The island will not seat 4 as currently shown. An island can never seat two people at a corner. All them legs from island, stools and people on two side can't fit under the counter. You can start to see it in the drawing with the stools actually overlapping the island legs and it gets worse with people - legs and knees for the two around-the-corner diners can't overlap under the counter. The corner of the table, the desk and the island is pretty tight. The small ?shelves? look less than two feet away from the corner of the table. I'm not sure anyone will be able to get through when the table is actually occupied. The desk will need a chair and I wonder if it will cause a big snafu with the table chairs and the island stools. I believe some of the assumed sizes of appliances may be off in the drawing. The sink looks like a 24", the ovens look like 27", the range and ref look like about 30". It's always hard to tell but that's what they look like using one of the marked 36" cabinets as a ruler. The one foot deep cabinets will make seating on the far side of the island an issue. Roughly, seating with a walkway takes a minimum of 44" from the counter edge to a BLANK WALL. It looks like you may not quite have that much to the cabinets - a lot of the time, a cabinet plan actually shows the size of cabinets without the doors on and certainly without handles. When you have cabinets behind stools, it's nice to be able to use them. Generally you need to leave at least 54" but with a pair of 18" doors to open, I'd consider leaving 60" because its a main walkway to the outside and will be in the route to the drinks. Combining a pantry and laundry might not be a great idea. The requirements for the two tasks are different. Pantries should be dark, laundry needs a lotta light. Laundries tend to be overheated, and overly humid. Pantries like cool and dry. Add in that laundries produce a fair amount of dust and possibly perfumes - cheerios that smell like Tide? The spacing issues and circulation need some thought. People will want to use that corner between the living room, table and desk for circulation go to/from the kitchen. People will use the walkway from the front door to the back door -or- around the top or bottom of the island if you don't have any other way to reach the back deck. Maybe think of changing the use of the spaces? Living becomes dining, family becomes kitchen, kitchen becomes family. I would tell them to go fish and try again. just bad wit If the kitchen is the heart of the home, that island is a clogged artery.

That is a big task you have ahead! But I think it will be fabulous when you are finished. I see a few issues with keeping the kitchen where it is and expanding it back. The first thing guests see when entering the house is the kitchen and all the work in progress that goes on in there. My issue with plan number 2 is the walk through work zones to get to the play area. Since you will be moving walls and adding rooms, I took the liberty to give you the beginnings of a third option, and perhaps you and others can adapt it even further to better cater to your needs and likes. In this new plan, guests arriving at the front door will see straight through the window to the patio, and see a beautiful breakfast table. Kids and guests can have easy access to the fridge without going into you or cooking and prep zone. Kids can also get to the play room without going inside the work zones of the kitchen. Lots of windows/sliding doors, with plenty of light, and ample aisles. 9ft island as the clean up zone, and I bet you will still have enough space on the other side for some bar stools. On the way to the family room you have a nice sitting area for guests to mingle, or for an afternoon cup of tea with MIL. You also have a corner for a desk, preparing party menus, and organizing the family schedule. A pantry wall should offer you plenty of storage for all your goods. You could also make the pantry wall a bit smaller, and incorporate a bar, and perhaps a TV. I left your original plan underneath, so you can see the differences. Since there may be some discrepancies between their drawings and your actual kitchen, you will probably want to measure, and draw all of it to scale.

Good advice from CPArtist - for instance you might find you need/want a mudroom space attached to the garage. And/or add a larger pantry space (then remove the one in the kitchen to free up more counter space)

Oh mighty crystal ball does HU-948444209's contractor know what he's doing? Great news your contractor has experience and will be doing his best for you.