Bellsmom, We will not be wanting a table/chairs in the kitchen. A peninsula with bar stools will serve nicely for eating/homework etc while my husband or I are cooking. No kids yet, but in the near future after the kitchen and rest of the house gets done I imagine there will be a few ;) Dining room is more a formal style dining room for large gatherings. Just my husband and I doing the cooking. Groceries and trash will go out the back door I want to put on the remaining living room wall after the 24ft kitchen area. We dont do anything more than an average family would probably. We make dinner every night, but arent extravagant chefs by any means. No computer or tvs needed in the kitchen. Small appliance storage out of sight is a must for my large stand mixer, toaster, blender etc. I would also like to do a large vent hood over the range and not an over the range microwave. I like having my microwave at a more useable height, counter height is what I'm thinking. I will try and add some pictures of the mantles etc for style reference later. On my way to the kitchen planner appt.

What else would you like to change in your kitchen? The things in my original post are what really bother me. I really hate the current pantry space and refrigerator placement. I think those bother me the most. What doesn't work for you about the sink/DW, is it that you see it from the living room?Do you like having a breakfast bar in the Living room? Currently the island is two levels. The sink and DW cannot be seen from the living room. I don't know why I dislike their placement so much. They just seem awkward to me when I am working. When I remodel, I may make the island one level. If they are seen from the living room I won't be bothered. I don't mind the breakfast bar where it is. My living room is fairly large and is kind of an L shape. What's that "empty room", can you make it a pantry? Are there kids living here? The "empty room" is an empty room with electrical outlets and a window. I am thinking of making it into a pantry and office combo. One child. I wish I could put the refrigerator where the panty is now. I think it might be odd, because it would be at the at the end of a walkway and near a doorway.

divingcardinal, they have these things made out of cloth called "curtains". You pull them closed when things get too shiny. Or this other weird thing called a "blind" that goes straight up and down. Also very effective at blocking the light sometimes while letting it stream in unimpeded at others. To the OP - while the idea of enclosing the porch isn't horrible, it really doesn't look all that wide, enough to make it practical as a laundry room, unless you could put stacked units at the far end. Not sure where that is in relation to the window, which I absolutely WOULD NOT want to lose in the kitchen. However a better solution seems to me to be to fix the basement stairs. If they are SO narrow and/or shallow that a young person such as yourself wouldn't feel safe going up and down them with a basket of laundry, they're too narrow/shallow to be safe in any case. I would rather invest the reno money in fixing those stairs, give them a landing and a turn if necessary. I don't know what kind of space you have down there but if the stairs are as bad as you seem to imply, you won't use that space much, if at all. Plus I would worry about little kids and steep/narrow stairs. I'm 60 and if I had a basement that is where I would want the laundry area to be. Preferably with a built in floor drain. That would give me the space to have an actual laundry tub for the washer to drain into instead of those stupid little plastic bins they mount behind the drywall these days. Plus, laundry tubs are SOOOO useful for so many reasons. Even if they are in the basement.

You need to draw a floor plan showing all the connected rooms with exact measurements. It's impossible to help with the pictures posted.