With Bmorepanic's layout, I was able to piggy back with tweaking that. What if you were to close off the entry from dining room to kitchen except for a 3-4' doorway at the very end of the room (staircase end). I would then bring the frig to along the DW run. BTW we have a corner sink and we have a small spacer and a 9" cabinet between sink and DW which allows plenty of space for loading the DW). The frig was too far away IMO for everyday use. I would then actually open up completely the kitchen to the family room. This would "enlarge" both rooms. It would also give more natural light to the kitchen. You didn't say anything about wanting to feel less isolated when in the kitchen, but there is definitely a huge trend to join the two rooms. You would then have a few options for an eating area. You could create a huge island with seating. You could place it either vertically or horizontally in the room, depending on what else you want to do with the space by the slider. I'm not big on prep sink, but with the large island, it might be nice to have on on the end closer to the family room. If you don't want to go the prep sink route (I'm not), you could easily accommodate your main sink and DW in the new large island. You could create a smaller island with a round dinette corner in the area to what is to the right of the slider (wall would then be mostly open) Purchase a large table that can be centered lengthwise in the kitchen. If I can think of some of these ideas, it's going to be fun seeing what the others can do with this kitchen.

Johnliu, regarding the shared garage wall, there is a huge three door antique mahogany cabinet that is on that shared wall between the kitchen and garage that can't be moved. I use it as my pantry storage. The fridge would have to go in the very corner where the stove is now and would only be able to be recessed about 6 inches back to allow for the interior access door to the garage to still open fully and I'm not sure that it would be worth cutting into the wall like that although it would stop the fridge from sticking out so far and that's a good thing. Remodelfla, do you think it it easier to access the full susan rather than the blind corner? The blind corner would allow the sink to be more under the window and would give me about an extra 12 inches on that wall to put towards something (blind 39x24 or corner susan 36x36). I was going to get the fancy pull out for the half susan and keep my pots and pans there. I see that some corner susans come in 33x33 but the door opening is about 3 inches smaller and this may not work so easily for the skillet or dutch oven? I see that you have your smaller appliances in there - do you also store the pots and pans in there? I don't think I have many accessories: the food processor (basement - rarely used, this is probably why), KA stand mixer (basement - brought up for the holidays and kept on top of the fridge) and a toaster (top of fridge) but when I want to use it I have to unplug the coffee maker to make toast. It would be nice to have a place for these in the actual kitchen but I have to be realistic about the footprint I have to work with, don't I? Mnerg, I don't know why I am struggling so much with the thought of an 18 in dw. I know I want a DW and when I went to see an 18 next to a 24, my thoughts were not much difference, most visible on top with one less row for cups, glasses or small dishes but we seem to use so many more glasses during the day than actual dishes! And thank you for the comment about the best stretch of counter space - that did not occur to me but makes great sense - you open the fridge, close the fridge and you are done. The stove is in constant use while cooking and having more than just that 18 in between the sink and stove on the outside wall may not be enough and is actually a throwback to my parent's kitchen growing up - my mother's kitchen was an L and big enough for a table with 4 chairs but on the short L she only had the wall, the stove, 6 inches of counter, the sink and then the blind corner with a stack of drawers, the 24 in dw, then the fridge and a small pantry. She always complained about lack of counterspace when cooking. Personally I don't think she needed to squeeze a table in there but that's what she wanted. Thank you everyone for taking the time to post. I appreciate your comments.

Roy - I am in Oklahoma. We do have something similar here though so that is an idea. Ben - You are correct, the posted plan is the reversed image of my actual house. Good eye! LOTS of halls here. They go on and on and eventually get enormous right in front of bedroom 3. Very strange. We use the Study as my husband's private T.V. room (loves his own space) and the Great Room as more of a family room. We were going to use the Dining Room off the kitchen as a "keeping room" because our last house had a keeping room with the kitchen and breakfast rooms and since we don't need two dining rooms, but I think it's a little overkill in this house with the study and great room right there together so pushing the kitchen back is an option for sure and I think it might look very pretty but it will cost quite a bit more than I budgeted considering I would have to change out a ton of walls and windows. Not sure I'd want to invest that much considering this may not be our forever home. The plan is for this to be a 5 year type thing so resale is important and this floor plan is already pretty choppy and not today's style so I know I'll have to keep it under market value when it comes time to sale unless I just get everything exactly right when renovating (which is the plan!). It doesn't look like kitchen image 2 ever uploaded so here it is...

Thanks for the hints, breezy! Thanks for your thoughts, Janet. The length of the kitchen is also 11". My husband isn't wild about cooking, but he will prep for me when we have the space. My 6 year old likes to pitch in, but isn't doing much yet at her age. You second my thoughts about putting a sink or range in the island. That's what my architect wants me to do, but I DO want to use the island as a casual eating spot while I'm prepping. I wouldn't feel comfortable having people sit there if I were cooking (I WAS worried about splattering) or washing (who wants to look at someone washing dishes?: lol!) I suppose that's why I was thinking about putting a smallish prep sink at one end of the island, where it wouldn't be used for cleanning, just prepping, and hopefully wouldn't interfere with people sitting at the island. I was thinking about a fridge with a bottom drawer freezer and probably just one door, unless french doors would give me more room. Currently I have a S x S counter-depth fridge in the space, but I've never really been a side by side gal. I DO want a microwave or a speed oven somewhere, but need to figure out where. Originally the pantry was going to be on the shallower wall on the other side of the fridge, but my architect said that the L-shaped couch might interfere with it. So, I'm not yet sure where it would go, if not there.