The path and distance from the kitchen to either location is about the same. You would definitely have better daylight into your great room and breakfast space AND kitchen without the covered portion behind the great room Yeah, those are my biggest reasons for thinking it'd work ... and while the porch is the subject of debate at this moment, I'd prioritize those three interior spaces over the covered porch. I'd put a small covered portico out the great room, with a patio pad, then a path over to the porch around the breakfast bay. A deep over hang ... yes, I hadn't thought about that, but I definitely agree. But more than a patio pad; we're thinking of a fairly large patio, which would join with the covered porch. That seems like a lot of zigging. Have you considered moving the pantry down? Or, making the desk at the pantry and a window. I don't get the zigging thing. I hadn't considered moving the pantry down ... but now it's seeming like a good idea to put the porch door next to the breakfast room. However, I definitely want to keep the desk at the end ... my husband likes to talk on the phone loudly and listen to music loudly; as a result, he likes the idea of being allllll the way at the end of the room. How would the house be sited? Ie where would north/south/east/west be? Back faces South. I don't think I'd want to have guests traipsing through my utility area though. No concerns. People'd only go through when it's bad weather, and this area's laid out to be kept pretty neat. Are you married to having the breakfast nook - looks pretty small to me or would you consider re-adjusting the kitchen and cut that bump out off and move the porch so you'd enter from the kitchen area instead? Yes, married to the nook; it's a comfortable size for the table I already own, and we want to have a small spot for just the two of us -- this is our retirement house. Yes, adjusting the kitchen, but I'm already very happy with those choices. I'll chime in Mrs. Pete because you've been so helpful to many others here (and I hope you're a fast typist!!!)... Ha-ha, I type like the wind. Seriously, sometimes my students comment on it. ... normal circulation paths and therefore can be used on impulse. I'm not quite getting the point. If that access point is kept, right now it's nearly in the center of the porch. That makes sense, and it's not something I had considered. Thanks, all, for your thoughts, and I'm open to others.

We have a grill and a smoker, and both are away from the house. They are close, but the smoke doesn't get close to the house. At our other house, the kitchen was a built-in island, still away from the house. There was a bar and stools but nobody used them because the bar top in summer got too hot. The only cover was an umbrella. In the heat, being under a cover is great, but the smoke can be awful if it's drifting in the eyes of guests around a table. We keep the tables and seating in the shade, and the grills away and like it that way. As far as wind and rain, we have covers for both the grill and the smoker. Hubs secures them with bungie cords so the wind won't blow them off.

Sorry! The sliding glass doors that are off from the dining area. In the images, there are four narrow panels (this is a 10x8 span) -- we're going to change those four panels to two large panels. But if you're standing at the kitchen sink, which is located on the island and looking directly ahead, you will look out of these doors/windows and be facing South. (I included an additional photo below to help with orientation.) I'm leaning toward deleting the cover on that portion of the porch. In the end, the view out that sliding glass door, is one of two in the entire house. (One is in the living room with the three large windows across the front facade and looking out over the mountains, and the other is off of the kitchen.) From the kitchen, we will be able to look out over mossy boulders and a white oak tree that our state's forester said is at least 200 years old. (This is one of the reasons we chose to orient the house this way.) So, we have lots of other portions of the house's exterior where we can position a covered porch. Our lot is 16 acres, so space is not an issue.

Sorry but why was this designed like this at all ?Is there no way to reconfigure this so tat that area is under the roof . Poor planning is going to result in a mess to "fix" it Maybe a pergola but it would need to be designed to attach to the roof and made leak proof all along the attachemnt and IMO needs to now be big enough to cover that whole area where the windows and storage box are .