Hi, first of all I love your house and furniture. I like the first option better but how about this (I don't know if it works): put the couch under the window facing the dining room and put the console where the couch was originally. Possibly a big ottoman (rectangular) between the coffee table and the dining room (so you can sit and chat with the couch but not block the view of the dining), put the chair in the first option angled facing the console. I assume that's your front door, moving the console leaves that walkway more available. I would put something else there, a narrow table or chest of some type. Either art or mirror can go there or on console. Bring in some more green and I like the round mirror. Mariana

Thanks for remembering holligator--we did struggle. In the end it was, like anything else a series of compromises... We really had to examine our priorities but also I just sat back and watched the family and where everyone gravitates, how we operate...and used that to decide how to use the space. The "Big L" that consists of the kitchen, old dining room, old sunroom is now all opened up. Our biggest questions had to do with where to put the various components within that space--kitchen/dining/breakfast and bar--and we were toying with moving the front living room just to make it more confusing! Add to that the commitment to keep the builtins (thereby HAVING to reserve two corners for that)and there were no perfect solutions. The architect was strongly urging me to let go of my attachment to the builtins, as their elimination did provide many more options for use of space--it's the only thing I think he was way off base on. He was technically correct but totally missing the intangible value of those things. It became a joke between us really--every idea he had I'd be saying"but what about the builtins?" I'm so glad we saved them. Anyhow, I'm rambling. We kept the core of the kitchen in its original spot but once the wall came down we were able to push everything out a little to make that area a bit bigger, add a peninsula...and we went with the table-height bar/breakfast area on the opposite side of the peninsula. If I recall correctly, that idea got mixed reviews here --due to the perceived wasted space behind those seated at the bar and that "dead corner." Due to other savings we were able to actually put a bank of cabinets back there for a drybar, though...so now I'm really happy with that whole space. Window placement-existing and new was also a challenge. We decided to spend on really nice windows for that front "sunroom/dining room" rather than spend money on trying to reconfigure window placement in the rest of the "L" (all the original windows, save one, are set very low--only 25" off the floor--so negate base cabinets there!) and decided to keep a tall hedge that is there shielding the view of the neighbor's wall. I thought the window in the hedge, or staring at her house would look bad in my original posts, but now that we've done it--the tall green of the hedge (about 7-8 feet from the outside of the window) is a very pretty element. I decided to put the big table and dining up front there because it is the most light filled area of the house and we gravitate there for just about everything. By preserving it for that, and not erecting the kitchen there, it shares more light with the existing living room and kitchen/breakfast area. The living room remains small in its original footprint, but we changed the traffic flow a bit and with the wall down it certainly seems bigger, and I'll have a few more, if not many, furniture placement options than I did before. All of this of course is hard to imagine without drawings/pictures. I need to dig out the drawings and post them back up here with some of the final pictures. It really is like a completely different house! Thanks for asking...

Thank you all. We are thinking along the same lines. Mama Goose - what program do you use for the kitchen layout? I like how you set up pantry / mudroom. The current kitchen in 10"6" by 12' deep. The kitchen table is in a 7 foot wide space. A peninsula without seating divides the space, much of which is visible when you enter thru front door. I do not have all the room sizes. I assumed all rooms were 12x12 or larger. We would like to keep a formal dining room and a kitchen table. The family room was an extension, so the wall between LR@ and FR is load bearing. I assume the center wall between LR1 and Kitchen/ DR is also load bearing. Family congregates in LR2 and Family room which are now adjoined only by a sliding door. There is a step down from Foyer to hall / LR2 and you access LR2 from hallway adjacent to garage. Family likes the half wall between LR2 and kitchen, which gives a hint of open sightlines in an otherwise compartmentalized space. The door to the deck is used daily and the family finds the formal dining room and the kitchen eating area too small.

I have put laundries in kitchens, but my personal favorite is in the bedroom or near the clothes closet. I am lazy that way. Older architecture often discounted closet storage or the latest indoor plumbing of the day but favored larger rooms from which I would steal space by throwing up a wall and creating a concealed utility area. You really have to get out of the box sometimes. You also have to deal with 4x4 studs and different wall construction, but you can go crazy in the attic running utility supply wherever you wish. Drainage is another matter, and if I could not tie into existing, I have gone right out the exterior wall. Wish I could be of more service, The only out of the box Idea I can muster right now regarding that door / w/d placement is a type of hanging rolling door used on barns up in snow country. Mount the support to the ceiling and let the door slide over in front of the w/d. This is alignment not currently on the plan, and would require a slightly larger shower toward the interior of the room to catch spray and drip off the bottom of the door. Also kinda cool in that custom glass door design kinda way. The door could easily slide into something of a channel, and would work as if it were a shower curtain rather than a perimeter sealed door unit..cr lawerence has many types of glass fittings. Some drilling of the glass might be required.