Hi, Bailey. There are others here that are better at helping with layouts than me, so I'll be curious to see their ideas.

It would be helpful to see actual dimension of your kitchen/dining area and measurements from walls to windows/doors.

I personally much prefer plan #1, although I'm concerned about a smaller refrigerator in both plans and whether you have enough filler between the refrigerator and wall. Although it's not ideal having doors opening into a doorway, I still prefer it to crowding the dining area in plan #2.

Also, in plan #2, you're going to lose space on each side of the angled corner sink.

I want to start by saying that different people have differing priorities so anything I say is somewhat reflective of mine.

There is some difference between a one person kitchen and one where multiple people can use it at the same time. You may be the chief cook and bottle washer at the moment, but as your kids grow, you'll assign them chores like clean-up plus they'll want to cook too. And all too often, it will be at the same time that you're cooking.

In both designs, the route to/from the refrigerator is pretty long and the pantry is on the opposite side of the room. Your dish storage is perhaps overly large and on the other side of room from where the dish washer may be located - It's unclear if you'll have one. If someone is say making cookies while someone else is cleaning up breakfast or unloading a dishwasher, it's going to be pretty tight in there. You've also got "thru traffic" crossing through the kitchen from the back door.

When I look at both designs, I see some issues that are still unresolved - i.e. no view of the table or family areas when cooking or doing clean up, windows facing south can be problematic in summer - I knows this cause I haz some. You might see yourself looking at the sunset, where my experience is hiding from the glare in the late afternoon and evening.

I think I would try one wall of stuff along the back (where you have the pantry and dish storage) that contained the pantry, range and ref plus one of those designs that have a very long island - part of which is a table - maybe whole thing is 39-42" deep and go the entire 13 feet long. I might make the back wall of cabinets 30" deep to be able to accommodate a normal depth ref and extra storage space in the pantry. Uppers could be 15" deep.

The table could be moved away when it needs to be bigger and oriented in the other direction with a leaf or additional table added with more chairs. When you're doing a big job or have little helpers, it could function as extra counter. Put the sink on the island with some additional storage on the back side - use a bank of regular depth cabinets faced by a bank of 12" to 15" deep door cabinets. I'd also move the table to the left hand side of the island, closer to the side entry.

This way you face both the view and the table area more often. It would channel the coming and going out towards the window walls. It could be arranged so that many fewer steps were needed to get stuff done, but also have an aisle width that would be comfortable with more chefs.

So just something to think about...

I prefer plan #1--more prep space between the sink and range, but can
you not add windows to the east? If there is enough space in the length
of the kitchen you could pull the fridge out so that the door clears the
stub wall, and also pull the cabinets out the same distance, for more
counter space. If you are using custom cabinets, drawers can be made
deeper, too, for more storage.

In
plan #2 the fridge size is still limited, because you'll need to leave a
cabinet between the sink and DW to have space to stand in front of the
sink while loading or unloading dishes.

Will the exterior door at the edge of the dining/living area lead to where your outdoor grill would be? If so, I would prefer that door be located at the end of the kitchen cabinet run and move the windows and table toward the living room. If you are prepping/cooking a meal inside and grilling at the same time, you will get really tired of walking all the way through the dining space to get outside. If you do that, depending on your dimensions, you may be able to turn your island the other direction and have more aisle space around it.

I have to go around my kitchen table area to get to my deck which is a real pain. I don't have any choice, but you have time with a new build to make the space work for you.

Is that your full downstairs? Where is the front door?

I just noticed in her second layout above there are bedrooms across the wall opposite of that door, so that must be the front door. Well, scratch moving that door.....and don't put your grill on your front porch! Lol, when I moved from the county to where I am now, some neighbors grill on their driveway. I was like....what the? Don't they have a deck or patio in the back? :-o

Hi everyone, thanks for your comments so far.

Here's information I should have included earlier:

-I don't want a dishwasher, crazy I know but it not worth giving up storage space for something I don't consider essential.

-The house is one level, with the stairs going down to the basement.

-There will be a deck that you can access from either the east or south doors.

-The main entry will be the south door, by the powder room/laundry.

-The china display is for my large collection of Royal Albert Blossome Time china.

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-The dimension from the wall behind china cabinet/pantry to south windows is 13', give or take a few inches.

-The south wall to living room wall by east door is 26'.

-Here is an exterior elevation of the house.

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-This is what the original plan looked like before I made changes. Their kitchen layout has some good points now that I reflect on it, but it seems that it would funnel traffic through the kitchen more than my revised plans. And it's important that I have my china displayed.

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In both of her revisions of #1, you have more windows facing south by the stove, so when you're prepping in that corner area, you'll have nice views.

I sure wouldn't want to live without a dishwasher. You won't need it for entertaining? Family gatherings?

Do you currently have and use a dishwasher? I just want to make sure that you know what you're getting into. Giving up a dishwasher for one or two people is not something I would want to do but I could justify it. You are talking about having an expanding family and in those circumstances giving up a dishwasher does not make sense to me.

Do you use your beautiful china daily? If not, where are the daily dishes going? If you are, can you promise you will not be upset with your children when they break it?

I like mama goose's design the best because it puts the pantry and fridge close to each other and it puts the sink and stove in line as they should be.

Do you know which closet will hold the broom, vacuum cleaner, and other long handled implements, etc.

I really prefer that there is a front entryway with a separate closet for guest coats and such. In my great-grandmother's house we always came in via the back porch and I always thought it was strange. I do think that the house should have at least two entrances and exits. I would not be surprised to find that it's required by code.

How far out in the country is this? Is this one of these locations where you have to do a monthly run to some store an hour away? If so there is not enough storage space- unless that's what the basement is all about. For two people or possibly a family of three (four if the children are a boy and a girl) this design is fine but if you are really intending to have more children I think that you are not allowing the space for all the paraphernalia that each additional person ends up needing in terms of extra bed, dresser, desk, closet space, plates, pots, pans, glasses etc. Have you measured how many linear feet of closet space you are currently using between you and your husband and determined that your new build will have at least that amount?

I've made some changes with this layout. Do you think the upper cabinets that I added by the fridge, and on either side of the stove will look okay?

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In the other layouts, I was prepared to have everyday dishes/glasses in drawers between fridge and sink. With this new layout I can utilize the upper cabinets now.

I've never had a dishwasher, and for us it's never been an issue for larger suppers or everyday.

I plan on using my china once a week for Sunday suppers; otherwise it's a waste of money just to be a display piece.

I'm considering stealing some space from the pantry area to make a small broom closet, as I don't want to steal from the regular entry/coat closets.

The basement will have a large storage area, for extra supplies and home preserves.

Sometimes too much importance is put on including something for resale, but in the case of a DW, that's valid, IMO. Even if you never plan to have a DW, you should include a 24" cabinet beside the sink, so that a DW can be easily added. Put an outlet behind it for future DW.

I've always thought a drying cabinet would be nice--ROTs with liners and dishracks. You could customize a cabinet with perforated doors for ventilation, and even salvage some DW racks from recycle centers. That would keep drying dishes off the counter.

If you do provide for future DW and resale, the sink/DW would be better on the east wall--if someone is helping by loading or unloading the DW while you are prepping or cooking, there is no zone crossing. Also the range hood will be a nice focal point from the long view and the dish mess is off to the side, and closer to the table. FWIW, I like your plans much better than the original.

Here is the elevation with the two extra windows:

If you have a fixed island and no seating there, you could do glass cabinets on the back side for your China display (although I'd be concerned about that with little ones around; i.e., throwing things, crashing into it, etc.)

You have said in one paragraph above you must have space to display your china and in another, it's a waste of space. I would sit down and make a list of everything you will need storage for in your kitchen, and in addition, a priority and non-priority list. Is Sunday dinner a dinner for 4, 6, 8, 10+ people? Perhaps you can have one wall cabinet for a pretty display and store away the rest underneath in a cabinet.

With a growing family, I would want to utilize all that space you have for china for more pantry or pantry/office-workstation and make a much smaller area for china.

The main entry will be the south door, by the powder room/laundry.

First I really like the overall look of the exterior of the house. Love those windows especially, but I think your layout has some major problems with flow.

I would have a real problem with the idea of walking into a house where to your left is a powder room, ahead is a closet and to the right is the kitchen. Not very inviting for you or for guests. And then to make it worse, you need to walk through your kitchen area to access the living area. And the view to the living room isn't even one of windows.

Sorry to be so blunt but the biggest problem I see is a real lack of flow to the house.

I would highly suggest posting your full layout in the building a house forum for more input.