I'm offering the following as a devil's advocate. Both positions for your kitchen are viable choices with nice reasons to go each way. That's why you need to draw up all possibilities to consider. If the middle is right for you guys, this will end up reinforcing that decision. Versatility and size? That 15x30 room is looking very, very nice as it is, but the far end is prize square footage with all those exterior walls (light/views in up to 3 directions), and right now you plan to actually dine there very little--pretty but underused. If you put the kitchen down there, that addition would be used as intensively as it deserves to be. The living area for furniture placement would be the same, but it would be more strongly defined. Nevertheless the whole should still appear very spacious because it would still be part of a 15x30 room with kitchen on end and still be open to the north, which would extend additional living activities that direction, instead of east. The dining room might well end up used more for various activities in the middle of the house. In considering this alternative layout, how about a pretty door to the outside from a middle/dining room, French perhaps? And for that matter, are you sure you wouldn't have a door directly out from the kitchen? You have an entry in that end that looks as if it would need some reconfiguring too. Would it enter the middle/dining room? Last night I also thought of one other -- possible -- advantage to switching the kitchen and dining room: the step down. This could be a design asset for a dining room, setting it off as special as viewed from the living room. Since you don't plan to eat there a lot, even with young children you could have a nice rug under the table if you wanted it. You'd take that step mostly on the way back to the children's rooms--longer journeys. For the kitchen, you guys'd be making all the many, many little daily journeys between the living room and kitchen on a level floor. Morning sun in kids' hallway? Have sunshine everywhere and you eliminate the pleasure of entering a sunny room. A dim hallway is often a design asset because it makes the rooms opening off it all the more inviting. I can't see what that cabinet in the hall is, but with a little attention to attractiveness and interest, the hall looks pretty good to me. The only way I could imagine to improve it would be to extend it to come back around on itself -- children love to run in circles. :) As it is now, though, the hall enters a sunny middle room in the mornings, setting that room off really nicely, however it's used.

Khj- We were discussing a similar situation on another thread. Two dishwashers can be more convenient together, but if one is for mixing bowls, utensils, pots and pans...and the other is for dishes, glasses, silverware...then the two dishwashers can be in separate locations. It only gets confusing when you start mixing them together...and then have to walk all over the kitchen, to put stuff away. I think my favorite plan so far (given your building restrictions and DH's input) is Buehl's latest Plan B. It's really an excellent plan and I think you would love cooking in it. The only thing I might change is to put one of the dishwashers, by the prep sink in the island, just for pots/pans/mixing bowls and utensils. This way, you can clean up as you're cooking...but DH (or maybe kids?) can load the dishes after dinner, into the clean up area, by the pantry. This also gives you excellent dish storage area, by the dishwasher and close to the beverage center. Easy for other people to help/clean/or prepare snacks out of your main work area. I would also keep the two doors and leave the pocket door by the cooking area. You can close that off during parties and also close off the mess. When you're not cooking, you can leave that door open, for more light. So, Khj, can you see yourself in that kitchen? Can you visualize all your finishes? Working in the space? Making dinner or setting out a buffet? If so, I think you have a winner! :)

I would sacrifice a bit of symmetry for better function. If the plumbing can't be changed, I'd at least move it over to the right, and place the DW on the side nearer the DR, which I assume is off to the right. Then I'd put a dish hutch on the perimeter counter, to balance the ovens on the other end. With the DW and dish storage on that side, a helper can unload the DW or gather dishes to set the table, without interfering with prep and cooking. I moved the pantry door forward, to give you more space in the pantry, and to incorporate the door into the fridge wall. If you need elbow room on both sides when removing something from the wall ovens, you can open the pantry door. Cooktop and hood are centered between the ovens and dish hutch. The fridge is beside the pantry door, bringing it closer to the prep area, and providing a counter beside it for landing. The MW is on a shelf beside the fridge, with a cubby beside it, for cookbooks, cutting boards, or coffee cups, with space below for the coffee maker. Someone can re-heat left-overs, make a sandwich, pour a glass of juice, etc, without needing to turn to the island. The MW could instead be a drawer model, beside the fridge, but I wouldn't recommend an under-counter MW. Dog bowls could go in a low drawer, or toekick drawer under the dish hutch, or in the side of the island nearer the DR, to keep them out of the main prep/cooking areas. Trash pull-out is on the end of the island, convenient to the prep zone, cooking zone, and also the fridge/snack area. The single bowl sink is off center, but if you use one with a left back drain, you can put the faucet more toward the center of the island. Images--dog bowls in drawer

I was going to suggest m/l the same location for the range as cpartist's first version, but I'd move the fridge to the short wall, with the ROTS pantry beside it and leave the DR as is. If you center the entry door, you can have a long view through the window to the left of the hood, and both the island seats and the DR seats have a view through the wider window above the sink. I like the separate clean-up zone in her plan too, but I'd put it on the right side of the kitchen, with dish storage in drawers on the right, where helpers can unload the DW or gather dishes to set the table, without entering the prep triangle. Since the sinks are fairly close together, you might want to make the work aisle wider than the standard 48" for two people--maybe 54". The MW is a drawer model on the island, facing the fridge, again to keep people out of the work aisle, but you could put it in an upper cabinet to the right of the fridge.