You'll need to move cabinetry to start: at the northwest corner of the kitchen take out 3 ft of the wall next to the sink and create a door way into the laundry there. Remove the wall at the south end of the kitchen, push it back 4 ft, wall off the doorway between the pantry and laundry and capture about 32 sq ft into usable kitchen space. Then you could move the entire kitchen back and have a clear passage between the nook and working kitchen. If you put your stove on that new south wall and the fridge where the stove is you would gain several ft of counter space.

Do you know which walls are load-bearing, and which could be removed? Where would you like guests to enter? I'm assuming guests park on the north side, if that's where they're entering now? Are you open to moving your sink & appliances? Do you need a laundry room, or could it be in a closet or smaller size room?

I absolutely think you could make some changes to improve what you don't like. You have some space to work with and reconfigure. The kitchen could without a doubt be improved by expanding into the dining room.

The extent of the changes is still unknown, so the cost is impossible to guess at this point. Do you have a ballpark budget? There are always a lot of unknowns and unexpected costs in remodeling. And could you handle living in the house during a major reno?

Some things will not be able to be moved or repositioned. Only a contractor can answer some of these questions about structure.

It might be the norm to have your family enter through the back entrance, but If you want to redirect your visitors to the other entrance, it will be necessary to make your front entrance more prominent, easier to find and more desirable. There's no way to consul you about this without seeing the existing entrance and learning if it can be altered.

I recommend re positioning the opening the passage from the living room to the hallway, & relocating the back entrance to keep everyone out of the rooms, moving some items that allows passage from the back door to the rest of the home without walking through the kitchen and moving the opening from the kitchen to the dining room to provide more counter space in the kitchen. The pantry system will have to be reconfigured into a shallow cabinet to allow these changes. None of this will be cheap and and it's likely that when walls are open, unexpected problems will occur.

I'm not sure Ill be of much help at all or if this addresses your concerns in a way that's helpful... but fwiw .... would you want to look at why the dining room is not used for eating - its literally only a few short steps from the kitch, about as distant as the nook. Does it need more liight, would french or sliding doors be less obtrusive, does the view need improving? The right type of light over the table would be inviting esp for evening meals. Or would a skylight help? If you freed up the nook, you could expand the galley kitchen into there - with perhaps a little café table and 2 chairs at the end for coffee. Re the front door not used, well unless you live in a very urban neighborhood) where people walk everywhere then front doors generally tend to be used by only guests anyway ... it is what it is. Improving the exterior around laundry door and the patio is a landscaping question - trees/plantings outside the dining room window would help DR as well - soft gentle lighting the type that shines downward (no big glary yard light) ... or perhaps strings of lights in the trees/shrubs... or perhaps a few of the low voltage path lights guiding your way around the back would be helpful and attractive - just no big glary yard light - you want to be encouraged to look out there not draw your shades.

Re your layout, I think it looks great and should be workable EXCEPT move the plumbing and remove the built in cabinet that is blocking what would be a highly functional passageway. You could go further and open up and reconfigure the kitchen more like Beverly suggests, or just leave door configuration as is

Why do people come in through the dining room? Is the driveway on the north side of the house? That answer could really open you up to changes!

Here were two thoughts. Moving the plumbing stack could get pricey, so I left it in place and just flipped how the fridge/range wall opens to the DR. The first gives flow from the DR to the nook, the second keeps the DR from being a passageway and lets it be a destination room but sends mealtime traffic through the kitchen.

I think the dining room might be a little small and dark, and the door swing takes up floor space. What if you had a wall of sliders instead of a door with sidelights? With the second plan, it could be a nice sitting room. It is more accessible from everyhwere, but furniture placement is easier because it's not also a passage. It keeps traffic out of the kitchen, too. (I made the pantry a base cabinet with uppers for open feel and more counterspace, but still plenty of storage)

On the other hand, if the approach to the house favors the north side, embrace it. Turn part of the dining room into the entry and go from there.

Here's an idea, moving the kitchen into the nook, and making the dining room the only eating area. I also drew an opening from the LR to the kitchen--could be done now or in the future.

Are you in need of a powder room? I noticed the plumbing already located in the pantry area. You could reconfigure for a PR, or enlarge the pantry. You could also add a 'window' into the laundry, as you have over the current sink.

Another minor variation, with the fridge recessed into former pantry space. The only landing space would be across the aisle, but anyone wanting to use the fridge would not have to enter the work area. The sink and DW could move out of the alcove a little more. Can you add windows?

Longer entry and kitchen, shorter laundry:

Just wanted to add that in any of the plans, the kitchen area could be flipped to save on moving plumbing. I put the range on the left wall for venting purposes--I didn't want to vent it to the patio, but if it can be vented through the roof, it would work on either wall.

I just want to say, I love your old house, so many nooks and crannies

to have fun with. Our house is almost 60 years old, and we changed

many things around.

I hope you get some great ideas here.

The idea momma goose posted is quite inteesting.

What if the kitchen and dining room swap? You could have a pretty spacious kitchen (I love an L) and the dining nook can expand, be more spacious too, without traffic going through the working part of the kitchen.

Is the garage connected to the laundry room? Or is it separate? I wonder if the mech room door can move to the western wall, freeing up space for the laundry room?

In this rendition, I'm picturing cabinetry in the space between LR and DR, or maybe it is the piano room?

I'm always looking at ways minimize expense when I remodel. Opening the kitchen to the pantry, and creating a new door way to the laundry near the sink ( put a divided light glass door there and you will will have a very nice feature! ) and moving cabinets back closes off the galley and gives you a u shaped kitchen. You won't have to move plumbing anywhere except maybe extend the run near the sink, you can add a dishwasher to the left of the sink and have a run of counter all the way to the back wall. if you are concerned about the expense of taking out cabinets you can probably salvage what you have, and you'd be amazed at what a talented carpenter can do to match existing cabinets.

It's unlikely that the wall between the kitchen and pantry are load bearing, but very likely that the living room wall is. While it may be able to come out, if expense is a concern, it can add up. Depending on permit requirements and where you live, you may need both a structural engineer, a general contractor, and a lot of retro fitting to make it happen.

If your most efficient entry is the dining room why not just build on that? Make it your "Parlor" so to speak, where you greet and entertain guests and then make the living room your family room. On the other hand if expense is not a major concern, at least compared to building a new home, you could think about enlarging the foot print of the house ; )

Thank you all for the helpful suggestions! You have given me lots of great ideas to consider.

Here are some pictures that may help explain a few things. This is the back of the house (north side). We live in a rural area and have a couple of outbuildings on our property. The attached garage is a single car garage and has a driveway leading up to it, but there is not a lot of space as the house is fairly close to the road for a rural property. As you can see in the picture the main driveway runs along the west side of the garage and past the house (it ends at the shed on the north edge of the property). The door you see on the right goes into the garage - you enter the garage there and then on the left are a couple of steps and the door that opens into the laundry room.

And here is the front of the house. I know that both areas need some landscaping/curb appeal work but that is another project for another day...

I like the idea of moving the kitchen into the "Nook" as I could actually look outside while working in the kitchen - there is currently no window over the sink (there was one originally but when previous owners added on the laundry room they walled in the sink window). I'm not sure I can do that though without altering the windows, as the window sills in there are only about 2" from the floor - I'd have to raise the windows in order to clear the countertops.

Thank you all again for your input!

I really like how Mama Goose moved the entry to the back. My friend did this, and did it up to match the front door (that no one ever uses).

So, by moving the kitchen forward, the nook is a little more spacious so more of a dining room, there is a passage from the entry past (not through) the kitchen into the den, and from there to the bedrooms or upstairs, into the living room, and look! You can circle around through the kitchen again. I love circulation.

This plan doesn't move much plumbing: the sink a few feet, and I don't know where the washing machine was before, but now it is by the sink plumbing. The dryer can vent through the mech room, it's only about 7-8'. And only one doorway was put into a load-bearing wall, between kitchen and LR. Maybe a pocket door for that. The blocked doorway between den and LR was moved to the left so you can fit through without bonking your head.

I'm thinking pony walls at the end of the kitchen counters at the north end.

Are the stairs completely open underneath? Or was some storage built in under them?

We posted at the same time! Your house is sooooo pretty :)

So, do you use the garage for the car? Or can you borrow the back several feet of it for an entryway?

Can you move the air conditioner from under the laundry room window?

Don't think that nook is big enough for a kitchen----it would look and feel (and be) very cramped.

Love your house!

So, minor change: the AC stays put with the window above. The entry at the back by the DR stays put (so pretty). But, I created a little entryway. Maybe no one uses the DR because it's part of the entry, so I put a doorway into it. It's a small den, but what a nice quiet spot to read, play quietly, etc. With the piano on the kitchen wall and a couple of chairs or a loveseat on the right, there is still a walkway through the middle to the LR.

The nook is the same width as the current kitchen, but with a view.

mandyann, your house is so charming! There are several with that plan near me--not brick, but with the curved roof over the entry. Since the bay is in the back, can you attach window/flower boxes to disguise cabinets behind the windows? FWIW, I wouldn't permanently alter them.

Scroll down to the post about Sombreuil_mongrel's kitchen window.

If you didn't have to have a cabinet under the counter in the bay, it could be left open--then the only thing visible from the outside would be the edge of the counter, and possibly the plywood (if using plywood under the tops), which could be cut a few inches short. Oh, now I'm thinking--keep a stool under there so that you can sit and prep and watch the kids. :)

Here's a new version of the kitchen in the nook--with the entry window intact, and the kitchen extended. I didn't alter the pantry in this plan, but I like bp's laundry access off the entry, so I incorporated it--great if you use a line for drying clothes. Does most of the dirty laundry come from bedrooms downstairs or upstairs?

This one uses bp's idea to move the garage entry, and leaves the w/d under the window. I also flipped the nook, to keep the sink near the current plumbing (I mentioned this in one of the plans up-thread), but you wouldn't want the range vented to the patio.

The kitchen in the nook is so cute, and I love the thought of having the windows at the end (hanging herb garden!) but it becomes a one-butt kitchen. Not just the narrowness, same as currently, but there is only one way in or out. While a true galley kitchen might have traffic through it, by centre ing the kitchen and adding circulation, there are ways to avoid walking through (like if you're sure mom will ask you to take out the trash as you go by...)

Also, the dining room is still one of two primary entries, and the only "nice" one. I picture kids coming in and plopping the sandy Tonka truck on the dining table lol!

So now that we've seen the home and know it's a brick home, here's a layout that has few changes, but maybe big impact on circulation.

Well there is one thing I think is pretty unanimous - the doorway between the dining and living rooms will get moved over to the west about 20", allowing the space under the stairs to be better utilized either for storage or a little reading nook/desk spot. Got the toughest decision out of the way first :)

I really don't want to mess with the plumbing stack that is behind the built-in.....so unless that's really the only way to make things work, there will be no passageway along that north living room wall.

I had thought about moving the heat pump away from the laundry room window and over to the west, on the other side of the garage door, and then converting the laundry room window to a door and having that be our main entry on the back side of the house. I'm afraid it may look funny though to have two exterior doors right next to each other, and I don't want to lose the exterior access to the garage, so that door will have to stay put. I think the laundry room window will need to stay as it is and the dining room door should be the main entrance. We can redo the landscaping & put in a sidewalk that will direct traffic to that door from the driveway. One thing I'm not sure of is if I should do sliders or French doors? Is it weird to have a slider as the "front" door? And how do I handle privacy - the door faces the back yard, there is no house or anything back there that could see in, but I still want something to cover the door at night. Maybe built-in blinds would be best?

I love the idea of moving the kitchen to the nook....it would be so nice to look out into the yard while working in the kitchen, but that would mean that we have to use the dining room as THE dining room. I don't think that will work if the dining room door is the entry and even if it weren't, that room is not really suited for a dining room table. It's too narrow and too much of a passthrough room. I tried it out briefly a year or so ago and it didn't work very well.

bp's suggestion of closing off the current laundry/kitchen connection and moving the washer/dryer there looks good - we could open up a doorway to the right of the sink and shift the sink/stove/kitchen to the south. Opening up a doorway to the living room from the kitchen would let in light from the big picture window in the living room, so the kitchen wouldn't feel as dark. The rest of the laundry room space (north end) could be used as a mudroom and normal household traffic could go from the garage to the "dining" room and then on to the bedrooms or living room. The one thing I'm not sure about with that plan is where does my pantry go? I would like to have a decent pantry as we do a lot of gardening and canning in the summer and I don't have a basement or cellar to use for storage. Maybe it would have to go somewhere in the laundry area.

Thanks again for the terrific suggestions and the kind comments about our little house. It's not perfect and definitely has its idiosyncrasies but it's also got a lot of character and charm - thanks for reminding me of that, I tend to take it for granted sometimes!

Oh, I was hoping you wouldn't notice the pantry was sacrificed lol!

There are options. First, what is going on under the stairs? Could you add storage, like pullout pantry, under there? What about shallow (<12") shelves above coat hooks in the laundry? (Do you have a utility sink in there?) You can put a narrow pullout between refrigerator and wall. And, really, if you use the Dining room only for passage, rename it and use it for the piano on one side and shallow built in storage with maybe a computer desk space on the other.

I think a French door would work better than sliders for such an entry. More like a single glass door, with tall windows on either side. Not sure that you need any privacy blind there at all :) but you could attach a sheer to cut glare and night reflection.

If you did something like this plan from above, what if you add an arched window from the kitchen to the music room (I'm trying out different names for that room lol: den, music room, center hall...) with a countertop overhang? it might make the room more conducive to hanging out, you could serve lemonade and snacks from it, and holler down the hall for kids to get in for breakfast from it. Below it could be storage. You could have higher cabinets above the arch, or have cabs openable from both sides, to keep some storage in the kitchen. Glass doors maybe? By the way, the walls at the north end of the cabinet run could be pony walls or not there at all, so you can see outside better through laundry window, nook, and patio doors.

I'm thinking an arch like this?

I like the last drawing bpathome posted with two changes. 1 - I wouldn't do the wall in the den. You're trying to open up your house and that wall just make the room more boxy. The hallway it creates would be just wasted space for such a small home. 2 - I would remove the wall that creates the laundry room and create a built in around a stacked front load washer/dryer. Then I'd do a pantry cabinet floor to ceiling from the edge of the laundry built in to your entry to the kitchen. That would give you a great pantry space just around corner from kitchen. I had a row of kitchen cabinets in my old house that were narrow - only 12" deep because there was duct work in that wall. I loved those cabinets because nothing got lost in the depth of the cabinet and everything was easy to see and grab!

I meant to take out that laundry room wall, doesn't need it without the back door there. And as the center hall evolves, agree that maybe those stub walls can go. The center hall goes from door to living room. Built ins, maybe to match the existing one behind the plumbing stack, piano tucked into a wall of matching shallow cabinetry, it will make a multi-purpose but somewhat symmetrical so not too mishmoshy space.

Okay, very last one (I just love your house, so I'm playing with it!)

This one has minimal changes from the current house. The biggest difference is: I swapped the stove and fridge, and moved the fridge north. The old door to the DR now has base cabinets on one side, but the door wasn't drywalled over: It has base cabinets on the DR side, and an archway with cabinets above in the doorway!

Now there is a doorway between the fridge and pantry, which moved to back up to the plumbing stack. If you want to keep that doorway closed off, you could put the fridge there and have more counterspace. But I like circulation.

This saves money that will pay for taking out a piece of wall between kitchen and living room. Oh, and shift that awkward doorway beside the stairs.

Okay, I lied, here's just one more. This one has really fewer changes. Less circulation, but more counter and storage space. No access from kitchen to DR, but a full 4'+ of counterspace! Heavenly! Basically all it does is rotate the pantry and put cabinets between stove and fridge. With an archway over the expanse, you can still see out the DR door. Since the archway can be bigger, I gave you a couple of counter stools in the DR for perching. (if you have a dog, leave a knee-hole under the counter so he can scoot around)

Did you say the POs closed off the sink window? It's just drywall then, not brick? Can you open it up, and have an archway matching the one to the DR? Imagine the light flow!

This is probably the most economical, and maybe gets the most bang for your buck.

Both of these keep the pantry close by! They keep traffic out of the kitchen. They give the old DR purpose. Only one wall is opened up (though it's a pricey one).

Thanks again for the great ideas! I think I know what I would like to do now....just need to take the next step!