It sounds like we'd be happy in the same type of kitchen! I'd always hoped for a small seating area connected to the kitchen, but I didn't manage it with this one, and a fireplace in view would be heavenly. The small kitchen table does suffice. It's not really for meals, but is great for late-night girl talk with my older DDs. I like to sit in the dining room...with no view of any kitchen mess... for family meals as well as meals with guests. My kitchen is for baking, cooking, baking, and more baking!

About the only time guests are in here is when the kids have friends over who ask to bake! I had to have a layout that left room for other people, but it's because the kids work on their own projects or part of the meal while I do my part. If others are in the kitchen with me, it's usually to work, not be entertained....But not that we don't have fun, because we do. And that's what makes it the heart of our home...Not because it's physically in the center of everything.

I also feel the same way as you do about TV in the kitchen. I don't miss it in the kitchen at all.

Other than the chats with my kids, about the only non-cooking project I do in the kitchen is potting my seeds to start them early for the garden. My island and prep sink are a great help for that.

Ooh, gardening, we do have a lot in common.

I started a kitchen garden this year and I'm having so much fun! It's a lot of work, but great for the nieces and nephews. They like to come out and help in the garden in the summer and bake cookies and cakes, in the winter.

Our house has the ultimate open plan layout: a 20' x 40' room that has the kitchen down one long side and the DR and LR each in one of the short ends. People don't have to be in the kitchen to be a part of what is happening in the kitchen. One "cook" can be working at one end of the big island and "hanging out" with people in the DR. The other "cook" can be working at the other end of the long island and chatting with thoe in the LR.

DH is the baker, and I am more the cook. While we have an island, is isn't one with seating on the other side, so isn't used for eating, reading the paper, being on the laptop, etc. It's pretty much just a kitchen.

Well, I'm with you. When we knocked out two walls and enclosed our back porch into a new kitchen nook in our old house, I got what I'd wanted for years (80-year old house with the same kitchen footprint until a year ago): an open room. We do have a TV in the adjoining area, and the dining table is part of our big living room.
I love it...we have a counter area on the island, I can talk and bake or cook at the same time, listen to music or watch Oprah. Older homes don't often have this, and I'd had enough of smaller rooms, all separate. Bring on the noisy crowd! Last winter we had our teaching staff here, and it was such fun. So many folks crowded into the kitchen, then spilled over into the living room while our counselor made margaritas over the prep sink. Heaven!

I love it when I finish loading DW and the countertops are clean and I can turn off lights and go sit in another room. Kitchen is a nice space, but it's not 'the heart of the house.'

I like that I can include the family room and kitchen together, or turn off the lights in the kitchen and sit in the family room and not even know the kitchen is there (like now).

Last week I used the large marble island to adjust the bindings on my daughters skis, and today I boiled my ski poles in the stockpot so I could remove the grips. So I also have a tuning shop (any threads on how Calacatta gold holds up to ski edges?).

(I had already taken the ski down from the island for the photo, though. But what a nice expansive workspace! Skis are long!)

Ours will be an open plan with the family room and dining room nearby. I can watch tv when cooking and catch up on my shows. I am the only cook and baker in our house, but my older son (almost 9) has shown interest in learning. With our new kitchen, there will be space to have him with me and not up my you know what, lol.
I hope when our boys are teenagers to have them hang out and chat there as I recall doing at friends' houses. My parents were anti-social to some extent, so I want our house to be as welcoming as possible. I still recall the kitchens of my friends who had moms who made all the kids feel welcome and appreciated and hope to pay it forward for our sons and their friends. I'd rather know who they are hanging out with and let them bring their cronies into our home. As a former "stray" myself, I know what it can mean to a kid to have somewhere to go and an adult who will listen.
I'd also love a cheerful place to have my friends over to hang out and for entertaining as a family. My husband will probably have his buddies in our bsmt where his new foosball table is, but I'd like to have a nice space above ground, lol. Our current setup is a small kitchen with closed up rooms and no decor (real bland from p.o.).

Ah! segbrown! that looked like my kitchen 2 days ago...! Where do you ski?! We had lots of rain and were hoping it is translating to base in the mountains!

We are having a great time with the new large island / table seating. Love having the kids take control of meals. Tonight, they even took control of takeout while I finished up work work...!

DS and I were working on a project and had the matte cutter on the penninsula recently.

Though one of my favorite things is having a glass of wine at the penninsula here and catching up with DH at the end of the day while he prepares dinner, we have been known to host a few parties in this kitchen, too.
This being Halloween!

I've enjoyed reading everyone's responses.

lavender, your kitchen idea is perfectly lovely. When my kitchen is finally done, it will still be on the small side, but with a ton more counter space and cab's. Four people can sit around the new island while I cook/prep on the galley side. There are French doors to the deck, which one day will be screened, so I'm looking forward to eating meals there - in nice weather, bug-free. :)

Another thing I'm gleefully anticipating is simply sitting at the island, reading or sewing or talking or collecting my scattered thoughts with a rip-roarin' fire nearby. Having a massive stone fireplace in the kitchen was one of my "good luck with that!" wishes when house-hunting, and we still can't quite believe that we have one.

Maybe I just like to pretend sometimes that I'm not such a modern girl afterall...

this is getting a little personal ;*)

I'd love a kitchen that was more a heart of the home space, but in this house it wasn't really designed that way, so we aren't forcing it. Next house!

For this one:
The biggest kitchen activity in our house is having breakfast and reading the paper in the breakfast nook overlooking the garden, which was a critical house criterion for DH when we were househunting. (To make that possible more regularly, we're also adding a "mudroom"/drop zone for junk that's coming into the house, since right now coats and bags end up piled on the breakfast room table more times than not, forcing us into the dining room to eat...)

I'm the cook in the house, and my favorite kitchen things are baking and cooking soups and such. Looking forward to counter space in the new kitchen, since right now I regularly put pots on the floor or on the trash can when I run out of stovetop space. Also looking forward to having a second, separate counter so that I can reasonably ask someone to help me with things---right now they would be underfoot if they tried.

My husband's big hobbies right now are brewing beer, canning, and pickling things. So, basically, lots of pots of boiling water! He can't wait for the range hood, since right now the kitchen steams up and you have to open all the doors and windows. Dishwasher will also be a big plus for him since he spends a lot of time washing and sterilizing things.

Our kitchen is terrible for entertaining right now and will only be minimally improved with the new layout, but since our dining room/foyer/living room are one big open space, I decided not to worry about it. We typically prep food and drinks for parties in the kitchen and then bring it into the dining room, which seems to work fine. Planning our annual holiday party to show off the new kitchen this year, so it will get a test run in its infancy to see if it's any better for this. :)

LOL Kateskouros! I've been admiring the restraint that has been shown in this topic. ;)

I'll out myself. My kitchen is really and truly for cooking only. Entertaining happens in the living room and dining room, and the garden. I have an armoire desk in the living room, and flat desk upstairs in the library. I have a studio for projects. Besides cooking, it seems that the thing I like to do in my new kitchen is watch TV!

I rarely just sit and watch TV. I put a good one (a gift) in the kitchen because sometimes I'd rather keep company with a TV if I'm in the house alone than turn on the stereo (which plays in any room and has a controller in the kitchen). I don't watch TV in the bedroom. I listen to it in the living room while I work on the computer (or GW). It turns out, however, that I like sitting at my little table shelf and going through catalogs or magazines, or doing some tedious prep task, or even just becoming a vegetable myself and watching a really good TV show. It's so bizarre! The ugly old chairs are comfortable, and I can see the garden and the light comes in through the big new windows, so I guess it's also a little like a sunroom, but I never would have thought that the new kitchen would turn into a favored spot for watching TV!!!!!!

Well I'm going to fantasize my kitchen as it will be... I actually love to be the sole cook and I get into a frenzy. LOVE when it's a big family time and I have a million things going at once. (OK.. that actually happens now) My current home is open and we tweaked our other house so it maximizes the same. I love that there will be more counter space to spread out. I LOVE baking with our grandson and DREAM DREAM DREAM of lots of little cousins over to have a bakathon with Grammie. OH.. and making pancakes after a sleepover with our grandson is always a favorite. He didn't believe me that pancakes don't have to come out of a frozen box.

The best view in the house is from the kitchen. I sometimes sit at the table by the windows and read or just look out. The TV and fireplace can be seen from the kitchen table, but not the functional areas. We live in a warm climate so the fireplace is mostly for show anyway.

Tonight we are happy to be done with remodel. So...out with the good stuff, $70 wine in $1.00 glasses from the dollar store. Lol, we know how to have fun!

http://s1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/?action=view&current=winebottle001.jpg"; target="_blank">

marcydc, I'm in the Denver area ... both Loveland and ABasin opened a couple of days ago, I went up today to ABasin! Only one lift, and one run, but it's skiing, who cares. :-) Nice soft snow, too, b/c 2 ft of real snow has fallen on top of the manmade base in the past few days.