What is the size of the open space that runs from the stairway wall up towards the left wall of the great room?

That loooks to be 14+ feet -- very large.

Could you add a wall at the bottom end or extend the wall btw the morning room and great room down? Then maybe put fridge or wall ovens there?

I'm no pro on work triangles, but that opening seems very large IMO (me coming from a less than 1,000 sq ft ranch) and seems to offer some potential.

You are right on the money -- it is 14' from the basement stairs to the wall between the morning and great rooms. We did originally have a half-wall extending from that wall (as you can see in the original drawing), but our designer described half-walls as passe! And yes, we are concerned about that huge expanse of space and don't want to feel like we've crammed the kitchen into the corner like an appliance showroom!

What about a 4' full wall that could house the wall ovens? Run the wall from stairway wall up. That would still leave a 10' opening & likely no closed in/boxed up feeling.

I think with 5 kids the large island would be a wise choice and I like the look of the opening to the morning room MUCH better in layout #2.

Thank you -- that is a great idea!

What do you think a good place for the sink would be?

We have thought about choices like 1) put it in the island (in the middle or at one end), 2) put it on the long run, balanced with the stove somehow, or 3) break the island into 2 smaller islands, one of which has the sink and 1 that is more for sitting/entertaining

I did a little playing around and came up with the following.

I wanted the sink and dw near your table for clean up after meals. I imagine the daily plates, cups and utensils would be stored across from the dw in the island. Our sink is on a wall with no window and it is not a problem at all. We are planning on adding a tile "feature" behind it when we can afford the installation, but we have been using it plain and quite frankly, when I am at the sink I am either focused on the tasks at hand or chatting with someone nearby at the table or in the kitchen with me. I don't spend extended times at the sink since our new dw is more reliable than our old one. We use it for more items since we trust the results. Our last sink was in the corner and I had a cabinet smack in my face. having nothing behind our sink is an improvement, by a lot, lol....

I put the micro shelf at the end off the counter, so there'd be a landing spot for it, and the dw, close to the table and out of the way of cooking.

I moved the baking center away from the table and gave it its own zone. I put the tall pullout cab next to it to keep it out of a pathway, which will also be a great place for supplies in one place.

I like the stove in the middle so that it is not in way of anything else. The person at the stove will use the prep sink the most and can share it with the baker as needed. The cleanup sink should have the filtered drinking faucet to keep the crowds out of the kitchen work areas.

I moved the fridge/freezer to get it out of the cooking zone and accessible to all your kids without them being underfoot. I think that makes it worth a few more steps for the cook. It is also closer to the table and great room to make life easier for refills, condiments, etc... It can use the end of the island or the hutch next to it as its landing zone. You could move it "north" a little more than I did. I'd put in a full depth counter for the hutch because you have the room for that. Open shelves would be pretty for the top part....

Looking at the layout again, I might want a doorway where you have the hutch in the morning room. You'd need a single cab with counter space for plopping groceries adjacent to the fridge and freezer, but you'd eliminate a traffic bottleneck to and from the table if you had an alternate route. You could still do a small hutch on the other side of the doorway.

IRL, I'd imagine that multiple grocery bags would get uploaded on the island before putting away in the various directions. I'd still want a small landing space by the fridge for stuff going in and coming out for meal prep and clean up.

If the tv is being put by fpl in the great room, and you added a doorway, I'd bring the fridge/freezer setup south so that the cook can watch it through the doorway while prepping the meal.

If you are willing to lose 2 windows on one side and add one on the other of the morning room, this could work....

I like a combination of options and will throw you a curve based on my idiosyncrasies.

I like the peninsular with raised counter seating from option 1 as it permits overflow seating and interaction within the morning room area. I'm sure with five children, you will have plenty of opportunities to make good use of counter seating when the table is full. I also like the sink there as I've had that set up a couple of times and it is very convenient for clean up. I'd keep the hutch wall as shown on option 2.

I really like the openness made possible by removing the half wall in option 2. But in order to make this work for my preferences, I might add the bank on the stairwell to house the RF or the DOs as editionk suggested. This is a handy spot for accessing the RF particularly from the MR, the GR and the work zones. My only concern is having either open in a busy traffic flow from the garage or down to the basement so I'd have to push the island back a bit toward the wall.

I like dianalo's idea of the landing ledge as you walk in from the garage. Good spot for phone too. I'd locate the prep sink in the corner next to where dianalo indicates the baking zone since I'd center the cooktop on the island as I detest cooking with my back to the wall.

Whatever you decide, enjoy your new home!

Not sure how helpful this will be (or not) but I was admiring MaryLynnNC's kitchen on the FKB this week and she has a very long island like you are proposing. Hers has no seating so no similarities there. But, FWIW.

And, here's a super rough drawing...first time trying to play with the paint program, lol.

have you thought of placing study/powder room where dining room is? that whole front area with walk in from garage and study/half bath would be a lot more useable and theliving/dining setup would give you more options for decorating and overall use.The current dining room you show seems sectioned off..as in a space not used much.

Wow, thank you all for the great suggestions. Sorry it took so long to post back -- I was at a soccer game with my daughter all of last night. Here are some comments/questions:

editionk: I like the idea of the wall coming off the stairwell to house the wall ovens (or even bill-paying/mail station/landing ledge for the garage walk-in). But do you think that wall would look "strange" from the other side, which is the front-door path to the kitchen area?

dianalo: Thank you for the mock-ups. I love the baking zone placement and the prep sink location, and probably prefer your version with the RF on the morning/great wall, though maybe pulling that wall down a bit from the morning room would get them a bit out of that space and further define the separation between kitchen and great room (I am still a bit worried about that large expanse of space between island and the right side of the house).

abundantblessings: Thanks for the peninsula vote of confidence...it would solve some of these issues and I do like the convenience factor for the morning room cleanup. Good point on the traffic flow from garage with the "staircase wall" idea...there would be about 3.5' walkway but if someone was on a stool at the island it would be tight.

herbflavor: The switching is a good idea as well, but we are probably past that point in the project to make a change like that...trying to avoid any more $$$ to the architect!

I know this is a "good problem", but what does everyone think about such a large island (4x10)? Is it too long and we would have to constantly be walking around it, huffing about how darn big it is?

I didn't want my cleanup sink in the island, so I don't have a window over my sink. Neither does Doonie. Don't let that limit you. This is Doonie's sink:

That is striking...is it on the same wall as the stove and if so, do they "compete" visually?

I had considered shaving a foot or 2 off your island to make it easier to get around, but did not show it in the mock up because you mentioned needing a lot of seating in the island. Your kids may have friends over after school (or weekends) and that can snowball.
One thing to consider is to have rounded edges on the island to make traffic jams less painful. I'd also recommend that the back side of the island curve outward because you have plenty of room and it would give you a nicer look. It would also allow anyone seated at the island to have a better shot at conversing with each other.

I mocked up moving the fridge/freezer setup lower. I also think a base cab at the end would be best for landing space and keeping an open feel. I like the extra opening into the great room for much easier flow.

I added a base cab for utensils by your table because we have that in our new kitchen and it is fabulous. It is also next to the dw for ease of unloading.

I like the idea of one more window in your morning room to get cross ventilation. Your hutch would have to be more of a buffet kind of set up. Another thought was a window seat along the left side and upper walls. You seem to have the space for it and you could use it for storage below. Otherwise the morning room is a little large for the table shown.

Dooonie's is the perfect example of how you can have a feature by the stove and sink and not miss having a window at all! Her features complement each other and are not copies.

btw - I could not figure out the label on the closet in the laundry room... I had thought that your laundry room could be laid out better. We have the large Lg Tromms that are stackable and that makes more floor space. I did a mockup with them side by side, but moved to the other wall with the sink. It opens up the laundry room more and gives you more options. If you stacked them, it would give you even more flexibility.

Dianalo, thank you for the window seating idea in the morning room -- we can definitely play with the size of the table, and this would be a very nice touch!