What kind of heating (cooling?) system do you have? I am not familiar with those kind of wall units. I am asking because both the dining and kitchen window walls offer space opportunity for storage that is not being utilized...even more storage if the size of the wall unit could be modified.

I am also not visualizing the three cabs at the enlarged opening that stick out into the kitchen. Could you explain their purpose and what you envision?

Need the location of dining and living room walls, complete. I'll take a quick look tomorrow and give the crew a drawing to play with. I don't usually do these so not likely to keep at it. But the usual suspects will.

Inderstand that there is a giant price increase from a standard 30" consumer type range to a 36" pro style range. Which needs a 42" pro style vent above. And heated Make Up Air if you are some place that has cold winters. Those details are all BIG price drivers to that average 120K upscale kitchen redo. If you don't see yourself in that budget range from the beginning, then drop back to a standard 30" consumer grade range. And the matching rest of the appliances.

You need to make up your mind right now if you want that upscale kitchen. Because it comes with that upscale price. And more. Since you are doing structural alterations that add a minimum of 6K to the job. Plus all new flooring. Which can easily be 30K all by itself.

If you want to control costs, you have to control your wish list.

Rantontoo- those are radiators for old steam heat, while I would love to take out the one in the dining room and turn those windows into doors to the terrace, it would be cost prohibitive to touch either of them. The space in the back currently has a narrow tall pantry that is perfect for storing cans bottles etc. I though that would be a good area for the cell phones mail, and drawers for school and art stuff in a shallow cabinet with counter. It is kind of dead space because of the door there. Here is a pic of the area where you can see the door to outside and the side of the 12" pantry there.

Before you get too deep into this, NYC certainly does follow minimum aisle widths and door widths. We're in NYC too (with old school radiators) and just went through this with our architect. The architectural plans, expeditor and asbestos testing added $10,500 to the budget. We knew that going in but just in case you were not aware it can be sticker shock.

Katrina- you should have seen my last kitchen prior to the Reno and some of the ones we had seen while looking around. We are also in a private house not building, which cuts down on some things. I understand it won't be cheap. I am trying to get a reasonably good layout to get some pricing since cabinets and labor are the bulk of the costs.

Jakuval-

the dining room is 10' 11" wide, left to right in the picture and I am standing in the living room taking the dining room picture. The left wall in the dining room picture is 36' long and the DR and LR is one big room. The living room is wider from the bump out where the fridge is in the current layout. I don't have my laptop here but can give an outline on Friday when I am back from this work trip. The house is a small rectangle.

I also forgot To mention the the second row of some cabinets in the interior are an alternate option (for example the 18" on the upper left)

Cleaner rough plan for the crew to work with, few items to use for copy/paste, requested layout, one suggestion.

NOTE-I'm assuming that the wall you want to open up is bearing (at least likely to be carrying overlap of joists) may not but typical for the borough.

Secondly-you had started a thread requesting cabinet pricing-as LWO points out your big tickets are going to be labor, flooring, structure. I'd put my money into the those first and maximize the available storage as best as possible- still comes out to a fairly nice size for NYC. I'd also concentrate a bit on the DR. Lastly those sure look like Oil Hot water in the wall radiators?

With that I leave you in the hands of the GW layout denizens.

Jakuval- thank you so much for this. It is very much appreciated. I understand about the pricing, I don't need to do the bulk of the wood floors but would prefer to.

i am definitely sure that I have steam heat and we have a natural gas boiler no oil. My wife was originally thinking about an island but I am worried about the loss of space and not having enough working counter space by the sink.

Came across this and thought of your post. They used two 30" ranges side by side http://www.chrislovesjulia.com/2015/09/idaho-home-full-kitchen-reveal.html

Too bad it's steam and not water, usually run into that in apartments.

Lot of ways you could vary it. Just meant as a point of discussion. I typically start with several (on jobs) so pros and click can be evaluated at the beginning. (you might try that) instead of nibbling at it forever - more effective. One reason I don't play GW layouts. Besides, I have real jobs to do. This just intrigued and provided a respite from detailing two involved sets of drawings.

With any luck you'll get some feedback here.

Anyone out there with some thoughts or assistance on this one? I am off next week and would like to try and get a cabinet quote or 2. Thanks again!

Thanks very much jakuval. You have been extremely helpful. I can't remove that little stub wall at the top left all the way (current entry into the dining room) as there is a steam pipe in there somewhere. I will cut it back as far as it can go. The balcony is accessed as that is where I grow some plants that need to be watered often and also where my bbq is. Ideally I would seal that door, make that area a walk in pantry and change the dining room windows to french doors to the balcony but that is way too involved at this time. The wall in question is load bearing and can just have a header beam installed (a neighbor had done that). I still do think I am leaning toward a peninsula but this is intriguing.

I like Jakuval's idea of moving the door opening further down and putting the fridge in the lower right hand corner. You could put the door opening in the middle of the wall and do a pantry next to the fridge and maybe a pantry next to the door opening from the dining room. That keeps large objects from blocking the light into the kitchen, You could keep the pantry next to the back door. You might end up with more storage and contiguous counter space.

How long have you lived there? How long do you plan to live there? Does the rest of the home meet your needs?

You don't want to spend a lot of money on a very expensive project. Depending on the answer to the above questions, you might consider moving to something that already has a layout more to your liking. With no walk through traffic zone

Or leave the current situation alone with new cabinets and no structural alterations. Because getting a truly functional layout out of that space will likely require redoing that HVAC obstacle as well as all of the floors, and the structural changes.

At that point, you have to assess how happy you are with the home as a whole. And if the end result of a "kitchen" project is really worth doing a very very expensive project to get a only moderately improved overall functional result in that home.

15-25k for cabinets depending on brand (I priced my larger Island plan, leaving the stub wall, still with 36" walkway, in a better, NAUF ply frameless white shaker -loaded,at 21k. Metro NY would be higher),

Add

3k floor at 15/ft installed, 5k counters, 15 appliances. A guess for labor, rock, electric, header, cabinet install, plumbing, 25? (metro NY is inscrutable- at least you're not in Manhattan or an apartment ) bottom of 15 if someone's BIL. Leave heat alone.

At the low end, being careful and lucky mid 40s to 50, upper end of guess bumping labor to 30 k you're likely in the 80s. That is in line win Remodeling magazines cost/value for NYC and well within your 5-10% of home value with a better than typical NYC kitchen. (FWIW- a recent job in lower Manhattan apartment, very hi end everything , a little smaller, was more than that not counting labor)

You need real labor costs, a decision if it's affordable, and then go get some help to tune the layout and cost choices.

Don't know why you aren't getting more real help here.

I'd read the thread before, but couldn't think of an improvement on jakuval's suggestions--I really like the one with the peninsula.

That narrow hallway must be a pain, although I understand your space restrictions. I have a 30" opening from the LR to the kitchen, and I thought that was bad.

Don't know if this will be real help, but the only alternate plan I thought of is to keep the plumbing on the right wall (I have the plan turned 90°) and pull the bases forward to accommodate the pipe. That would allow you to have a standard depth fridge, and give you more counter depth. You could also have deeper uppers (15-18") for more storage.

I put a pull-out pantry beside the fridge, and 15" deep cabinets on the island. I was thinking you could use those for extra pantry storage by mounting shelves on the doors, to make canned goods easily accessible. I added a 15" overhang for seating, but it could be more shallow as your space is limited.

With entries to the kitchen on both sides of the island, maybe traffic flow will be improved. I used the 30" range, which is out of the way of traffic, except when someone is coming in from the terrace, but there is space to pass behind the cook. If the window is lower than counter height, the small cabinet on the end can be installed at standard depth, and it could house the MW drawer--or the MW could be incorporated into the upper cabinet beside the fridge. The shelf might need to be the same depth as the fridge box, to accommodate the pipe.

I added a shallow cabinet in the corner, just inside the door. That could be a broom closet, command center for a message board and calendar, charging station, or extra pantry storage.

Thanks, jakuval, for the templates.

Thank you all, especially jakuval. Lots to chew on from your assistance.