I am having a hard time figuring out where the stairs are on the plan since they are not indicated on the new plans

My apologies Palimsest...the stairs are right behind the counter/cabinets with the built in microwave. Stairs are almost across from the fridge.
The plans are with the third scenario in mind since it requires more cabinets and counter top.
Thanks!!

If you are searching for the feeling of openness from the kitchen, do the new staircase. Nothing else is going to open it from floor to ceiling. If you don't like the idea of penetrating the foundation, look again if there isn't another location in the house.

If you need the access so little that you would consider a spiral staircase... Can you get away with a hatch? A spiral staircase is wider and might impact the kitchen floor space more than the current stair case.

Otherwise, I think getting rid of the drywall corner treatments at the ceiling - or unifying them to form one colossally thick arch would be better. Unify the beam treatments across the two rooms. Possibly make the stair box actually longer so the strange angled part that reaches midway down the stairs is removed and straightened.

Replacing the railings with something more transparent might open up a view you don't want to have.

Are you keeping the brick thing?

I wouldn't do a spiral if the basement is used for storage or any other taking of big or heavy things up and down. That can be very dangerous.

It looks like these used to be enclosed and this odd counter thing was done to open up the space. Is that right? (I'd be so scared of dropping things over the sides!)

The cabinetry part sounds fine, but I'd also be tempted to put some kind of mesh or something behind it to keep things out of the stairwell. The open well also gives me a bit of vertigo just looking at it. I'd look for a better way to define the stairs, maybe mount some kind of sculptural element as a "wall" over one side or both. Something that wouldn't totally close off the space, but wouldn't have it just plonk opening into the middle either.

If you don't want to close off the view or anything, and want it all open, you can still define the stair area by putting tall, chunky newel posts on either side, up to chest or shoulder level. It gives a grab place for anyone who feels like he's falling, and says "here are the stairs" to make it less of an open pit to fall into. It gives it frame work and definition. That, with prettied up treads and walls, might be enough. (I'd still be losing things over the edge, but that might just be me.)

How contemporary is the remodel going to be?

If you are doing something fairly contemporary you could open the sunroom side up, have a 42" high railing, place cabinetry on the kitchen side, and have a small "railing" along the back of the countertop 6" high that tied into the railing on the other side. (36"+ 6" = 42"). I am not sure how this would work with really traditional elements.

Frank Lloyd Wright often designed cabinetry that turned into dividers into railings, I was trying to find a good picture but I can't. But for example if the sunroom side had a wood top rail with metal mesh instead of spindles, the top rail could be detailed to come around to the back of the counters with a 6" area of mesh underneath.

If the whole thing is tied together design wise, it could work. The problem with the existing is that it is piecemeal.

Hi Bmorepanic - Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately, the most economical solution was to through the mud room/breezeway...we could go through the hallway or by the main door but that would require much more than we can afford.
A hatch is not possible because we have our laundry, storage and even a home theatre (in the works) downstairs.
I agree with your idea of drywall treatment...that's a good suggestion..one thick arch would look more cohesive.
The other room has beams in it too..I posted some more pics on the link with the look in and from the sun room. Take a look and let me know what you think... We like the brick thing...it gives the whole tudor, country look the house has so, we will keep it.

Hi Pllog - Thanks for the suggestions. The spiral would not be used for any heavy moving since we do have an outside hatch from the basement but of course it is inaccessible in cold and for laundry :)
Infact, we just bought the house a year and few months ago...previously the house ended where the arch is..there was a wall on the otherside of kitchen. The previous owners (we were told) added the sunroom.
There is abacksplash on the counters as you will see so nothing drops over but yes, a big concern like you guessed was also the opening and walking in from kitchen to sunroom..you cannot tell there are stairs, which is not safe. The idea of newl posts sound very interesting.
We were planning to leave the counter on the kitchen side as is, so there will remain a wall behind it for the stairs....just add railings, etc on the other side (sun room side)
Look at the new pics I posted hopefully it will help get you a better idea....

Here is a link that might be useful: Pics and Plan of Kitchen

LOL! Well, if you've been there a year and haven't lost stuff over the side it's not that much of a problem. Laundry would be a problem on a small spiral staircase, however, besides what the curved entry would do to your proportions.

I like Bmorepanic's ideas about doing something to make the ceiling of the stairwell nicer.

I stayed with a relative for a few weeks when I was a teen. I was given a finished room that was sort of atticish, even though I believe it was always a finished room. It was like a big den, but with a staircase that came down into the hall through a small door, like a farmhouse attic stairs. Upstairs, in the room itself, was the stairs just rising out of the floor in the middle. There were wood railings around it, and big newel posts, and I think planters or benches or something on the three railing sides. That staircase also weirded me out a little (though having the whole party room to myself was fun). It was only right by the opening that it was any kind of disturbing thing.

My current house has stairs that go up between walls to a T intersection with the upstairs hall. People are sometimes creeped out by the two story stair well opening, even though there are walls everywhere.

I think it's the long flight of stairs that makes for the creepy feeling. I don't know if it's possible, or cost effective, for you to alter the path of the staircase some, so that there's a landing and a turn. I have friends who were able to basically reverse a staircase and then bend the bottom, to do that. Perhaps, if you could do that, the entrance could be next to the wall, from the sunroom side. Unless that's what you meant by the one that would cut through the foundation. I'm wholly unfamiliar with basements, structurally. The only one I've ever had was just a pit for the services, and it had raw wood stairs that were barely more than a ladder.

Besides the big newel posts, which were good in my relative's house, though would be even better if they were bigger, you could put a gate across the opening to match the railing you're talking about putting in. It would also keep itinerant children and visiting pets from falling down the stairs. If you had tall enough newels, you could even do a waist high gate that would keep drunken uncles from taking the plunge.

As to the kitchen design, I think the cabinetry with counter in the plan you've shown looks just fine. :)

I have a wide set of open tread spiral winders (in a six foot square), and after 7 years, I have found I still can't walk down them carrying something without really *thinking about it. Not the same as the autopilot one can use on a straight run at all. I would keep the straight stairs, make a nice railing on one side and see if I could resolve the ceiling and angles.

plllog - was that house a cape cod with the whole upstairs 1 room? as a kid 1 of my gf's brother had a room like that. the stairs started in the back/middle of house 'hall'. very small hall w/5 doorways off of it. that's about all it was - doorways. to the 2 downstairs bdrms, the bath, his upstairs room and the LR. anyway, his stairwell was like this one really. if the basement was their main floor and this kit/sunroom was his bdrm. tho, it was wall all up oneside of it. the other long side had stair rail and upstairs end did also - that only left the 'landing' at the top of the stairs open into his room/the upstairs. i never thought of it as scary or anything. i'm thinking we weren't supposed to be up there anyway... lol!

it's having it open into 2 rooms that makes it difficult to work around.

Steph, nope, it was a half timbered tudor.

I guess I've known too many people who've been hurt falling down stairs. 'Course when I was in high school I caught my must-drag-on-the-ground jeans caught in my must-wear-tall-shoes-to-school shoes and fell down most of a straight flight of open stairs in the front of the school. Somehow I just somersaulted, though, and hardly had a bruise, though I only got a 7.3 from the Bulgarian judge. :)

Palimpsest - I am trying to picture the suggestion of turning dividers into railing but having a tough time...I tried to find some pictures too...but not successful. If you come across anything can you pls send it to me? The mesh idea sounds good and maybe if I substitued it with chicken wire..it could work. We are trying to go more for the country casual look since the house is tudor with brick and beams...
I am a little confused about having it extend from sunroom since the ceilings in sunroom are much higher that kitchen. What do you think?

~bump~

I'm going to second avoiding the spiral stairs. I really can't imagine carrying a laundry basket up and down a set.
Maybe get one of the contractors to come back and explore plllog's suggestion. Move the three or four top steps 90 degrees towards and into the sunroom and build a landing. It would take the stair entrance away from the kitchen completedly.

Maybe ask a plumber or heating guy (depending on exactly what those pipes do) if those pipes could be straightened and minimized.

I think about how I cruise the ref sometimes and look at where those stairs open and cringe. I had a relative die from falling down basement stairs. Btw, she was carrying laundry.

"I only got a 7.3 from the Bulgarian judge"

dang! with a somersault and that 'costume' you'd think he/she'd at least give you a 9.5! bummer...

I fell down a flight of stairs on my rump about 40 yrs ago. 6 mos pregnant. I did an immediate drop and went down on the rump... I was carrying on of those huge 'set under' type hair dryers at the time. they think I was ok...(still debating it?) my tailbone has never been the same.

don't do the spiral. I finished out my pregnancy with one of those to go up/down! ugh.

I got it - cover over the stairway - like a bridge and put in a slide - lol! you'd have to go out that hatch and come in thru another door to get back up tho.

I'd check out having the turn of the stairs and have it open from the sunroom. have a good sized landing at the turn so that it's easy to carry things up/down. think about if you ever want to take a sofa down there.

that would take the opening out of the walkway between rooms. If little kids are around very often I'd make it a 3/4 wall also. keeping the top part open would allow the light to come thru into the kitchen and keep a somewhat open feel.

"I got it - cover over the stairway - like a bridge and put in a slide - lol! you'd have to go out that hatch and come in thru another door to get back up tho. "

That is funny...It did get a chuckle out of my DH too!

There is actually a sort of slide idea online that I saw...with slide next to the stairs ;)

Thanks for the suggestions about the sunroom...that may just work.

"I had a relative die from falling down basement stairs." OMG!!!
Bmorepanic - If I had any doubts about the stairs...I don't anymore...no spiral for us and need a proper entrance where ever we end up with it.

I am going to call in a plumber and heating guy and see what they have to say about those pipes and will have a GC come by to take a look at any other opening in the house we can find.

If another opening or the redoing the pipes will cost too much money then we will have to forego new cabinets and just paint the current ones since budget is not that high...I will keep you all posted with the progress of this project!

Thanks.