Yeah, the last thing I would do is divide the room into separate kitchen and dining/living room areas. I just got done tearing down such a wall, in a house that's considerably larger (5BR / 2-1/2BA) to make a large kitchen/dining/living room where everything melds together. Many people are either renovating their older homes to achieve that or buying new ones that start out that way, because it suits how many of us live nowadays. Kitchens are no longer private areas where someone labors for hours a day to prepare family meals; rather it's a gathering area with cabinets and appliances designed to look good, and thus it's a room you want your guests to see. Fewer people want formal separate dining rooms anymore - why reserve the nice table, chairs, and china for a few special occasions each year? With your home I'd arrange everything so no matter whether you're preparing food, eating, cleaning up afterward, socializing, or watching TV, you sit or work in a large room with those nice views unhindered. I'd also nix the big range, and consider a good 24" cooktop - several have small knobs in front off to one side such that it leaves almost the entire surface for burners, rather than the traditional 6" of width at the right used for controls, so you still have a roomy surface to work on. (Personally, I'd be fine with a 12" or 15" wide two-burner setup for a 2BR/1BA home, but I know many others wouldn't be). I'd also consider a 24" undercounter oven. I used one with a side-hinged door, glide-out racks, and a very slim control panel at the top so the oven cavity is as high as possible. I don't need to lean downward to insert or remove food from the top rack, and the door and slide-out rack arrangement means I don't ever have to lean over or around an open drop-down door like you would with most ranges. And there's room for a drawer underneath it, great for baking tray storage. If I need additional oven space, I have an Advantium high-speed oven that can also be used as a conventional oven or a microwave. These (and other similar units) are available in wall-cabinet, undercounter, and over-the-cooktop configurations.

Hi folks, thanks for the feedback! I think I'm going with the trash under sink. I was deciding between one of the Kohler cast iron sinks, so I’ll go with the Kohler Riverby that has an offset drain. That should give room for a double trash pull out on the left. I’m leaning towards doing a pull-out on the right as well, even if not as amazing as Walt’s set up (wow!). I like that the storage will be accessible, even if I lose some space from the pull-outs and face frames. I also like that I could center both pulls on the top of the door, though it’s helpful to see that badgergal’s configuration could be an option. I'm planning to do inset doors and partial overlay drawers. My house is a 1915 craftsman bungalow, and this matches my dining room built-in. My cabinetmaker warns that inset doors tend to rub with the corner piano hinge, so thought I’d avoid that with an overlay in the corner, which won’t be very conspicuous. Now that all the lowers are drawers/corner cabinet except these undersink pull-outs—would you do the sink cabinet with partial overlay (matching drawers and corner cab in the other lowers) or inset (matching doors on the uppers/tall)? The lowers will be cherry and uppers/tall will be white. Here's a pic of what I mean (sorry for the quality, it's literally a photo of my Bungalow Kitchens book): And here's my dining room built-in. I'm not trying to replicate it in the kitchen; it just illustrates the inset/overlay mix: AnnKH, are your cabinets face-framed or frameless? Mine will be face-framed, so I was thinking about sticking with the 3 door stack so I lose less vertical space with the rails but am curious how yours is set up.

Busymom03 - air gaps are not needed because dishwashers today come with a "high loop" hose which serves the same function as the air gap (and some say actually functions better than the air gap). It prevents the backwash of dirty water back onto your dishes in the DW. The high loop hose is why there is no longer a requirement for an air gap except for 3 states. Here are a couple videos by inspectors that discuss the high loop hose placement. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S_0OWuFVLNw https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EmYhzKgjmZo

This may sound counterintuitive, but my mother, who designed her kitchen and was 40 years ahead of her time (stations, zones, almost all drawers), but the trash pullout in the island across from the sink. It worked very well! For after-meal cleanup, dishes could be scraped of non-disposal stuff before it got to the sink, and without being in the way of anyone at the sink or dishwasher. During prep in the space between sink and cooktop, or on island, it was right handy. It seems odd, I know, but it worked. (Mind you, right now in my developer-built house,I am dealing with a trash perpendicular to the dishwasher, so you have to actually close the dishwasher to get to the trash, and vice versa. Really dumb.)