Mtdoug, I'm happy that you like plan C and hope that your wife likes it as well. Agree that Robotropolis did a fantastic job. Here are some additional thoughts for tweeking "C" plan: 1. Since your dining room is large, you have the option of putting your snack area in there with a "wet bar" sink, an undercounter fridge, and a mini microwave. Shelves on brackets could go above. Other snacks, paper plates, etc. could be placed in decorative baskets on the shelves yet keep the mess out of view. This would allow the placement of a chair in the kitchen with it's back against that 41" wall space. Replace that larger sink with a small work table for sit down prep. With your good view there, you could even have the chair on castors to directly face the window and then move back to the corner when not in use. Where the small sink is in plan C, enlarge it and place a dishwasher to the left of the sink. Recycle can be placed on the wall next to the small prep table. A floor to ceiling pantry could be to the left of the recycle, in the left corner on the wall. 2. I would think another option is to place more storage or the pantry in the dining room rather than the entry. To give it more of a dining room look, pull out drawers could be in the lower portion and doors with textured glass that obscures (or gathered curtains inside the door) for shallow 12" uppers. That arrangement would make it flexible for resale with options for new owners. 3. To the right of the stove (cooktop?), you can either have an Easy Reach corner wall cabinet or a 27" diagonal corner wall cabinet. Most people on GW prefer the Easy Reach because it's better if two cooks are in the kitchen with more access to the counter. The advantage of the diagonal is that it stores a great deal more if after market D-shaped Super Susans (on ball bearings) are added to allow easy access to the far reaches of the back cabinet. The add ons are very reasonably priced. I'm a one person kitchen and desperately needed that storage so love my diagonal cabinet. See what your wife prefers, consider your top priority, and perhaps look at both types of cabinets in the showroom. Edited to add that I have a 36" diagonal base cabinet with two Super Susans below the 27" diagonal wall cabinet. This combination provides additional counter and prevents the upper from being "in your face." This combination works in a one cook small kitchen when storage needs to be maximized. Also, I don't like the added care that's needed with bifold doors on cabinets that get frequent use. In my other corner is a 33" Easy Reach base cabinet with bifold doors that is used for trash. Unfortunately, there was no room for a trash pullout in my kitchen, and I did not want trash under the sink. This obviously works only with one or two, and only kitchen trash goes here. There are no Super Susans in this cabinet, just shelves. Garbage that could have an odor goes in the freezer for trash day. I have a small plastic trash container on both the upper and lower shelf. Baking pans and large cooker are also stored vertically in that cabinet. The bottom line is that you and your wife need to plan what's going into each cabinet to determine which types of cabinets best meet your needs. 4. The 6" base vertical "spice drawers" work well in a small kitchen if you have a 6" space available and are short on drawers. These are 6" x 6" x 22"d that are available unfinished outside of Ikea. These hold all my "junk drawer" items such as large cooking spatulas, pizza cutter, ice cream scoop, long parchment paper box, rolling pin, etc. It's been interesting to read about your progress and issues that need to be addressed. I hope you will allow GW to follow your progress as you bring your long awaiting plans to completion. It's obvious that a great deal of thought has gone into your planning. This post was edited by Texasgal47 on Sun, May 4, 14 at 11:20

I'm offering the following as a devil's advocate. Both positions for your kitchen are viable choices with nice reasons to go each way. That's why you need to draw up all possibilities to consider. If the middle is right for you guys, this will end up reinforcing that decision. Versatility and size? That 15x30 room is looking very, very nice as it is, but the far end is prize square footage with all those exterior walls (light/views in up to 3 directions), and right now you plan to actually dine there very little--pretty but underused. If you put the kitchen down there, that addition would be used as intensively as it deserves to be. The living area for furniture placement would be the same, but it would be more strongly defined. Nevertheless the whole should still appear very spacious because it would still be part of a 15x30 room with kitchen on end and still be open to the north, which would extend additional living activities that direction, instead of east. The dining room might well end up used more for various activities in the middle of the house. In considering this alternative layout, how about a pretty door to the outside from a middle/dining room, French perhaps? And for that matter, are you sure you wouldn't have a door directly out from the kitchen? You have an entry in that end that looks as if it would need some reconfiguring too. Would it enter the middle/dining room? Last night I also thought of one other -- possible -- advantage to switching the kitchen and dining room: the step down. This could be a design asset for a dining room, setting it off as special as viewed from the living room. Since you don't plan to eat there a lot, even with young children you could have a nice rug under the table if you wanted it. You'd take that step mostly on the way back to the children's rooms--longer journeys. For the kitchen, you guys'd be making all the many, many little daily journeys between the living room and kitchen on a level floor. Morning sun in kids' hallway? Have sunshine everywhere and you eliminate the pleasure of entering a sunny room. A dim hallway is often a design asset because it makes the rooms opening off it all the more inviting. I can't see what that cabinet in the hall is, but with a little attention to attractiveness and interest, the hall looks pretty good to me. The only way I could imagine to improve it would be to extend it to come back around on itself -- children love to run in circles. :) As it is now, though, the hall enters a sunny middle room in the mornings, setting that room off really nicely, however it's used.

Dear mabeldingeldine, If you're thinking of removing walls, you should have a partial house plan drafted including the spaces that are adjacent to your kitchen first. You may be able to do this using the software you’re familiar with already. This way anyone responding can "see" what you're talking about and what the impact to your house plan will be without guessing. As an example: Remove the wall between the hall and the kitchen? How wide is the hall, which kitchen wall is it on? How much wider or deeper will your kitchen potentially be? Etc. Also, seeing your house plan may help you make decisions on exactly what you are willing to do, or how far you’re willing to go with the reconfiguration of your house plan, to get what’s truly possible for you. Hope this has been helpful. Joe Brandao Kitchen Design Company

Thank you ever so much, Felix. I am sure that BIL will all of your and everyone’s suggestions this week. Felix, you have gone way beyond he norm in providing ideas, schematics etc and it is throughly appreciated. My computer skills consist of ‘googling‘, I am sure you have spent considerable time and effort in doing these drawings. Hopefully, others will benefit from this as well. May I ask your background, and out of simple curiosity, approximately where are you located? I am at a loss for words at the generosity of folks on this thread and in fact on this forum itself. I have followed and commented on this forum for a few years now and am always awestruck by the collective wisdom and kindness of home building “forumites.” Many of you have an awesome sense of humour as well, which is sorely needed and welcome in these difficult times. Sincerely, thank you! Paula