does the dining area widen? does it connect with another space? what capability do you have for bumping out? show a sketch with dining room and it's boundaries sketched in. where does the garage entry traffic flow? is it a split level home? something says if the dining area widens and if you can connect it to living or family room with some stairs,to look at that as a bigger open kitchen/dining space. Just can't tell enough with your sketch thus far.

The dining area is no wider than the kitchen is currently with no room to bump out (close neighbour). The house is a back split. We do not enter thru the garage as it is mostly used for my husband's workshop and houses our storage and extra fridge as well. We park in the driveway. I will post some pics to help with the visuals.

Here is a link that might be useful: view from kitchen

I think it really depends on your budget. I rather like the long kitcheny space-just work it harder with perhaps a built in banquette up at dinette which flows into that long wall..get the most beautiful,custom like surface treatments you can afford with cabinet finishes/trim/hardwood floor thru kitchen and foyer/counters/lighting re-do...etc. Can you do some better hallway closet or storage behind doors by going back into stud space on garage wall-clean up the hanging coats and such and unify that foyer with the kitchen. Some of this might be interior designer type craft.

Depending on your budget, you might think about locating the kitchen in the current dining room as well as keeping a bit of the kitchen space for it. Then make the eating area in the front the only dining spot in the house. Two dining spots is two too many in a house this size. Do one well, and use the space from the other to make the kitchen work better.

Thank you herb and live wire for your input! I appreciate the fresh eyes as I have been at this redesign for a couple of months and I am starting to drown in ideas. Onedogedie, that is a lovely galley style kitchen, and in fact many of the renovated houses on my street kept the galley, some made one wall an island others did a raised bar. I am just not sure which way to go as open concept living seems to be the preference of buyers in our area (for resale sake in 7 years) I am trying to keep that in mind and reconcile it with my preference for rooms with walls. Ugh, frustrating.

Just a small thing, if you are left handed, keep the DW where it is, but if you are right-handed, you may consider moving the DW to the other side of the sink.

I'm also going through a re-model of a galley kitchen, not easy to figure out where to put everything in a small space. One thing that has helped me is to think not about layout right away, but about what I want to store, and who will be using the kitchen. Then layout came more naturally.

Even though we have a galley, we are a family of 5, so we effectively made zones in the galley, and then thought of what to put in zones depending on use. There is a kid's zone, a husband zone, and my zone. People can be working in each zone, and not bump into each other. We even found space for 2 sinks.

If you click the link below, you should get results for galley kitchens at gardenweb.

If the link doesn't work, try searching:

"site:ths.gardenweb.com galley"

Hope that helps.

Here is a link that might be useful: Galley kitchens in gardenweb

"I am just not sure which way to go as open concept living seems to be the preference of buyers in our area (for resale sake in 7 years) I am trying to keep that in mind and reconcile it with my preference for rooms with walls."

Do you know for sure that will be the preference 7 years from now? Are you willing to give up what you would like to live with in case 7 years from now you put this house up for sale. Do you suppose the new buyer will love your idea so much that they will not change it? By that time it will be a 10 year old kitchen. Why not make it the kitchen YOU want?

Agreed- build the kitchen you want. I think you have a very user-friendly layout in your kitchen.