By the way, we are a family of 4, with two boys (8, 11). I am the main cook, but the boys are learning to cook and enjoy helping, especially with baking prep.

Please download it here. I can't access it and frankly it's a lot easier to just click on a picture here than having to go to another page.

Cpartist, I completely agree but am having problems downloading it (with 2 jpgs added, it is apparently too long). But I'll try again after dinner... thanks for your patience.

If you have an older computer, I've found that I've had to go to houzz photo button below and click on browse in the right hand box to download from my computer.

1st floor current layout:

This is such a major undertaking. Your basement is concrete slab, I assume? The family room is below grade so the window sills are high?

Is your property or location something really special? Unless you have a rare view or location, I'd seriously consider just moving.

Our previous house was a tri-level; a sibling to the split entry that is just as frustrating. We updated and did small renovations over seven years until we finally realized that house could never be what we truly wanted. It was a great house in the beginning until we realized it really wasn't. We're now living happily in a non-split-level. It's a ranch that is 1000 sq ft smaller, but SO much more efficient and no stairs (Yahoo.)

Hi Benjesbride, This isn't a basement (we don't usually have basements in Southern California). It's a 1st floor that's completely above grade on a concrete slab. The doors and windows on the first floor look out onto the pool or the backyard. Our split level entry is halfway between the 1st and 2nd floors (a little half-entry).

Sorry. Here in the PNW, we call the lower level of a split level "the basement." You do have to go down about six or seven steps to get to your lower level, right?

Ah. Here, split levels come in a number of forms. We have a full 1st floor and a full 2nd floor. You have to go up the stairs to get to the front door. Once inside, there's a little landing between floors. You then go upstairs or downstairs. The 1st floor is completely above grade and the 2nd floor has the views. Other than the kitchen upstairs (and the silly entrance), we really like the house and property.

Can you add some photos of the inside/outside of the space now?

And in this case you may need the services of an architect or at least an engineer.

Which is your oven? I'm assuming it's near the fridge? If so, you have barely enough prep space but a huge area by the pass through window that will be mostly wasted space.

cpartist, I'll see if I can add a photo or two. We are replacing one wall with an arch, but the rest of the walls are staying primarily where they are (the kitchen is inside the existing bedroom and the niche the fridge goes into is an existing doorway). We are adding one external window but the rest are already there (one sliding glass door is being replaced by a window). We don't need an architect, but we will have a structural engineer review.

There is a 30" oven under the 36" induction cooktop (yes, this one is near the fridge). There is a 2nd oven on the south end of the west wall, under the counter. The west wall is the primary prep wall. All of the baking stuff and the mixer shelf is under that counter. There's also 4' of wet prep space to the left of the sink (plus with the stages sink, the cutting board slides over part of the sink to extend that prep space further). There's a 27" counter on either side of the cooktop in case I need to set anything down, but I don't intend to prep there.

To the right, you can see a bit of the stairs. The little landing area you can here is all of the "split" level in the house. It's about 11' wide (to accommodate the flight down and the flight up), but only about 6' deep. The rest of the house is a traditional 1st and 2nd floor.

I would like to close up the door to the garage (which isn't needed as there's another door right next to this which leads from the garage to the outside (seen in the 1st pic of the outside of the house). I would place the W/D against this wall so that it can directly vent outside (we can then remove the 8' of ductwork in the garage). We would remove a small part of the wall behind the fridge for direct access to the bathroom. We would close up the bedroom door as that wall becomes the north wall for the new kitchen. This sink waterline goes continues below the bedroom into the back yard. It is this line we would tap into for the kitchen sink.

Thanks for reading - I know this was a LOT of information.

Here's how I believe your paths would be? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Red is from fridge to sink.

Blue is from sink to prep areas and green is from prep to cooking.

One thought. Have you considered instead of putting the stages on the island to instead put it under the window? Yes I know that's also your pass through but I don't see that as a problem either. Then I'd put a small prep sink on the left side of the island leaving most of the island for prepping and/or baking.

You'd still have a secondary prep area between the cooktop and the cleanup sink.

Or if you want to keep the one sink on the island which I do understand, have you considered moving it over more to the left so you could prep on the right and then move everything across?

cpartist, thanks for taking the time to do this! Yes, I definitely considered putting it under the window as that's a nice big stretch of space and it would leave the island clean for prep/buffet/homework. Because I have to save some money for potential construction surprises, I'm trying not to add a 2nd sink in the kitchen (strictly for $$ reasons - I love the function of a 2nd sink).

The reason I kept it in the island was that the drawer at the far left of the island contains the plates/silverware and the coffee bar contains the cups/glasses (I wanted them there as it's an easy path to the dining room and for someone to set the table or grab a snack without disturbing the cook/prep). And it makes sense for those areas to be adjacent to the dishwasher for easy unloading. I could put dishware/cups storage along the west wall, under the window, but you'd have to go around the island to reach that stuff (which is fine as long as no one is sitting at the island or prepping in that space, but still a longer distance).

I also like the pivot factor of being able to access water from the long dry prep area as well as from the cooking area. The Kohler Stages sink is 45" long, so it takes up a good stretch of the island (and allows me to place dirty dishes inside the sink). I'd make sure I got a faucet with a long stretch so I can easily twist from prep or cooking to add water.

Besides the DW/dish storage, I kept the sink to the right of the island as I'd often use the long prep wall to make a mess (several people could prep there, where it's out of the way, and we've been known to make several types of cookies at a time so it's good to be able to have space to lay it all out) and then serve the food atop the island's eastern/southern half, where it's an easy path through the French doors to pick up plates and food, or pass plates through to the outside ledge for wet kids who you don't want inside the house.

Great ideas! Thanks for making me revisit this and please feel free to poke holes if my logic or flow is faulty.