I'll toss a few ideas out: First, is there any way to move your laundry to the 2nd floor rather than to the basement? I had a second floor laundry in one of our homes, and it was wonderful. It made keeping up on the laundry so efficient and easy. Second, please check out Sixtyohno's kitchen and Saphire Moon's because they both have elements that are somewhat similar to your own home. Let me describe what I drew since it's coming up micro-sized. I left the peninsula, but you could certainly take it out. I also left the sink, but we'll talk more about that in a minute. Across the top of the picture, it goes sink, stove, and then a fridge parallel to the peninsula on the right hand side. This gets all of your main work elements into a protected area of the kitchen so that you are no longer crossing a major pathway while doing most of your cooking. Along the bottom edge of the kitchen is what I'll call 'The Great Wall of Storage'. : ) This could be all pantry, pantry and broom closet, or even a small bar area with a sink in addition to the pantry and broom storage. It's currently 2' deep, but you could make it shallower if it is only going to be storage with no bar area. This would make the walkway to the dining room a bit wider, in addition to making it more challenging to lose things in the pantry. For wall pantries, sometimes shallower is better. I'm not sure how wide the walkway really is... so I'm not sure which depth would be best in your situation. Best wishes! I'd like to swap the sink and stove locations in my drawing to help the 'fridge-sink-stove' flow, but I didn't do that to try to keep costs lower. If your contractor could move the window reasonably, it might be nice to do so and put the sink where I put the stove. Or, some folks have put stoves under windows, but you'll want to run this through your inspector since some can get a little cranky about stoves under windows. Personally, I like it. Sixtyohno's kitchen reveal thread: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0123300326997.html Here is a link that might be useful: the other kitchen reveal

Where will your dining area be? Another option on the sink wall would be to put the dw on the left of the sink (possibly nearer dining and more out of the cooking area for when it's open), then sink, then trash (so it's easier to reach trash and dishwasher from the sink, and the trash is still handy to prep and stove area), then mixing bowls nearer the cooking area. Not sure, though, unless you have very tall bowls, that having a 2-drawer stack is necessary...and maybe a sacrifice of one more drawer for nothing. I keep my mixing bowls in a 3-drawer stack with a typical shallowish drawer on the top and 2 deeper underneath. I understand pregnancy brain! After 8 kids, even though my youngest will be 5 tomorrow (sniff and sigh...), I think I'm still recovering from it! (From pregnancy brain straight to pre-menopause brain...Probably no cure)

First of all, THANK YOU for taking the time to read this, look at my plan, and assist me. In response to some of the questions/comments... The right side that desertsteph mentioned not being able to see/read on the drawing - right now there is a large old butcher block table there, with 3 wall cabs and some shelves above. We do not use the table - it basically collects junk. I think that area could be used much more efficiently. Yes, this is mostly "steamlining and prettying up"! I'm not opposed to changing things *if* it really makes sense to do it but am not looking to change things just for the sake of change. I think I have a good base and there is no need to tear it all out and start from scratch. I just want to be sure that I am making the most efficient and effective decisions. I was thinking of putting another oven beside the refrigerator; it seems like the easiest place for a new appliance. I do have a floor-to-ceiling pantry that holds a ton of stuff. If I don't put in a second oven, the space beside the refrigerator would probably be a combo of deep drawers and a good sized pantry cabinet, and/or some kind of built-in microwave as right now we have a countertop MW that just sits on an old dresser! The floor is pine planks - very pretty, warm color - all the first floor floors are the same material, and it will remain. The hall door sees the least traffic, so it seems like the cook center is already in the best place given that I need to keep 5 doors into this space. The space between the island and the kitchen table is basically a corridor to the living room, so that needs to stay clear. I briefly considered a new countertop with an overhang on that side but the overhang would make my existing top drawers unusable, so I ruled that out. We do not have an entry room or mudroom at this entrance to the house; there is a brick patio outside this door. Our laundry room is as long as the kitchen but about 6 ft wide; part of this is a half bath, some is laundry, and the rest is storage and "mud room" functions. There is a lot packed into that little space but it works pretty well. I have aspirations of building a covered stoop at the back since we do use this entrance all the time, but that will be a few years away. I don't think our site setbacks would allow a full mudroom or entry here. I like the shelf above the cabinets too, although I'm not much of a collector, so I don't know what to put up there. I'm short so it is too high for me to access for storage, and works as display only. I'm having outlets installed above the shelf as part of this project so I can install lighting up there to light the ceiling. My finish plan is: *keep the floors *cover the ceiling with an anaglyptic wallcovering that looks like tin tiles which will be painted white *install crown mold all around, painted white *paint the cabinets white, add a "light rail" piece of trim to the bottoms, switch out the hinges with something less obtrusive, change the pulls on the drawers to bin pulls, and change the door pulls to new ORB/white porcelain pulls *paint the wainscot and trim (now blue) dark brown, picking up on the darkest brown tones of the floor and the dark brown fleck in the laminate countertop *paint the walls a very light cream/yellow (BM Pearly Gates, I think) *I'd hoped to replace the countertop to the left of the range with Corian to match what's on the right. It's probably 20 years old and it looks great, but this CT is so old that I am having trouble matching it. I am still looking at options here - would like to use something white/light colored but have also considered the Ikea butcher block for economy reasons, although I am not sure I am up to that DIY project *I bought subway tile for the backsplash at the range, but I have to replace the CTs first because they are not currently at the same height (only a fraction of an inch off, but against the lines of the tile it will be really evident) I guess my biggest question is - is it worth it to consider moving the sink? Would I gain the same benefit by undermounting a new sink at the existing location on the island and having a butcher block piece made to cover half of it to expand the prep area? That would certainly be less expensive, but would it be as effective as the combination of a main sink and a prep sink? I appreciate your time and your thoughts. Thanks for your help!

Ok, I'm not sure I am reading your diagrams correctly so bear with me if I'm way off base. But it appears to me you are wasting a lot of space with so many paths, and overly narrow paths at that, just to have so many different beds. So my first question would be why so many beds? More beds is not necessarily more productive or more useful than fewer but bigger beds would be. Is the E-W directional placement of the beds what is limiting you? If so, then that isn't any sort of absolute "law". Lots of gardeners use N-S beds quite successfully and they can be easy to compensate for the direction by arranging plantings and crop rotation. And it would appear that in your case using a N-S orientation would allow for a much more effective use of space. 3' or 4' wide beds that could be 12, 14, or even 18 feet long. For example using Version 7 diagram, one 3x14 foot long bed could abutt up to the patio edge on one side and you'd have a 3' path between it and the green tree band on the east. Follow m? 1' wide paths are basically useless for any practical purposes and 2' paths aren't much better. You'll live to regret those narrow spaces. So on the south side, if you feel you MUST run E-w then combine some of those many tiny beds into fewer larger ones OR make 2 N-S beds that are 4'x-24' long with 3 foot wide paths all around. Much less wasted space, more growing space, essentially the same amount of fill required, and I would argue more attractive than having a bunch of tiny little beds crammed together. Make sense? Dave