Aries- Hi! I have a question...is there any chance that you'd be willing to redo your floorplan a bit? What's your budget? Have you ever considered putting a kitchen/dining area where you have the family room and turning this smaller space into a utility/mudroom? Then you could move the bath to the utility area and maybe create a walk-in pantry off the kitchen, where you have the powder room, now.

This may not interest you, whatsoever...but you say you live by yourself and you have a living room and a family room, but the other spaces are fairly small. This way, you'd have room for a full bath in the utility space and maybe turn the dining room into a dining room/den/bedroom. You could have french doors between the living room and dining room and access from the hall into the new kitchen. This way it could stay a dining room for now or be used as a den, even main floor bedroom, in the future.

Just a few ideas...but it would open up your space and give you a large living room/large kitchen/dining area and a flexible space...with a full bath and utility/mudroom with windows. And, it would move you side door out of the hall/family room and put it in the mudroom, but you'd still have the slider in the new kitchen.

Maybe something like this? {{!gwi}}From Cottage house plans

lavender_lass - Not looking to redo the first floor at all. Actually gutted the original house that I grew up in back in 1992 and added on. The original footprint of the house is what you see minus the family room. I regrett not making the kitchen larger, but like most people you don't realize it till after it's done.

I'm surprised I haven't gotten more comments. Any theories on why?

I'm not sure why you haven't gotten more comments. Let's bump it back up and see what happens :)

As for your kitchen...they're all nice possibilities, but I would like to offer another option...would you consider making it a U-shape? Maybe put the range in the corner, by the fridge...have a great prep area under that window and move the sink to the other window? It would give you more counter space, without picking things up and carrying them over to the peninsula. Just another idea... {{!gwi}}From Cottage house plans

So, 18" pantry cabinet, fridge, microwave on shelf next to fridge, corner range, nice prep space, corner lazy susan storage, trash, sink, dishwasher, and a few drawer banks added in. What do you think?

Here's a corner range...from a kitchen designed by Candice Olson. {{!gwi}}From Cottage house plans

Microwave on shelf, next to fridge. {{!gwi}}From Cottage house plans

Another option...in case you wanted seating at your peninsula. You could move the dishwasher to the other side of the sink (still plenty of prep space by range) and have a small peninsula coming off that area. According to your dimensions, it's a little over 11' between the sink wall and fridge wall...so you should have room for two stools :)
{{!gwi}}From Cottage house plans

I'm guessing you haven't gotten comments, because the number of elevations gets too confusing. There are sink walls and stove walls all mixed together, and no real question to answer.

We seem to work best starting with simple, to scale (with dimensions included) layouts. When the layout is right, then tweaking elevations comes next.

If you can draw each option as a layout (graph paper works great as long as the squares are utilized to represent a certain number of inches), you will likely get much more input.

I hope that helps.

I was waiting for you to come condense it all into a picture I could hold in my head, Rhome. :)

Hi, Aries. I like that family room back there. As an appraiser I can't tell you how many additions I saw that relate really poorly to the rest of the house, if they make no sense at all.

No one ever seems to like real tables in kitchens like I do, but since you're actually considering the possibility I'll leap in before you end up going off in another direction entirely. What a GREAT idea! But why build one in? Is there some benefit to bolting it to the wall?

As for cabinet layout in a smallish kitchen, my feeling is that one good-size, well positioned place to work will make kitchens much smaller than yours work and feel big. Thus, I'd only consider layouts that create that space and leave as few chopped up little pieces of counter scattered around as possible.

Laveneder - Yes, I did consider a u, but trying to save costs.

Rosie - I considered a built in table since the end would be another cabinet for storage like I would ever use it. I thought that it would fit better then a regular table.

To everyone else who feel like rhome410 that the number of evaluations gets confusing. I'm sorry about that but I tried to put all the options out there.

What I'm looking for is opinions on what layout is the best. I have basically three opions in the posting: 1) Using a 90 corner wall and base cabinets. With that option I have three options with the range wall. 2)Option 2 and 3 are basically using a blind corner base cabinet. One is using a blind left and the other is a blind right.

Hopefully I cleared up a few things. I guess I posted to much stuff in one posting. Probably should have broken the options into different postings within the original post.

Thanks. Hopefully I'll get some more feedback.

Aries- Can you reuse any of your current cabinets? I think you'd have a much better function with a U or G layout. Everything seems a bit crowded with just the L, but you know how you use your kitchen.

What finishes are you planning to use? Are you choosing new wood cabinets or painted? Just curious, since I'm still looking for some final ideas, too :)

Well, since you asked for feedback on your layouts, does any of them give you an excited "this would be a really great place to work" feeling? "It has everything I want!" It could even be the cleanup area if you were one of those people who get real satisfaction from washing dishes.

Of the choices you posted, the one that moves the stove farthest right is the only one that creates an area that challenges the area off to the left of the dishwasher and sink for counter area. To me, the sink itself would be the most pleasant area to stand and work, and some do come equipped with cutting boards. I've pushed this point twice and have a tendency to overdo it, so I won't mention it after this.

Lavender - I won't be using any of the old cabinets. The L layout doesn't bother me.

I'm not sure on finish. I've looked at both painted and stained. Still have not made a decision regarding that. I saw a Shiloh display at a home center that was painted beaded inset and really liked the look.

Rosie - Sad to say, none of the layout gets be excited, but very few things do.Lol. I do appreciate your feedback.

With the layout options you have...I'd pick the one with the most space, between the fridge and range. It would also be nice to have more space between the sink and range...but where would you put things from the fridge? The L-shape doesn't offer much in the way of prep space, unless you use the peninsula.

Personally, I would want to maximize my countertop areas...having one area for a 'landing space' by the fridge, a larger prep space by the range, a place for dishes by the dishwasher (if you can't load them right away) and an area for seating. Everyone uses the kitchen differently, but even though it's a smaller space, I think it could be much more efficient than the options you've shown.

Of course, you can choose to stay with the same layout you have now (without the wall oven) and if it's what you're used to, it may work for you. But, I'd rather come up with a more improved space, if I were spending money to remodel. Just my two cents...

I know you're on a budget, but I just thought I'd offer one more idea. Could you add 5" or 6" to the wall by the family room opening...and put the fridge between the opening and the seond window? That would give you countertop/prep space, by the fridge, another corner for storage, the dishwasher and sink on the other window wall...and a lot more prep space around the range. Maybe even add a peninsula and stools to that area...in another G shape?

Since you came to the forum, I just want to make sure we toss out every possible idea for your consideration. Every one of them may fall flat...but if even one gives you an idea, then it's worth the effort :)