Hello All!

We are in the planning stages of a kitchen remodel and I would appreciate some help with the layout. I have attached 2D floor plans and layouts below. I have also tried to give a good amount of information about us and what we hope to accomplish, but if it's too much, just scroll on down to my pictures.

We remodeled our kitchen in a previous house in about 2007 and I learned so much on GardenWeb back then. But I was too busy to ever post, and most of what I wanted to know had already been asked and answered. There are some things I would do differently this time, though, so I am hoping you all can help me nail things down. We used Ikea cabinets last time and loved them, and we will be using them again.

Our home was built in 1910 (it's a bungalow minus a front porch) and has a full basement. The kitchen space is 13.5x17 ft., but is currently separated into kitchen and eating space by a wall that will be removed in the remodel.

Here is the overview of the kitchen space. I have not shown current appliances, etc. because we are open to moving everything inside the kitchen. We do not plan to move or change the windows or door openings:

And here is the overall house plan:

Our goals for this remodel are to go from a small one-person kitchen to a kitchen that functions well for two people to work at the same time or for one person to be working while another can come in and easily access things like dishes, fridge, a sink. We would like seating just for 1 or 2 to have coffee or read cookbooks, preferably in front of the west window that looks out to the street. We would like to increase storage so we can move our pantry out of the hall closet. We plan to move the range to the north (outside) wall and put in a proper vent hood. We will most likely keep our current counter-depth S by S refrigerator and 30" slide-in range, and get a new DW.

Ours is a two-person household with no foreseeable changes. One of us is quite tall and one of us is left-handed. We both cook most of our meals from scratch. Sometimes we cook together, though often separately. Once our kitchen is more functional we hope to cook together more, but we definitely each need our space! My husband likes to BBQ and make cocktails, I bake and use the oven much more than he does. He/she who cooks, cleans up (usually). We informally entertain larger groups maybe a couple of times a year, and smaller dinners 1-2 times a month.

Must haves:

2 sinks

At least 3 linear feet of reach-in, shallow pantry space

2 work areas, at least one with 4 or more feet of counter space with no overhead cabinets

Wants:

MW on counter or (preferably) above

Dishes in upper cabinets and/or plate rack

bar/coffee area with a sink

storage for cookbooks in kitchen

We have talked about having a cooktop with separate elevated wall oven, but so far I have not been able to make it work well enough in my plans to justify the expense of ditching our very nice range.

We have a 3 ft. wide wall-hung pot rack where we hang our frying pans. It works very well for us and we (particularly my husband) would like to keep it. I am not sure I want to design an entire kitchen around keeping it, though!

Don't care or don't need:

sink under window

an island (the kitchen space could technically fit one, but I have never really wanted an island for seating. I probably could be convinced otherwise if it makes sense for function and storage. We may have a small freestanding worktop, though)

Here are the two layouts I am considering so far. I am trying to just pin down appliance location and pantry space first, so I have not shown upper cabinets yet

Layout #1

Layout #2

So, please tell me what you think of each layout. I forgot to put the possible worktop in Layout #1, but it could be there, too. Or, maybe, people can suggest something completely different I have not thought of! For me, the hardest question is where to put the refrigerator, DW and dishes. And note in the southeast corner, we cannot run full depth cabinets all the way to the east wall. Also, if we want a small table and chair(s) by the west wall window, that may crowd the northwest corner, so I do not want to move the range too far down along that wall.

Thanks in advance everyone!