so they wouldn't have to make it bigger. I really don't even know where to begin if we change the entire house plan like some of you guys are suggesting, I thought everything was great except the kitchen. The floor plan is similar to a lot of the new houses around here. hmmmmm....don't even know what to do maybe I will try the home building section.

Just thinking... One of the challenges your kitchen poses is around 8 more years of teenagers. No matter where you locate the ref and the micro, the teens will invade that space in search of fluids and stuff they heat up in the micro. I'm guessing snack materials will be stored in the pantry. Roughly, I think I'd switch the use of the walls as shown. I'm not sure but I might move the ref to the interior corner of the cleanup wall. This attempts to keep teens corralled on the cleanup wall by providing them with complete access to micro, ref, dishes and pantry without their being in your cooking aisle. There is another thing about refs that applies if the ref is on the outside wall, but not on the inside wall and located near the pantry. The wall for the pantry is longer than the body of the ref if the ref is on the outside wall - so it needs some cabinet between it and the pantry. If the ref is on the inside wall, it will fit just fine up against the edge of the pantry entrance without the dreaded utility cabinets. The other reason I'd move the ref after thinking about it is to restore wall ovens in about the same place that the ref is drawn. Thinking about myself only, I might use undercounter ovens and bigger windows. No matter what, I'd cut the counter in front of the passthrough window. It would just make the reach longer - I'd move the door a little and make a not real deep counter outside instead. The little box outside of the window is for positioning only. I'd really consider a doublehung instead of a sliding window. The usable opening becomes very small. I would not take the windows out of the kitchen. It has to do with how the kitchen would feel. The drawing might be confusing because it has uppers AND the windows thinking it would be either/or but not both.