Just a quick sketch...can you move the powder room to the corner and add a banquette? Also, I moved the sink to the other wall (maybe with a cutout to that room?) and placed the range between the windows.

Could you add a prep sink to the island? This might be a possibility, but I'm sure you'll get a lot more input :) {{!gwi}}From Kitchen plans

No lavender_lass. I so wish that we could. That was our first choice. The PR cannot move any further left than where it is.
Evidently, this part of the house burnt some years ago and when it was rebuilt, the center part of this kitchen was placed on top of the old garage slab. So there is a slab under the 'west' 2/3 of the kitchen and a crawlspace on the right. They cannot get the drains for the plumbing any further in that direction than they currently are without demoing that slab and it's just not in the budget. It is much too involved. We also tried putting it in the corner of the game room where the sink is, but that wouldn't work either. So...we are down to two choices..leave it as is, where is or move it into a corner of the great room immediately to the left of the front door. There is a coat closet to the right of the front door, so it would make a very short (3') entry corridor. It would also cover the only window in the great room on the front side of the house.

Can you post a plan of the entire home? Just to get an idea of what is on the other side of these walls.

Also. the sink has been left in its previous position, centered under the window. We did wonder about putting the coktop between the two windows because that would give us the ability to put a tall cabinet unit on the 'south' wall. What do you think about having the cooktop and sink next to each other on the long wall?

I think we need to see the entire house plan...and look at that option for moving the powder room. It just doesn't look like it works with your new kitchen, especially since that's your only dining area.

Putting the sink right next to the cooktop wold not be a good idea, IMHO. What do you think about moving the sink and maybe opening the wall to the other room? Is that something you would want to do? Is that the living room? What is the little closet between the fireplace wall and counter?

Ok. Here is the rest of the house. The closet next to the fireplace is the water heater. Neither wall on the living room can be opened up any more than they are. Thanks you guys so much. We really need fresh eyes. The kitchen is 'south' of the living room and the opening on the bottom right goes in to the kitchen right there in the dining area.

So you have two bathrooms, already? Why do you need the powder room...or am I missing something?

The kitchen is at the bottom of the plan? What's the door to the bottom right? Is that another entry to the game room?

Also, what is the room/alcove at the top of the living room? Is that also a dining area? Would you want a cutout into the living room, if you moved the sink?

What if you used the same toilet plumbing and flipped it the other way? You may be able to run the sink drain above the slab in the wall or something.

Ok. I've tried to do the whole house. I did not try to put the cabinets back in. The deal is that the 1/2 bath was already there so we can leave it as it is and not change it, but the inspector will not let us leave it that narrow if we change the configuration. It has to be that narrow in order to get the washer and dryer past that point in/out of the laundry room. So..we can move it, but don't see any good place other than by the front door. (Moving it into the game room is not an option due to plumbing issues.) We want to keep the PR in the front part of the house because we do not want people/guests from the game room going into the bedrooms to use the restroom.

Without changing anything else in the area, I think this may work:
Top wall: trash, cleanup sink, corner
Exterior wall: DW under the window, cab, range b/w windows, cabs, and prep sink either here or on the island, then corner cab.
Bottom wall, appliance garage, tall cab (pantry and MW) and fridge.

Cleanup would both be close to a window and dining area and sort of hidden. Prep and cooking close to storage and any cleanup/setting table etc activities separated.

Thank you sena01. I like the looks of that and there is lots of counter space. I would probably need to swap the two end walls. The wall where you have the fridge is only 25" deep and the opposite one is 33" so was hoping to put fridge there so it could be (almost) recessed and not sticking out into aisle.

If you are stuck with the bathroom off the kitchen (as I am) here are a few things to consider.

I have heard that pocket doors allow more noise to escape. If you use a traditional door have it positioned as that when it opens you see the sink not the toilet. Use a solid door not hollow core. Put weather stripping (it can be done discreetly) and a floor sweep on the door. Consider flooring other than tile. Install a motion sensor fan as people don't always turn on fans when they should. Also don't get the quietest fan so it will provide some "cover" noise.

When we changed that bathroom from vinyl to tile flooring, sounds in the bathroom got louder. We did install a solid door which helps. Now plan to add weatherstripping and floor sweep to provide more of a seal on the door. A motion sensor fan has always worked well as that odors have never been an issue.

debrak2008...Thank you so much for those suggestions. I had not thought of most of them and after reading them, I now think they are all pretty much must-haves!

I'm missing something. It looks like there's a bathroom off the living room? If that were the case, why wouldn't you get rid of the powder room in the kitchen? I'm sure there must be a good reason, I'm just feeling dumb.

There's not really a bathroom in the living room. The 2nd bath is actually a kind of Jack & Jill bath that the two smaller bedrooms share. The wall has been opened up between the living room and that bedroom and we use that area as an office. The other bedroom is a child's room.

If visitors to the home were permitted to use that bathroom, they would also have access, through the bathroom, to the child's room, which, as an abused child, is something I am just not comfortable with.

Also, we quite probably will sell the house in several years, which would require closing the living room/bedroom wall opening back up. If we eliminated the PR in favor of guests using that bathroom, there would be no bathroom available to guests without going through the family bedrooms once the wall is closed back up, which will be a necessity when it's time to sell as there is no market in our neighborhood for two bedroom homes.

Okay. I felt sure there was some factor I was missing.

Those are great suggestions from Debrak. We did a couple of them even though our powder room is off a little hall -- placing the toilet so the open door blocks it and didn't pay for a quiet fan. If it hadn't been fairly isolated I would definitely have made it come on automatically too.