Hi, Karen, my kitchen isn't a lot bigger than yours, so I understand where you're coming from, although mine is a U-shape. I am fairly new here too. I am not an expert, but have been thinking over my own kitchen for a long time.

I love your idea of recessing your fridge into the garage. I wouldn't bother with the panels and put your dollars elsewhere. I think the new fridges look nice, especially with the stainless steel. Also, have a look there are a few french-door fridges that are a 32" width. That would give you more cabinet. See if they'll work for you. I took clean milk jugs with me to Sears! If you are not on a timeline, holiday weekends appliances tend to be on sale.

I'm curious about your beams. Are they bare wood? Painted? Beams say character, even focal point, especially if you can either paint/strip paint or stain them to work with your new kitchen.

I am struggling to understand your dining situation. First, Can you repost your drawing and include things like your breakfast table, the Home Depot shelf, the patio, label the den and the size for that, etc?

Second, some photos would help me at least. I spent a late night last week figuring out how to post the photos into the text with the link called "Read me if you're New to the Forums." There is a section on posting pictures. It was pretty good if you take it step by step.

Finally, it sounds like you need more storage and you have that washer-dryer area that you are not going to touch. Is there a way for you and family to do the demo, or your spouse and you lay the floors to use your contractor dollars on the parts you can't do. I am just brainstorming here. My husband's vacation this summer is doing similar stuff to what I mentioned. Also, were all of your bids similar, and are you set on this contractor?

It would be a great help, likely resulting in more input for you, if you could draw the plan to accurate scale on graph paper, utilizing the squares to indicate distances...Then scan it or take a digital photo to share here. It makes it so much easier to glance at the layout and see dimensions clearly.

Best wishes.

colorfast - thanks for the thots. I've been trying to figure out my space for several years. It's so constrained by odd building design. And, of course, budget. :) I will look again for how to include photos in the post. Tried last night but missed it. As for DYI tasks, I wished that was an option. I'm single and creaky, so can't manage it myself. Frustrating cuz I see all the neat things others have been able to do on a tight budget by doing it themselves. Oh well.
Rhome - I will dig up some graph paper. The visio had measurements but didn't display them when I copied it to a pdf.

oops. sorry. forgot to answer your question re: the beam. It is some kind of wood, but is textured and painted to look like the ceiling (white). I'm guessing not pretty wood based on what I can see from the unfinished attic. There are several houses like mine in the neighborhood... all the same stupid beam. I got quotes to replace it with hidden steel beams, but every quote was about $6000 (not counting sheetrock repairs) so I decided it wasn't as ugly than I had first imagined. :) I will try and do better with visuals on my next post.

Ok. Trying again to drop my rough sketch into the post (I can't see my first attempt so don't be annoyed if it ends up displaying twice later!)
I will try to do a better sketch and get photos after my camera charges. Thanks for being patient with me.
FWIW, the kitchen is 10x10, breakfast space is 10x7, den is 14.5x17. Garage area shown at left of kitchen is 15x5. Not shown are the dining/living areas in the front of the house as they wont change. Ack! Just realized my kitchen table is labelled SINK. well THAT's not right! Sorry...

Do you have other measurements for the space? E.g., the widths of each wall/door/window and the distance b/w each wall/door/window? Without those measurements, we can only give you general advice.

To get the best advice when asking for layout help, the more information you provide, the better the advice will be. Yes, you've given us a lot of "verbal" information about the physical space (but no detailed measurements), but there's no information about you and your family and how you use the space. For examples of other information we need, see the "Read Me" thread. Scroll down to the "Layout Help" section.

I do want a normal sized wall oven, but it will have to go under the new induction couldn't figure out how to draw that). I won't have a cook vent, but will put a bathroom style vent in the ceiling just to pass code.

Check the specs on both the induction cooktop you've chosen and the wall oven you've chosen. You cannot put a wall oven under many induction cooktops. Induction cooktops have different specs than "regular" (radiant) electric cooktops.

No true venting? What type of cooking do you do? Do you do much more than boil water? If you do any frying, browning, etc., you really should have a range hood...even an externally vented, inexpensive hood is usually better than no hood or a recycling vent (or a bathroom vent).

The need for a range hood is based more on how you cook than the type of cooktop you have; although if you have a mega-sized pro-style range/rangetop, you might have to add that into the mix to determine your venting needs. For most people, a hood at least as wide as the cooking surface with 400 - 600 cfms is sufficient. If you do a lot of frying or stir-frying, I would aim for the higher number and seriously consider a hood 6" wider than the cooking surface. If you grill, I would go for even higher and definitely get a hood at least 6" wider than the cooking surface (but since you're getting an induction cooktop, grilling won't be an issue.)

Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Read Me If You're New To GW Kitchens!

Due to several comments that I need to add more photos, dimensions, and details (and the fact that I never can find the silly title I used for this post!) I have started over afresh at the link below.

I THOT I had already posted this but I dont see it now. Hope this isn't a duplicate post, but I wanted to make sure you knew there was a new thread for my questions. Thanks to those of you who did respond here. Hopefully you'll be happier with my new thread.

Here is a link that might be useful: started over here