all I can say is my sis in law has the laundry out in the garage.Every single time we visit there is a pile of laundry on the chair coming in from the garage. Not pleasant[must overlook-we aren't really guests apparently].Considering the fact that she completes the wash/dry-then quickly gathers it/brings it immediately in the house and "dump"...and given what you have...I'd say-leave it there and work the space with perhaps adding a door/partition across machines add shelves above or maybe some space across from the machines-when you get a full efficient kitchen you may not need to store so much food in the hall.But the "out of the way" nature of that hall and laundry/storage is wise to keep....you can get a great kitchen without tearing that apart.... a half bath would be the only thing to redo it for. Pardon the digression to "laundry" and sis in law-I do realize this is about the kitchen.

Could you please post a whole house layout? The video tour is helpful but we really need to see the entire space from a birdseye view.

I second the trying to keep the laundry in the house. I think you have plenty of room in there to somehow incorporate it into either a nice hideaway covered or a closeted for a stack-able set. I think you will really regret moving it. Although this is from a mother with a 2 and 3 year old so I may just do WAY more laundry than you so take my advice with a grain of salt.

Also, I am a little confused by looking at your layouts. I would love to give feedback, but can't really tell what I am looking at. Is there a way you can give us a before and after for reference. I am assuming my confusion comes from missing walls in the new drawing.

Lastly, before I forget to say in another post, where does that exterior door in the kitchen go? I ask because in my small kitchen I had two floor to ceiling windows no doors. I choose to replace them both with glass french doors. I did for two reasons. 1- you can't ever open a window all the way to get a good breeze in it only ever opens half way and 2- I am always in the kitchen and wanted to be able to get in and out of the house to my garden outside without having to tromp through the rest of the house.

Here is a layout of the ground floor. The half bath is outside, in the patio area.

I thought about trying to keep the laundry inside. I could put it in the WIP, perhaps? There is really no other place for it.
There is a really nice large area in the garage that is a separate workshop, which i could Turn into the laundry room of my dreams...except it's accessed via the garage.

We would close in the door that is open and faces the front, and add in a door on that back wall (via the garage)

The exterior door in the kitchen leads to the carport. It's about 15 feet away from the front door, so it's really awkward and unnecessary.

What is north of the dining room (on the drawing)?
What is that 2x2 projection in the northeast cornerish of the kitchen area?

Which door leads to the covered outdoor eating area?
How much of what you make in the kitchen is transported outdoors for meals?

To the best of your knowledge is the wall between the closet and the laundry room structural?

How about the wall between kitchen and dining?

Bmorepanic-north of thedining room are two closets, & the fireplace. The current built in pantry cabs are also recessed into that space.

I think the projection you are questioning is the 1/2 bath that is the outdoor/pool bath. It backs up to the kitchen.

The door that leads to the back is in the NW corner of the hearth room. I'll be changing it for a full glass door. I don't believe the laundry room wall to be structural, as there are support beams on ceiling that run to the exterior walls. I will have a structural engineer come to verify, of course. I'm not sure about DR wall. I'll have to get that checked when he comes out.

Right now, we are eating all of our evening meals outdoors. Not sure if that will remain so in future...not sure how cool it gets here (L.A.).

I'm working on a drawing now with W/D in pantry.

if,for the most part your lifestyle and climate has you in and out between pool/patio/with meals taken there,I'd think about some overall issues before just doing the kitchen. A more open,light filled setup with living/eating/kitchen designed in unison would interest me here. Generally-have you narrowed the budget to modest or unlimited, or??? and of course is this a long term arrangement for you folks? thoughts: outdoor kitchen and more modest interior kitchen that flows with a living space....turning entry zone and living room into a smaller den/proper entry area...any vertical additions? ,even to a side wing of the home, done in your area....that would give many more options for a beautiful renovation.

Herbflavor-I agree completely about trying to make it a more open, light filled set-up. That is what I'm trying to accomplish by removing the wall currently behind range, adding a window and glass door, and creating better traffic flow to the outdoor area. The outdoor patio is completely plumbed for an outdoor kitchen as well, but that will have to wait. We have to get our inside kitchen squared away first. I estimate that we spend 70% of our awake time in the kitchen preparing meals, doing homework, etc.

The budget is not unlimited (I wish!), but we're prepared to spend a bit to make the space right. I'd rather compromise on counter material, for example, and have a more functional, better laid-out space.

We did think about turning the current dining area into a den/reading nook, but I'm not sure where to fit a table into the enlarged kitchen w/o compromising traffic.

There is a vertical addition that was done, the stairs behind the current laundry area lead up to a very large master suite upstairs (the shaded in area in drawing above). I don't think we can go any larger, as our house is already on the large end for our area at 2000 sf. No space to go out to the side; we're squeezed in pretty tight!

Not sure if this is a long term arrangement. My husband has been transferred every 2-3 years, so we've moved around quite a bit. I think we will be here though, for at least 5 years. I realize that's not a terribly long time, so we do want to be mindful not to go crazy and overspend. (ie a viking range in our neighborhood would probably not see a ROI).

I was asking about these two red squares:

Sorry-The large one is the recessed area of the built in original pantry cabinets, across from the current laundry.

So removing those cabinets opens up that space by 2'. The additional space in that box is the recessed/built in linen closet that is accessed via the hallway.
The small one is a just the way the wall juts out. The fold up ironing board is there, but even w/ that removed the wall is 6" further out than where the pantry cabs start.

Back to the top drawings:

1. The opening on Wall "D" is the opening to the dining area?
2. The single opening on Wall "B" is a door to the back yard? Indirectly, it leads to the garage?
3. The other two openings are existing windows that are how big? How far off the floor?
4. Wall "A", left hand opening goes to covered porch, Right hand opening goes to hall?
5. The unlabeled wall between "A" and "C" is where the current pantry cabinets are.
6. Above the sink is a window that doesn't currently exist in the kitchen?

The center hall has a door to the covered porch? Do you use that door to the porch currently or the other door out of the hearth room?

And finally, where the heck are ya? (Just curiosity).

take out the wall between dining and kitchen.When you close up the door and get a window in,create a run along front wall that jogs around the support beam by brick zone, but does not make a 90 degree turn.Instead you'll pass thru to hearth room where the turn of counters was. Create a small L consisting of fridge/cooktop wall and perpindicular out from current fridge location.The fridge gets shifted over and recessed to where cooktop is- back into some sq footage of washer area[get a stackable setup for W/D in space remaining.] The other arm of the L could house a sink or possibly below counter oven-can you get the sink and cooktop along front wall? I see kids-the hearth room side of L can have stools/overhang. The house needs some flow-with the tight dining room and now removal of wall it will be more inviting and yet the living room still has that dividing wall for some separation. You'll get a visual"through" effect so the marginal view out the kitchen window will be minimized. When coming thru to hearth room,instead of the island in the middle of it all, you can do comfy chairs around brick/and the peninsula part of the L will have stools: you keep different uses for the hearth room - instead of all kitchen and all island taking over. Your linear feet available for these runs isn't really clear from your sketch-have to figure that out, of course. If you don't want complete elimination of wall between kitchen/dining-at least cut it back significantly...pretty much similar effect.You can keep the nifty original hallway storage setup behind the kitchen-don't you think that means less worry about storage in the kitchen and you can streamline the kitchen with a compact L and a long run at the front? Unless you gut your house,the kitchen is basically a pass through area-but by opening to dining and on through to hearth area and actually placing furniture at that end of the room,you connect the spaces in an inviting way....this would not be super expensive....I think you'd have budget money left for an outdoor kitchen.

1. The opening on Wall "D" is the opening to the dining area?

Correct. It's a 32" pocket door.

2. The single opening on Wall "B" is a door to the back yard? Indirectly, it leads to the garage?
Correct. Walk out into a courtyard. Turn left to walk to the garage back door, turn right to go down 2 stairs and get to the pool/covered patio/garden.

3. The other two openings are existing windows that are how big? How far off the floor?

45.5"wx 34.5" h, 46.5" off flor.
4. Wall "A", left hand opening goes to covered porch, Right hand opening goes to hall?

The left hand item is actually a window. 33"w x 46"h, 34" from floor.
THe only door to the backyard is at the top of Wall B.

5. The unlabeled wall between "A" and "C" is where the current pantry cabinets are.
Correct.

6. Above the sink is a window that doesn't currently exist in the kitchen?
Correct.

The center hall has a door to the covered porch? Do you use that door to the porch currently or the other door out of the hearth room? No, the center hall ends in a staircase that leads upstairs to master bedroom. The only access from the house to backyard is through the hearth room.

And finally, where the heck are ya? (Just curiosity).

Los Angeles.

Herbflavor-I think I'm following you. The only problem is that there is only 9' between dining room wall and structural beam, so it can't hold much more than a sink and dishwasher. I'm not clear on what you mean by this:

When you close up the door and get a window in,create a run along front wall that jogs around the support beam by brick zone, but does not make a 90 degree turn.Instead you'll pass thru to hearth room where the turn of counters was

I like the idea of eliminating that wall though. That would also make the entire area brighter. I definitely want to keep use of the hearth room as a 2nd living area and homework area. I'll work on drawing that idea up, but again, I'm not clear on the above part (the front wall).

means:from somewhere around where dining room window is,all along the front wall of your home which will no longer have door to car area and continues to bricked zone will be a continuous cabinet/counter run....you may have more than 9 feet because you can extend it when the dining room wall is out-right up to dining room window or even under window at reduced depth and beautiful counter with storage underneath and lay out food there-really nice. the dining table stays in that spot....the dining area is a zone and again with sight line interest straight through to hearth room. If you could swing it-look into the header set up with regards the dining room window-maybe some capital outlay to having a bigger window here incorporating the existing opening but expand with either a big newer window or add a 2nd window next to it,instead of a little kitchen window where a car would be.How many feet from the right side of dining window along wall to retaining beam near bricked area near hearth, or so.