Let me give some more details to help you visualize the room. The kitchen is part of the Great Room. It looks out over the yard and the ocean beyond. The main wall of the kitchen is just over 17 feet. On one end of the wall will go a 6 foot French doors which go to a large deck. 11 feet remain for the appliances on the other side. The only other kitchen wall is 8 feet long. And that will have the 3 foot refrigerator cabinet, the 3 foot corner cabinet and 2 feet remain between the two. Now my husband is asking me to avoid a peninsula or an island. He really feels it will take away from the open, airy feel of the room. So this is the problem: The upper corner cabinet on the main wall will measure 2 ft. The stove and sink will be 30 inches. The DW is 24 inches. I don't know how to arrange these on the wall. I would like to put in a 7 or even 8 foot Bay Window. I will have the bottom of the window start at the counter and the stone countertop will also extend into the window sill area. What do I do with the stove? Separating the oven from the cook-top doesn't seem to be much help. I apologize in advance for the repetition of this post on another thread. The problem flowed from one into the other. Thank you very much for your help and your patience.

Thanks for all the help everyone! I will use this thread as a reference over the coming months as we work through our plans with the architect and builder. trail, I had put only 1.5 baths on my "critical needs" list, and 2 bathrooms on my "desirable wants" list. I'll switch the 2 bathroom to the need list. Counter space. I expect this may come down to - do I have an island (or peninsula or something) for extra counter space, or do we use the dining table as prep? Looking forward to hearing any more advice you think of! angela12345, we may rent the place out to friends or acquaintances once in a while, but primarily it is just for us. Great advice about noting the things we use frequently in our primary kitchen, I'll do that. Sleeps 26, holy cow!! Our place won't be nearly big enough for that, but I do want to be able to sleep 8 comfortably, and up to 10 or 12 on air mattresses or pull out couches. For the next few years the most likely over night guest scenario is one other couple and 2 to 3 additional kids (in addition to our two). We will need one bedroom big enough for a couple of bunks I think. I agree about small bedrooms otherwise. If DH and I do end up living there semi-permanently after the kids grow up we could consider merging two bedrooms to come up with a more spacious master bedroom (if needed). dilly - absolutely! :) Thanks again rainwood. Interesting that your LR is the smaller space. We frequently have 'girls' weekends at various cottages off season, usually spring or fall. That is when I find we need the bigger living space - usually there are a few of us playing games at the DR table, a few reading magazines in the LR, a couple napping, etc. Usually we are 8-10 women for these weekends. We will have a screened-in porch and will likely either be out on the lake or on the porch from May to September. But off season people seem to like gathering around the fireplace/stove and chatting/reading, etc. Hopefully our architect will be able to create multi-functional spaces for us, given the small(ish) overall size of the cottage. maire-cate, great space saver recommendations, thank you. Noted! kaismom: I think your recommendation is closest to what I had in mind - abundant comfortable seating, large communal tables open to the kitchen. Most kitchens I see with this sort of open/communal type setting are unfitted. I'd love an unfitted kitchen (like mtn is considering) but I assume I need at least one very efficient fitted run (galley like) given the small space we will likely be looking at. No doubt the architect can help with this, but I do want to give him some preliminary guidance. During summer (only about 4 months here) we will cook and spend almost all time outdoors. We'll use the bbq for cooking for about 7 or 8 months a year probably, but will likely eat indoors off season. Unless we put an outdoor fireplace in our screened-in porch and make it 3-season friendly ... but that is a big maybe and probably a few years off. The pantry is on my "critical needs" list for the architect. Rosie - "What I'd really want if I could have it, though, is a rectangular window seat with a fabulous view of the water and goings-on inside and out, like our friends. Everyone always wants to sit there, and it's the most valuable real estate in the house--cantilevered off its side." - sounds like a great area. You don't have a pic by any chance? It sounds very intriguing. Crockpots are a good idea. They just take up space though, but I can bring them up for the big cooking weekends (which will likely only be 2-3x per year). localeater - that is DH's only point on our "critical needs" list - an area for kids that is away from the main living area for those rainy days, esp. in spring or fall. I agree that open loft spaces aren't ideal given noise issues, so we are probably looking at space in a walk-out basement. Our site is sloped so a walk-out makes sense I guess (I didn't want one originally, but I'm coming around to accept it). Given our budget and the site, the basement makes sense.

They're bigger, but still not legible - at least the top one is illegible. Rotag - can you zoom your PDF to fit your monitor screen and then take a screen shot? Then, save the screenshot as a JPG file and post it here? Can you also post specific measurements rather than general? I.e., the width of each window/wall/door/doorway and the distances b/w each window/wall/door/doorway. You do say windows/doors can be moved - any/all of them? I can already tell that most likely your overhang is too shallow - you have plenty of space, so increase the island to 41.5" deep. I also think you need to move the DW & sink over to have more landing space to the right of the sink - you risk splashing water all over the floor as well as knocking things off the counter (like glass!) You could move the DW as far as you can to the left into the corner and then have a 27" cabinet turned 90 degrees on the other side (facing the seats) rather than deadening out the space. It could house seldom-used items or items for the living/dining area.

What are you looking to put here? A sitting area? We also fully agree with jay06, a view would dictate where the seating would be. Here are some ideas though in the mean time. Perhaps try a sectional floating in the room facing the sliders, one side against the windows. Then have the TV (if there is to be a TV) on a console to the left of the sliders. Then if there is room, or if you desire more seating, you can place two chairs, like in the picture of our design below.