plan 1 with changes; the 42 in walkway on the sink side of island should increase to 48 in minimum... Lengthen the entire island section. the 5ft between bar stools and pantry area can accomodate some island real estate-move the end into that space a little more-possibly curve that end section-semi circle or the like.Then as you move back toward the dining room part of your space I would decrease the depth a bit and go with one level-counter height-and elongate the look and extend the island into that space near the dining area.Seems to be a corridor kitchen-the bar stool end is island-like-but your core area is not really an island-able space. I would play up the corridor aspect by creating this more galley approach -keep the walkway open and not put the frig over on the left as in plan 2. could be a great open look with a contemporary vibe.

Thanks everyone for your responses! These are very helpful. We have been thinking through our options for moving various bathrooms or taking over the mechanical space. Unfortunately, there seems to be challenges with most of the ideas we've had. These two floors are all the space we have - no basement or cellar. We're in a historic district in Washington DC, so any additions would be a heavy lift. We have thought about selling and moving, but we would need to renovate the kitchen and bathrooms before we sold since they are all pretty out of date. The fact that we have a two and a half bathrooms is fairly rare for a house this size in this neighborhood, but since they were one of the main selling points of the house for us, it would be tough to give any of them up. On relocating the half bath downstairs, my wife likes the fact that it now opens into a hallway and not directly into the living/dining space. This limits where we can move the bathroom, The closet underneath the stairs would need to be expanded to hold the half bath, the full height section is too narrow and not long enough to meet code. Also, the kitchen/bathroom hallway wall parallel to the stairs is load bearing. We'd probably be able to put in a column and beam, but that's a factor that will likely drive up the cost of opening up the downstairs. We have thought about relocating the washer and dryer upstairs into the small step-in closet with the chimney that buehl mentioned. There is space for a 24in washer/dryer in the back of the closet, but keeping access to it would waste the rest of the closet space. We hadn't thought about reworking that space with the other closet and hall bathroom. Thanks for the suggestion! I'll think though how we could get it to work. I'd love to hear your ideas. If we relocated the washer dryer, we could move the doorway into the mechanical room to the main area from the kitchen. That would give us the ability to add more counter space in the existing kitchen space. The wall where the refrigerator is too narrow for the 36in fridge. We would either need to close the doorway into the mechanical room or widen the doorway into the hallway. Venting for the hood will be a challenge from the current kitchen. Our options are to run the vent pipe up through the bedroom above or out the back using the space between the floors - there is about 2 feet of space between the ceiling joists downstairs and the floor joists above. going out the front is a no go in the historic district. But before I give up the plan to move the kitchen into the living space, let me ask, what do you think about the one wall kitchen idea? Is 14.5 feet too little to make a usable kitchen? Is there a way to design it so that it doesn't feel like it takes over the rest of the space? By the way, the sewer line goes back through the rear of the house, so at least we have that on our side.

If you have to go with a visible niche, here is what I did. I went to Bath and Body Works and bought several bottles of shower gel. The shower gels come in clear plastic squirt bottles with silver chrome-looking tops. I emptied a couple of shower gels into spare bottles, removed the labels, and put my other products in the empty BBW bottles. Then I marked them on the bottom with a sharpie to identify: B for body gel, F for face wash, S for shampoo, C for conditioner. You can’t see the sharpie marks. The bottles look really nice in the niche. BTW I have a custom niche that was sized to work seamlessly with the tile I chose. EDIT: I would consider doing the border on the bottom of the walls like a baseboard to make the shower floor look bigger. Re the niche: I was warned about water seepage as well, so I towel dry the niche after every shower. It’s not a big deal. Also, my custom niche was framed out inside the wall so I could put it where I wanted. (My shower is small: 30x 60) Also think about how much water will be hitting the niche. In the pic with the pony wall, there might be a lot of water coming at the niche. My niche sees hardly any water because the shower spray hits the floor several inches before it gets to the niche wall.

The original sink cabinet had a box in the pony wall connected to an open back metal box inside the cabinet with dual 1/2 hot outlet routed to a switch box just inside the cabinet door via flex conduit. This outlet supported the garbage disposal and instant hot water. The dishwasher (left of sink) was direct connected via Romex. We plan to route the garbage disposal switch to the RH side of the island in the space between cabinet backs just below the countertop (I know everyone likes the air switch but my wife says no). I would like to keep the inside of the sink cabinet clear of electrical boxes if possible. I am thinking I could install two dual outlet boxes in the 5-1/4" x 3/4" nailer board. 20A for the garbage disposal and instant hot water and 15A for the dishwasher. Then route the switch for the garbage disposal behind the cabinets. The reason for adding the dishwasher outlet is to allow adding GFCI/AFCI protection (which is/is not required depending upon who is reading the code) - I figured it wouldn't hurt. Same reasoning for the 20A outlet. 1. Does this plan make sense? 2. Can I run Romex behind the cabinets without conduit? (I can't imagine how it could be subject to damage). 3. What type of box should I install flush into 3/4" plywood" (old work clamp style?, adjustable?, screw in a plastic box flush into the plywood edge?) 4. Can I run Romex through the floor and jump the 4" gap to the cabinet back before securing it? I like the no pony wall plan but it creates a lot of new questions for me.