Sorry to get everyone focused on your bath. But, it is something valid to consider (Lyfia makes it more clear than me--your office IS a bedroom, which you are choosing to use as an office). Also, we just did almost a very similar addition 2 years ago. It will be very handy to have access to the half bath from where you primarily spend your time downstairs. For your kids, this will be in the informal areas of your house (ie, the family room). It is a long walk/run to the bathroom from the family room. (I know you said that the LR will be the playroom for now, but I am thinking that functionally, it will end up the other way around... If you are like me, we spend a lot of time in the kitchen--preparing snacks, meals, etc. And, to keep an eye on your kids, your layout doesn't allow that for the playroom space/LR. It does though, for the FR.--so in this case, another useful tidbit might be if you/your spouse is a SAHparent or if really the kids occupy the space only a few hours a day). Also, while I am discussing my experience with our addition. Are you sure you can do this addition? Are you on septic or sewer? What we learned in our addition is that septic systems were historically built out the back of the house behind the kitchen sink/bathroom. Since your former house plan has the kitchen and baths in essentially the same location as ours, you may want to make sure you are able to build without covering your septic tank (or moving it). Or, if your house was converted to sewer from septic like ours, you may find that you will still need to decommission your septic tank (an added expense to plan for in budget that will pop up when they start digging if you didn't already know about it.) I will think on your kitchen concerns, but in the mean time, can you tell us what is under your stairs, and why there is the cutout in the kitchen wall between the kitchen and stair/hallway?

Wow, lovely home. Try to go with 30" deep counters on at least the bottom wall, although I would do both. You can do this inexpensively by building a 2x6" frame behind the counters, or more expensively by ordering extra-deep countertops. You will incur the extra square footage cost on the countertop materials, but it's sooooo worth it. I grew up in the tiniest kitchen but never really noticed because it had 30" deep counters. This will also make the kitchen easier to work in by virtue of shrinking the middle aisle. Also, those uppers over your prep space will be much less in your face, although I would try to get rid of them altogether or at least not let them come down to face height.. it's miserable prepping with uppers in your face. As for layout, I would make the bar sink 6" larger, the cleanup sink 6" smaller, and switch their positions. Like this: Top wall from left to right: 24" DW with dish storage above, 30" cleanup sink w/ trash underneath, rest of wall as shown in your plan. 18" lower next to Fridge becomes dish storage. Bottom wall from left to right: 18" dish storage overflow/cookbooks, 36" cab but with larger square prep sink instead of small round bar sink and trash underneath, two 27" cabs for your prep for a total of 54" inches of prep space (you gain 6" because of the loss of the DW from this wall), rest of wall as shown in your plan.

pillog, I think you're right. If this location were spot-on for me, or the rest of the house were 100% perfect, I'd probably make it work. But I think to have an "urban" sized kitchen, you need to live in an urban--or at least "villlage"--area. In the burbs, people want to nest, and it's hard to nest when you can't roll out your pasta and hang it on broomsticks, or comfortably entertain the family at Christmas, or try your own hand at a "Julie & Julia Project." And I'm very aware that a problem when I buy will be a problem when I sell. As I said, that's why we sold our condo with the miniscule kitchen at the peak, because we saw the bust was coming and knew we'd never get a decent price in a soft market with that kitchen. What I'm going to do is try to stop out there and walk to the town center, and see how long it is. Of course, it's 76 and gorgeous today, so I have to picture July downpours and February ice storms. If it passes that test, I might try to ask a design-build firm to give me some ideas and very rough prices. I've done that before with architects and contractors, and it only cost a few hundred bucks if I'm clear that I'm only asking for minimal work on their part.

If you give up the wall oven and use a range, you can easily move the fridge into the new section. Then make the area where the fridge was drawn into a snack/coffee center with the MW, and a small sink. It would be perfect for making a quick breakfast or a sandwich. If you don't want to look at the MW from the DR, you could hide it with doors, which is what I did in my vintage style kitchen. Deep drawers below could store small appliances. You could also put a wall oven beside the fridge in the following drawing (as in sena's illustration), with dish drawers below. You would have landing space for both the oven and fridge. I realized that the sink in your inspiration pic is off-center, so I increased the sink to 33", and decreased the trash pull-out to 12". The faucet can be centered with the window, to help disguise the fact that the sink is a few inches off. I have a 33" apron sink and 12" trash. Love both! The sink hides a lot of dirty dishes, and the trash pull-out is sufficient for our family of 5. I keep a large metal trash can in the mudroom, where I empty the kitchen trash as needed, and we compost, so YMMV. The corner by the DW could be voided, or you could have one of the pull-out storage units. You can check deedles' and arlosmom's kitchens for their corner cabinet solutions. Both are vintage style kitchens in older homes, and are two of my favorites. arlosmom's kitchen reveal and link--still makes my heart skip a beat :) deedles' kitchen reveal images--hidden MWs images--corner cabinet pull-outs