… and turn it into the little kitchen that could.

I am hoping I can get some layout advice. About a year ago, I sought help for a layout
in which we hoped to move the kitchen to another part of the house. Unfortunately, my budget did not meet my expectations. Also, we could never get over the oddness of
what we would do with the old kitchen area.

To
keep a more reasonable budget we want to keep the kitchen in the same location,
but hope to push out a wall 24 inches into the LR/DR. This is the most we want to push it
back. Even with this 2-foot extension, the
kitchen will be small and will require lots of compromises.

I am not upset and would rather live within a reasonable
budget than put in 50% of my house value into a renovation. I am trying to keep the budget within $60-$75K
(that still seems crazy to me, but I am trying my best to be realistic).

About us: mid-50s, no
children/no grandchildren. I am
semi-retired. DH works a lot of hours. I do 90% of the cooking and almost
exclusively from scratch. I do most of
the cleanup as well. We do not entertain
regularly. Our families live in other
states so holidays are spent with us travelling. If they do visit, it is in the summer and our
entertaining is outside. When friends
come, it is usually only a couple or two and we eat in the dining room. In this situation, I often like to plate the
food and prefer to remain out of view of my guests (another reason we abandoned
the open concept). I am a messy cook. We hardly use the microwave except to heat up
coffee.

What I hate about my current kitchen: No room next to the cooktop and no drop-off
zone for the double oven. The hood is too
low. The hood and cooktop are from 1979. Poor lighting, crappy sink, etc.--the usual suspects!

Oh yeah, and I have no current kitchen floor. We had a flood in the laundry room and the
vinyl contained asbestos (was remediated).
We thought we would be starting on the renovation but family matters
kept us from doing so.

What I like about it:
Believe or not, the peninsula doesn’t bother me. I kind of like standing there and doing my
prep work while the TV is on or my DH works on his laptop at the table. It feels cozy. We like having a kitchen table and do NOT
want counter seating. With a kitchen this
small, I do NOT want an island. Even
though the kitchen is original to 1979, all my lowers have pull-out drawers
within the cabinets and doors open fully since they are a knife hinge. That is nice.

My goals: What I
really want besides space next to the oven and to the cooktop is a coffee
area. I am also wanting to have a
cleaner, more modern look. Gone will be
any tchotchkes, the pot rack above, etc. I turned all the closets in the laundry
room area into a pantry, extra storage and a broom closet. Nonetheless, a tall pull-out cabinet in the
kitchen would be nice. I don’t want a
white kitchen. I want slab fronts and
while I would love quarter-sawn or rift cut, I don’t think the budget will
allow it. I am thinking of a structured
laminate (as one cabinet shop described it to me).

And yes, my current kitchen is really that awful bright
yellow. My DH wanted something bright to
take away from the gray painted subfloor. It does!

The one splurge I think I will need to do if I want it to
succeed is a built-in 30-inch refrigerator.
I am looking at Bosch or Miele.

My electrical box was upgraded to 200 a few years ago.

What can and cannot change:
I am not willing to go beyond 24 inches.
We do not want to change the kitchen nook window, but am open to the one
over the sink being changed out. The
doorway to the LR/DR will not be a pocket door as it is now, but for the most
part it will remain centered in the room.
My DH is adamant about that! I do
NOT want the cooktop to move and I do NOT want the sink to be on the peninsula.

The plans are drawn to scale. But I will say that the possible plan is just
a rough sketch. I wanted to get your input
if I am heading in the right direction.
It is basically the same kitchen just a bit bigger. I can really see no other way. My neighbor did a push-out but put in an “island”,
but it is too cramped and no sink is on it.
I want a sink near my prep area. So the peninsula it is!

This was a long post and I am attaching a few pictures, but I hope I covered all the
basics. Thanks for reading and helping!