Kirkhall, yes, the foyer is huge! It houses our baby grand piano, though (we are both musicians), so the space is put to pretty good use. The former owners had it set up as a second living room but we didn't feel that was necessary for our purposes. Anyway, there is no option of a side entrance through the foyer - the house is about 4' above ground level there, and the side yard is only about 6' wide. We do have a side entrance into the basement (the side door lets you in on the landing that divides the basement stairs in half), but it's a VERY tight space and just not really conducive to use as a regular entrance (although building some shoe cubbies along the staircase might help!).

I didn't draw in the laundry in my second photo but I assume that a 6x6 mudroom would be large enough to house our (stackable) W/D in addition to giving us room for shoes, coats, bags, etc.

Just a bump - thoughts, anyone?

I would hate bringing the groceries into the mud room and have to walk thru dining room around bathroom door and to the kitchen. Have you considered a large rug by the back door, I have a 5x4 size at my kitchen door and snow, mud and dirt is contained to that area now. Also consider wardrobes on the bathroom/ kitchen wall with organized storage to house coats, backpacks, shoes etc. IKEA pax work well and they have a narrow European size that is under 20 inches deep. Also their show closets are very handy and shallow as well.

Roarah, that is a VERY good point - I hadn't even thought about groceries. I suppose the mudroom could open into the kitchen, but then I would lose that long counter run. We do have a small rug in front of the kitchen door currently, but we can't leave shoes on it because there is SO little space - the door is sandwiched between the DW and W/D. I bought a hutch for the kitchen/bathroom wall where I do store some shoes, bags, etc., but it just doesn't feel like enough space. The ideal thing would be to have a large closet where the W/D is, but then I'd have to find a new place for those. I'd prefer them on the 2nd floor anyway - perhaps some creative thinking in that direction would be a better idea!

One option possibly would be to move the stacked w/d so it is accessed from within the powder room (using the closet? space of the dining room,and part of the current w/d area--door from in front of toilet).
Or, taking away space in the dining room to add w/d to powder room in that direction.
With either of these two options, you can create a mud closet/nook by the current kitchen door (though, behind it).

Or, as you say, moving it up stairs--but we can't help with that without a second floor plan.

Kirkhall, that "closet" area of the dining room next to the W/D is actually a small bar/liquor cabinet. It's a nice thing to have but the dining room is plenty large enough to put a bar elsewhere. By removing that bar and the existing wall between the toilet and W/D, I could turn the W/D around for access from the powder room, as you suggest. That doesn't solve the storage problem in the kitchen, though, unless I steal space from the old W/D area - I don't know if that would be possible, given that the powder room is only 4' wide. I assume I'll need at least 4' to stand in front of the W/D and get the doors open, maybe even more. Perhaps the W/D could be turned to open toward the bathroom door? Standing in front of the toilet to do laundry isn't especially appealing, though.

I meant it a little different. I'd take out the wall between the current laundry and the bar, as well as the wall in front of the toilet and the bar. Move the laundry to the right, and turn it toward the powder. So that it occupies part of its current space and all the bar space.

If your powder is only 4 feet wide, you're barely code compliant (if at all) for the powder room. I'd steal at least another foot, maybe two, from the dining room to make your powder 5-6 feet wide. Giving you more space in front of the toilet to work.

I understand you don't like to stand there, but if you plan a full remodel with plumbing moved, to could change the location of the sink and toilet to something that suits your sensibilities a little more.

I can see your problem, and it's especially frustrating because you do actually have a fair amount of space/square footage, but it's not well configured.

Personally, I don't think I would be happy with your proposed change. Coming through the dining room does seem a bit "off" to me, and not the most practical.

I have thought which might seem crazy at first....

Nothing you're considering is actually inexpensive, so what about solving your very real need for a mudroom by simply building one on the back of the kitchen, outside the kitchen door? Not sure if you have the room, but if you do, it would probably be the least disruptive option. If it's small enough it shouldn't affect your current heating/cooling load. You're just building a simple box. You could even turn the laundry access so the machines stay where they are but they're open to/accessed from the new entry room.

If it were me, I would probably do it so that it was a large open arch into the kitchen rather than a door. It would need to feel like part of the house, not an enclosed porch. And again, doesn't have to be huge, could keep $$ down. (And by the time you price out any other options, it might not seem so extreme). I picture a slate/stone look tile floor.

Just something to consider!

I know you said that you can't do a side entrance into the foyer, but is there a way to re-think the approach to your house so that you can use the front entrance more easily? It seems such a shame that you aren't able to take more advantage of that - approaching via the nice covered porch and then walking into the foyer with its fireplace and baby grand seems like such a great way to come into the house, rather than through the kitchen/laundry/powder room area.

Kirkhall, I see what you're saying. Stealing a couple of feet from the dining room would definitely make a complete refiguration of that space possible so that one doesn't have to stand directly in front of the toilet to do laundry. The only problem is that moving the dining room wall would, IMO, interrupt the flow of the first floor, especially the view from the living room. The entryway from the LR to the DR could be narrowed or moved over slightly to correct that, I suppose, but there's also the issue of the window in the dining room, which is only about 2' away from the wall currently. I think moving the wall any closer to that window has great awkwardness potential, visually speaking.

If we were going to leave the outdoor entrance in the kitchen but move the laundry to an enlarged powder room, I think I would prefer to steal space from the kitchen (about a foot) and make something like this:

That still leaves me with nowhere to put shoes in the kitchen, but at least it gets the W/D out of the way and gives me some storage in the powder room for laundry accessories, etc.

Krdpm, your suggestion is a good one and it is something my husband has floated a couple of times. The problem is that we don't have much space right outside the kitchen door. Our house is built on a plateau between two slopes, so our backyard is actually an 8' deep concrete patio directly behind the house, then a 3' retaining wall with a steep slope above it. There is a long staircase that starts about 4' away from the house on the patio, leading up to the driveway/parking area. I'm not sure if you can see what I'm talking about from this photo, but here is the back of the house, taken from the top of the hill:

This is what the patio/wall look like:

That little dormer/awning thing on the far right shades the window over the sink. I assume that used to be the back entrance to the house, which would make sense because the stairs lead directly to it - no idea why the former owners didn't remove it when they remodeled and moved the entrance. Anyway, we could certainly put a small room on the back between the two windows (there's about 10' between them), but it couldn't be any more than maybe 4' deep to allow adequate space to walk between it and the retaining wall to access the other end of the porch.

Freeoscar, I agree with you - it is lovely to come in the front of the house! We come and go that way when we are traveling by train, but the only parking available is behind the house. Some of our neighbors with similarly-shaped lots have added street-level garages in the front of their homes, but I don't really like the way those look - nor do we currently have the funds for a project of that magnitude.

BTW, here is a plan of the second floor, if anyone wants to take a crack at moving the laundry up there! The rooms are mostly generously-sized and have big closets, but the only hall closet is TINY, and the hall bath is not very large either. The only possibility I see (circled in red below) is to combine the linen closet with the guest bedroom closet and put it in there - no idea if this is workable though, given venting and clearance requirements, etc.

Almost. Take your plan you drew above with your "preferred" taking 1' from the kitchen. And, make that storage space (or at last part of it) accessible to the kitchen side.

Just curious, did you decide on something that might work?

No firm decisions yet - we had a contractor come and take a look at the back to see if a small mudroom addition would be possible, but haven't heard back from him yet. Of course, this also opened up talk of a full kitchen remodel, so it may end up waiting until we can afford a project of that magnitude!

Three season porch is my vote.