The big structural change will be doubling the size of the family room through an addition on the back. This will improve circulation throughout the first floor via double french doors to the playroom and kitchen. Family room expansion will include skylights and, if we can afford it, nana-wall-like doors leading to the porch.

Because laundry venting in its existing location will be near-impossible with the FR expansion, we will move W/D to an upstairs bonus walk-in closet.

Kitchen: a new wet bar / pantry wall goes on the powder room wall. A 12" pullout pantry goes next to a 36" subzero fridge; 36" apron sink looks out from 4 counter-height windows slightly bumped out; a 36" induction range leads to a speed oven / conventional oven stack on the end.

Island: 7'6" x 3'6". Can accommodate seating for 5 but would probably have only 4 stools with 3 on the long edge and one on the edge near the mudroom. We would pull one of the 3 stools around the corner nearest the wall ovens for family meals so we can all see each other. DH is strongly opposed to a prep sink in the island.

Thoughts? Layout problems? Alternative layouts we should consider?

Looks good!

On second look - love the wet bar but the sink is very close to the cabinet to the counter. And how big is the space between the counter cabinets? That could be a great area for setting out a buffet but those cabinets limit the space and the number of people that would be able to get to the food/beverages.

Those windows look heavenly! And, if you are worried about the buffet issue described above, think about whether you would be using the island for seating in that situation. If not, the island would be a better place to set the food, IMHO. Better access. Then, drinks and maybe desserts could be at the bar area.

Is there enough room to open the wall ovens (meaning, is there enough clearance at the end of the island)? I’ve never had a wall oven and have no idea.

Great thoughts, both of you! We would use the island as a buffet, with the wet bar for drinks/dessert -- as bluskysunnyday describes. But emilyam819 it's a good question about the location of the bar sink. I have been uncertain about where to put it on that stretch of counter (which is about 6'4" long) - I like the idea of as much uninterrupted counterspace as possible, but I also know it's good practice to have landing room on both sides of a sink. The KD may have advice here.

Re wall oven clearance - there's definitely enough if no one is sitting at the island, but I think clearance would be problematic with someone sitting on that end. That's why I'm trying to split the baby a bit -- not placing a stool on that end for general use/seating, but making it possible for DH to slide a stool onto that side for family meals in the kitchen (after any oven use is completed...). Maybe that's a bad idea...?

I think moving the stool sounds like a good compromise (unless you have a wood floor and you are worried about dragging and scratching, but maybe felt feet would alleviate that worry?). Also, just FYI, our bar sink is 5” from one of the cherry full-depth pantries that flank the bar and we have had no issues.

I've iterated on the design concept, thanks to some ideas a designer friend came up with, along with some ideas a contractor had. In short, we're now thinking we want to *really* open things up between the kitchen and the living room (*yes we're aware of the structural requirements):

Here's a view from the cooktop location looking toward the fireplace:

A cool feature of this design idea is the wrap-around counter, with the wet bar now facing the fireplace:

We also think this design solves the entrance/circulation problems I mentioned upthread -- the mudroom gets walled off with a door, with the entrance now opening into the whole space so traffic isn't inevitably forced into the kitchen/around the island.

Thoughts??

Looks great! Love all the windows ;^)

One thought. Do you really need a bar sink? Maybe you're just looking for water and can use a "pot filler" and not impact your counter space there at all. A friend has a bar sink and she complains it's really too small to be useful, but loves the faucet so she doesn't schlep water across the room. Empty coffee pot for cleaning is worth the steps to full size sink in her opinion. Food for thought :^)

The structure appears to be in good shape, and I don't believe that anything additional should be added or removed.

heatheron40 - yes, we do want/need the bar sink, deliberately located at the wet bar facing the living room fireplace. We want to encourage guests to spread out into that space and not pile up in the kitchen :)

Bergen, I may not completely follow your comment, but are you saying don't open up the floor plan any further? If so we're totally with you on that. :)

Since my last post, we have gone ahead and purchased the kitchen appliances, as there is a 12 month wait (!) for delivery. We've also spoken to four contractors, our kitchen designer, and our architect. Things are moving slowly along...

Update: not much has changed. Our architect is working with an engineer to figure out support beams given all the walls we're opening up; we've ordered a certified plot plan; a designer friend has helped me with furniture planning and color schemes. I'm guessing it'll be another 1-2 months before we have construction drawings, and some months after that before ground breaks. So probably a fall construction start...

Update: we have construction drawings and yesterday submitted an application for a special permit (our lot is mildly non-conforming so we have to go through the town process; not expecting any problems). Two contractors are coming tomorrow to discuss our project... if all goes well I'm hoping we break ground in October or November.

In the meantime, I'm going back and forth with our kitchen designer on a couple of items and I could use some opinions. I'll focus this post on the PANTRY decision.

Pantry: we will have a 12" full height pullout cab next to the refrigerator, plus a 48" pantry cabinet on the opposite wall (see pic). For that location, KD suggests two 24" full height cabs with roll-out shelves. She says a house/kitchen of our size needs to maximize pantry storage since we don't have a walk-in pantry.

I hate roll outs and prefer a design like the below inspo image, even though we will likely lose *some* storage capacity. This will likely be our home for the next 15-20 years - i.e. we're not designing for resale. Opinions?

After seeing the exact 48" rollout pantry in one of our KD's client's kitchen, I'm persuaded it'll actually be a great solution for us. We finalized our cab layout yesterday and KD is going to put in the order today (!) because of long lead times and a fear that there will be another price increase if we don't lock our order in.

Here is our planned color scheme:

We got our building permit today and demo of the existing deck will happen Saturday. I am so excited to get this thing going!

Our contractor is going to phase construction to do the exterior work first, and then punch through to the interior thereafter. Expects to demo the kitchen in Feb or so.

Update: we have foundations! This is the back of the house, for the living room expansion.

Subfloor for expanded LR is in, and framing of the screen porch and new roof is underway! Kitchen demo scheduled for 1/30.

Nice! Thanks for the updates.

Updated color scheme for kitchen:

To give you a sense of the progress, here is the kitchen, before:

And here is the kitchen, as of today:

The living room extension has been framed, and all the steel beams are in. We now get to see and feel the openness of the new space!

Here's a diagram to orient you to the photo above. The blue dashed lines are walls that were removed and the green lines are the addition to the living room:

So far we are running under budget!

Looking great - been a long road - has to be great seeing your vision executed real time / life size....

Electrical and plumbing are in, insulation is in, walls are now sheetrocked and plastered.

Kitchen:

New & improved mudroom (I'm very excited for this):

Site finished flooring goes in Friday and cabinet installation starts Monday! :)

Looking good!

Squee! Cabinet installation began today :) :) :)

Exciting! I'm looking forward to seeing the cabinets installed and the new countertop in place.