Instead of having the kitchen jut out into the sunroom, I would suggest you stick with the proposed floor plan. However, I would suggest you switch kitchen with the dining room so that the dining room is next to the living room. You could move the butler's pantry across the pathway to the right wall and have the pathway from the dining room to the kitchen going past the butler's pantry in its new location. Then, borrow some space from the living room, above where the blue square and the adjacent white compartments are, and place the powder room in this space. There would be a pathway/doorway from the dining room on the right and a pathway/doorway from the hall and through a doorway in the living room wall on the left. This way, all the entry spaces and traffic would be along this wall between the living room and dining room, and the pathways would line up with the entry door of the house, shown at the right in the living room section.

Thank you sheilaskb for your suggestion! I agree that kitchen -> dining -> living is a better layout. However, I think it would be difficult to put the kitchen at the front of the house because the front windows are too close to the floor to accommodate cabinets (and I would hesitate to change the original windows on the front of the house) and there is also a fireplace in the center of another wall. I should have posted more photos with my question. I will add some tomorrow.

You need an architect and a very healthy budget to move kitchens, stairs and add a bath. And by healthy I mean hundreds of thousands not tens. Usually in most markets, moving to a house that meets your needs is much more affordable and a better return on investment than complete overhalls of existing homes. The scope of your work is more than free on line advise can provide. You should be speaking to architects, GCs and local real estate pro's.

I like your plan - which is very similar to that of a city townhouse. You've taken advantage of where your natural light is. You've increased the space devoted to circulation, but you now have a more logical circulation route. You've removed the odd kitchen extension into the rear sunroom. You've reduced four rooms to three, but they seem to work better. I can't speak to the budget or how difficult it might be to build the plan, but I like it.

Budget and location? Any design advice is useless without knowing what you want to invest in this remodel.

Exactly as above statements about the budget versus actual cost which may dictate your moving or a knockdown as opposed to reconstructing the house.

Thank you all so much for your comments! roarah, Kristin Petro Interiors, and millworkman, I am planning to hire an architect (to draw up plans for the stairs and hallway next to the stairs) and a structural engineer (for all structural changes). I think the budget and a gazillion hours of sweat equity will be sufficient, although I will be getting estimates down to the last cabinet pull before I start. I do have a good idea of the costs from previous remodeling of rentals (and I have even moved stairs before). I have a talented and inexpensive carpenter who has built many houses, and I also have a gc acquaintance who is willing to inspect and advise for a reasonable fee. I would be working with the same architect and other subcontractors that have helped me in the past, although I will have to find a structural engineer.

My hope is to have a workable floor plan before I contact the architect, and if he has other suggestions I will be open to them. The last time I hired an architect, I started with a plan and he improved upon it, and I was very happy with both the cost and outcome.

I like my house, neighborhood, and the lot within the neighborhood, and I hope to never sell this house (although I realize that circumstances change). Our house is very affordable for the neighborhood; other houses have sold for more than double the cost of our house (but they are much larger than ours).

Hallet & Co, I have made several plans with the kitchen in the sunroom (and I am still open to it), but I keep running into one problem or another -- either the room proportions, or what to do with the current kitchen space, or how to arrange cabinetry with all the windows, etc. We are residing the old part of the house this summer (but not the new part), so I think it might be cheaper to change the windows in the current dining room at the same time instead of changing the windows in the sunroom. The basement under the current dining room is unfinished, but under the sunroom there is only a very shallow crawlspace. Also, there is no lead paint in the walls or ceilings of the house, so at least that should not be an issue.

mjlb, thanks so much for commenting.

Here are some additional photos for clarification:

Here is my second favorite plan, btw, in case it is better. I would miss having a dining room and also the front view from the dining room, but the layout might seem more normal. (In both plans, the top wall of the kitchen would be a pony wall, but I forgot to label that in my first post.)

Thanks!!

Good luck with your project, sounds like you have a handle on it.

Hi millworkman, no, I don't, I don't know whether the plan I posted seems like a reasonable, workable layout for a house, or if it would be remuddling.

IMO your first plan is better because the kitchen is not a dead end, as in your second plan. Also, I don't think the sunroom is really large enough (17 x 13?) for combined living and dining.

ETA: Have you done a furniture plan for the repurposed sunroom? The low windowsills could complicate things. Also, I wonder if the room might work better with a full height wall, rather than a pony wall. The lowest side of the ceiling seems to be about 6-ft high -- does the room overall feel like a "proper" room as far ceiling height goes? What is the outdoor area like around the sunroom - the sunroom almost seems to be carved into the lot?

Buy a different house. A lot cheaper in the end.

mjlb, thanks for your input. The sunroom is 18' 6" x 13' 7", so not very big for two rooms. The lowest ceiling height is 6' 10", and it does feel like a proper room. The lot slopes up toward the back and the back yard is terraced. I had not done a furniture plan, but here is the first one I can think of:

I don't think that having furniture blocking the windows would bother me, but perhaps that's because I'm a poor decorator. (See above how it's "decorated" now.) I wouldn't want to have an unfurnishable room if I ever have to sell the house, though. Would it be better to have the furniture away from the windows? Also, my husband really wants the kitchen to be open to the living room.

Sophie, thank you for your honesty! You are probably right that the project would be too expensive compared to the alternatives of moving or deciding to be content, but I would like to at least price it out before I give up on it. I get that it is likely a bad idea from a financial perspective, but do you also think it is a bad idea in terms of function or aesthetics? Or is there some cheaper floor plan solution that I haven't thought of?

Know that you are talking $100K and more in renovations. Can the neighborhood support that?

I think it is a great alternative, but whew, not worth the money in the long run.

Thank you so much, mama goose! That plan is brilliant! I put in the dimensions, and I tried to squeeze in a pantry (the depth is only 2' 5", but a chest or upright freezer would fit) and broom closet by changing the powder room to a 6' 8" x 3' room with toilet and sink on opposite sides. I could also hide the bathroom hallway with doors that match the adjacent pantry cabinets (although my husband doesn't like that idea). I like so much about your plan: it is far less expensive, I could keep the inward swinging door to the garage, the new windows can use the existing openings, the sink faces the window, the kitchen is more spacious and functional, I would have an island and space for the freezer, the living room and fireplace would stay together, and access to the deck and grill between the kitchen and dining room makes more sense. My husband also prefers your plan to mine based purely on cost. The hallway from the front to the back of the house no longer lines up with the sunroom windows, but I suppose that could be changed with different window placement when the current windows need to be replaced (hopefully in the distant future) if it is noticeable. Thank you!!

Kathi, thank you for your comment and for the dose of realism. The neighborhood could definitely support that and more for a grander house than mine, but since we will still have only 3 bedrooms and the same small square footage, I doubt we would see a good return on our investment. I am okay with that as long as the cost is within our budget, which remains to be seen. (I also am willing to sacrifice finishes for the floor plan, buy used as much as possible, and to keep the powder room at the rough plumbing stage until we can finish it.) After I hammer out the details of a preliminary plan, I intend to run it by my friend, a realtor who helped us buy the house, to see what he thinks. Would you mind telling me which plan you thought was a great alternative?

Edited to add the floor plan.

I'm happy to help you attain a more functional kitchen and save money. Two things about the PR/pantry area:

You might change the PR door to an outswing--I don't think there is room to step into the room and close the door, if it swings in, and chances are, there won't be much conflict with the pantry door.

Make sure you have ventilation in the pantry, if you put the freezer there.

I love the hidden pantry/secret room idea! Since you'll be saving some money (and there will be less chaos if the existing stairs remain), maybe your husband will come around. Images--hidden pantry

http://www.remodeling.hw.net/cost-vs-value/2018/

I prefer the kitchen in the back, it helps preserve the original structure but I also prefer my back kitchen for its access to the yard when using the barbecue, entertaining on the deck or pool.

I like that the powder room is easily accessible.

I don't know what the dimensions are. Would it be possible to move the door in the living room to coincide with the front door? That way you would only have 1-3' walkway thru the living room instead of 2-3' walkways.

Will the kitchen sink be open to the living room?

Mama goose, thank you for all the additional ideas! I will incorporate them into that plan.

Sophie Wheeler, thanks for the link.

Roarah, I would also prefer the kitchen in the back, but I can't envision how to make it happen.

Kathi, thanks for your comments. The dining room is drawn at approximately 13' x 13', the powder room is 5' 7" x 4' 2", the butler's pantry is 7' x 4' 2", the kitchen is 13' x 8' 2", and the living room is 18' 6" x 13' 7". Do you mean that the door to the outside from the living room in that plan should be in the upper left corner facing toward the back yard instead of the side yard? And yes, in that plan there would be a pony wall separating the kitchen and the living room, so you can see the living room when at the kitchen sink.

Yes to the door.

mononhemeter, how high is the stairs from the entryway, how about having an open staircase where you can have a door underneath coming from garage and also combine the basement stairs from there.

Hi Kathi, the ceiling ends pretty low in the back, so I'm not sure how I could fit door trim. It does make more sense though to have the door in the back.

Claire, the stairs to the upstairs go up 54". I was thinking of a semi-open staircase to the garage (please ignore all the extra lines in my diagrams, and also imagine a garage door and the stairs continuing straight down to the basement).

Thanks!

That is so much better from your previous stair plan it’s better taking up a whole wall. Are you using sketchup mononhemeter?? That’s one the other idea was...see how in the old plan the staircase is sideways behind the other staircase wall instead of entering kitchen you would be entering in between what’s now the existing floor. I’m better off showing you

Hi Claire, thanks for thinking about my layout issue, and thanks also for the feedback! Yes, I am using sketchup. What program did you use to draw on my jpg? I wouldn't necessarily mind turning that staircase if the benefits outweigh the drawbracks, but I'm not sure what I would do with the rest of the layout, and I would also have to turn the basement stairs (there is a half staircase from the garage to the basement directly underneath the stairs currently in the living room) and the headroom for the new stair orientation would have to come from an upstairs closet (there is a bedroom above most of the current living & dining rooms). Also, the length of the wall where you wrote "open" is only 3' 1" (from the beginning of the stairs to the dining room wall). Our upstairs hallway is 3' wide and it seems very narrow.

I just used the editing mode on my iPhone. Do you mind taking a pics of the stairs underneath the living room.

Instead of putting the bathroom where you have it how about putting the bathroom next to the staircase from the garage and a butlers pantry next to that.

Keep the L layout and come up the stairs inside arch, right next to stairs is powder room then after it is butler pantry.

And you can still have your new kitchen layout

Hi Claire, thanks for the pictures! I love the layout in your pics, but with the dimensions in hand, one issue is that the main level of the house is only 20' 7" wide, and the stairs from the main level to the bedrooms are 7' 7" long. If I shorten them, I don't think the basement stairs would have sufficient headroom (but perhaps my architect will say otherwise). Assuming I can't shorten them, the stairs, hallway width (which I set at 3' 6") and 4" wall would take up 11' 5", and I would only have 8' 1" from the fireplace to the opposite wall in the dining room. Also, that wall would end at the leftmost front window.

That is a bummer about how low the ceiling is. I am not a fan of the last 2 plans. Lots of wasted space.

I still like this one.

You don’t have to shorten your stairs I was making my own leave your staircase as is a just turn for I believe the top staircase looks like a built-in... but you captured the house layout exactly how I suggested.

mononhemeter I was thinking maybe it’s best to keep the main floor stairway as instead of turning because of the opening in the ceiling