Good luck on the move!

I grew up with a tiny, but efficient kitchen, but the aisle was wide. Cookies were made in the next room, at the breakfast table, baked in the kitchen, and cooled in the laundry room atop the machines. Dozens and dozens of cookies (but for huge family and social groups, not your semi-pro kind). Usually, they were taken on trays to the den to be individually wrapped and tied in front of the TV. You can do it! Everything you've mentioned for the cabin sounds right. Once you're used to that, the new condo kitchen will probably feel spacious. Do check around the place when you get there and make plans for where you can set things up on rainy days--which inevitably come when you plan for sun. :) Have fun!!

Tiny kitchens can be really efficient. My last one had the smallest triangle ever and it was easy to use, surprisingly easy.

What state are you moving to Ricky?

We're moving from Manassas to Leesburg, VA.

Wow! I missed the move from Colorado!

@plllog - This will be our fifth move in seven years. I'm not going to count the month we're about to spend in the cottage as a move. We'll call it an extended vacation in the country.

I will soon be moving to my smaller kitchen in Cathedral City - here's how small it is:

It's all new, except for the fridge and floor, and the floor runs throughout the house. I like the fridge being black because it is opposite a bay window that provides tons of light, and if the fridge were stainless steel, there would be a huge glare.

It is possible to get two people in this kitchen at the same time because it is "L" shaped, and I mostly use the table for prep work - especially chopping, and I sit down to do that there.

My kitchen in Venice was a very small galley, and you could not open the oven door and the fridge at the same time. This also meant that there was not enough space in front of the oven to use a pizza peel, and so I had to use a rimless cookie sheet instead.

My kitchen in L.A. has a peninsula

with a pot rack above it. I do most of my prep on this peninsula, on the side away from the sink, and so I do spend a lot of time going around it to get things, but I don't have that far to go. Once everything has been chopped (and I seem to do a lot of chopping), I move to the other side of the peninsula to do the cooking. Everything is prepped before I start cooking, and then I am working in an efficient area with a very small work triangle.

This is sadly the best kitchen I have had - I say sad because it never fulfilled what I wanted as a dream kitchen, and so I guess I will never have one of those. If I could have had the floor (black slate) and cabinets (bleached ash or bleached maple) that I wanted, it would have been close enough.

I do not like having other people in my kitchen with me (except when we are eating in Cathedral City), and I do not consider the kitchen to be an entertaining area, and I like to be able to close it off, which I cannot do in Cathedral City.

Lars, your CC kitchen is a layout very similar to my tiny kitchen. We put an island piece of furniture in there that helps greatly! Does your kitchen have room for a free standing island? We ordered ours from on line and had to assemble it. It's not huge but it has helped so much for some extra work space which is pretty much where I do everything.

arkansas girl, I really do not think I have room for an island, as I think it would get in the way more than anything else. Without the round table, there would be room, but then we would not have the table, and it has a nice view of the pool. I do like sitting at the table, and I use it like an island, but it does not have storage space under it, which I desperately need.

Here's the floor plan; the French doors lead to the pool.

We sometimes add two more chairs to the table, or at least one more chair. I plan to add a window seat/bench, as there is room for that, and I can put plants on it.

Take heart, @fawnridge (Ricky), for most of the last six months, my kitchen has consisted of a microwave on a table, a refrigerator in the garage and a bathroom sink. That sort of set-up really makes you appreciate most any other kitchen afterwards.

@Lars, my new-to-me kitchen is awkward and small, but I had an island with drawers which is mounted on casters built for me and it’s working out great. The top drawer holds my knives and a cutting board, the middle drawer holds a selection of measuring cups and rolling pins and the bottom drawer houses some platters. The top of the island is stainless steel with a raised edge to corral any mess I might make. Unlike you, I’m short, so I made the island lower so it is at a comfortable height for me for chopping food and kneading/rolling out dough. The SS top also makes the island a good landing zone for things coming out of the oven.

I actually to have a table on casters that I bought at Ikea to hold my meat slicer, which is very heavy and needs to stay out. I'm going to need to find a place for that in Cathedral City, and I think it might end up in the dining room, which doubles as my sewing area.

During my kitchen renovation, I bought a portable induction burner and some pans that are induction compatible and used that for most of my cooking. I also had my pressure cooker there. The refrigerator was moved to the dining room, along with the microwave, and I had both of those plugged in. I did have to use a bathroom sink for washing dishes, but we have three of those.

If you are short, why not sit at a table for doing prep? I'm not really short, but I do this anyway because it is more comfortable for me. Our kitchen table has a quartz top that is similar to our countertops and is made by the same company. I did not want to make it match exactly, and so I chose a slightly different pattern for the counters.

When we redid our kitchen, we had a 2 burner electric stove on a shelf, a microwave and hubby's grill. It was summer, so no biggy. Was sure to make it water proof, though.

Lars, if you do make a window seat and you are short on storage, you might consider one with storage under/inside the box. I never have enough storage and really utilize my window seat with storage inside. It's not great for things you need on a regular basis-too much trouble to get out.

@Lars, I cannot chop sitting down as I don’t have leverage. Being short is not only from shorter legs, but also a shorter torso. @lizbeth-gardener had a good idea about putting storage in your window seat if you decide to add one. I had banquette seating built in the new kitchen with lids that lift so I can store some large cookware and bulk pantry goods in there. I still need to have seat cushions made for it.