I would look at a different house. Old houses have rooms. New houses are all open.

I am assuming that the wall between living and dining is load bearing. I wonder how much of an improvement just taking the section of dining room wall down that separates it from the kitchen would be, it may be enough depending on what your goals really were. That would leave you with a large eating/kitchen area and a good size living area. Area could be taken out of the load bearing wall and pillars left to get a move open area.

You could do a pass through between the kitchen and the dining room. My parents house has that and I love it! You could also open up the DR/LR interface more, but your house already seems pretty open. I for one like my kitchen hidden away so that when I'm entertaining I don't have to look at the mess I left behind getting everything on the table! I would love a pass through that had a pull down door on it! At the very least, take out the door between the kitchen and DR and you have a more open concept. Here in the frozen North, I like a separate entry way. Your home seems lovely and open already, and having good color flow from room to room helps. along with coordinated flooring.

Load-bearing walls can be removed if properly engineered. They could reconfigure the kitchen/mudroom/dining space with a kitchen remodel and make a wider opening to the living room.

It wouldn't be a bad kitchen if the fridge, range and sink weren't all squashed together on one wall with no work space in between. It's a serious "what were they thinking" design choice.

Here's my thought: Close off the door between the kitchen and mudroom (put a door from the mudroom to the DR instead). Take 2 feet out of the mudroom and add it to the kitchen (that is, move the kitchen/mudroom wall 2 ft to the left so the kitchen is now 10 ft wide). Take out the wall b/w the kitchen and DR entirely. Move the range to the back wall of the kitchen (to the left of the window, where there is now room because you widened the kitchen). Or you could take out the cabinets on the back wall and put the range against the mudroom wall. Actually, you could do that last suggestion without widening the kitchen (with about 4 feet of aisle space).

Edited to correct missing punctuation

The refrigerator, stove and sink being huddled right next to each other with no landing zone for groceries to fridge and stove abutting fridge, in fact the whole layout of the kitchen, would seriously keep me from buying this house unless changes could be made.

I think some of this depends on how your sister entertains, her budget, and the number of people living in the home. Since the dining room is really the only eating area, she would benefit from an open floor plan between the dining room and kitchen with an island providing extra seating. It's a charming home. What a fun project!

Robo, let us know how your sister's viewing of the house goes. I get the feeling the kitchen and dining are very cramped in real life. Real estate photos are always stretched or distorted to make rooms look larger than they really are. The opening between the dining and living room could always be widened, maintaining an arch as illustrated below.

St. Paul Bungalow Contemporary Kitchen Remodel · More Info

if I were intent on buying the house, I would consider removing all the walls. I might try to add a kitchen island also.

I prefer separate rooms so I'd leave that but that kitchen layout is really bad so I'd work on that.

I wouldn't mess with the walls. I LOVE dedicated kitchens and this one has a connection w/ dining room so why would you also need to see into the kitchen from the LR ... if that's what you are proposing?

If you want a large cavernous space with no walls to hang art or to define functions, there's plenty of newer houses that will give you that. The wide arched openings are cute and provide enough spaciousness. This one had some modifications done but still a lot thats original remains. Please leave it for someone like mewho loves old houses! Sadly there's fewer and fewer of them intact.... or even halfway intact.

As Im looking at old houses, Im seeing that the worst values are the ones that have been remuddled and futzed with to the point where theres very little original left and esthetically the house looks awkward and pieced together. Those sit on the market forever. The highest values are the ones that have been lovingly and skillfully maintained and restored, and if any changes made they are in keeping with the design and esthetics. What Im saying is.... proceed with caution and knowledge. its recommended to live in an old house for a year before making any major changes. Often priorities change, and by living in the old house you start to understand the logic of why it was designed how it was.

Not sure how sensitive but this is what I would do:

I would lose the formal dining room and make it part of the kitchen, with an eating area incorporated. I'd have an arch or pass through to the living room.

It would be different if the house had a decent sized kitchen to start but that kitchen is only 8x16. Originally it was probably about 8x9 (before the mudroom addition). I agree old houses have rooms but old houses around here also had terrible kitchens, especially in working class neighborhoods like mine. Although my grandmother managed to squeeze a small table in her 9x9 kitchen!

This house is only 65 years old so most of the features you're seeing are original to the house. My neighbourhood was mostly flattened in the Halifax explosion (1917) and only gradually built back up so all the housing stock is a bit newer and generally somewhat lower quality.

Thanks so much for all these ideas so far! The kitchen layout is not workable as is of course, I don't think anyone recommends the sink, stove and fridge be all lined up in a row with no counter space. I will have to see what my sister says when she looks at the house. She would have a decent budget to renovate with should the need arise (enough to gut and redo at least the back part of the house).Good point and I share the fear this house will seem cramped upon viewing. I wish there were more quality houses on the market right now.

My first house, the kitchen was 8 X 8. This house the kitchen is 9 X 14--after we remodeled and expanded it! So that kitchen just doesn't seem that small to me.

Once she is serious about a particular house, If she is planning to extensively remodel, she might want to hire a GC to walk through and give her some idea of cost. We did this and it was worthwhile.