where is the family room in relation to this? I'm guessing behind the island but not sure. The one issue that quickly comes to mind without knowing the rest of the house flow is that people might be inclined to walk through the working part of the kitchen to get to the frig.(quickest route?). It kinda depends on where the family room is. Could you post the layout the entire home?

And welcome fellow Floridian!!

I have attached a picture of the first floor - there must be a better way to do it, but this is only way I know to do it.
The labels on the plan are a bit off - the room labled "family" is more of a game room. The room labled "Living" is what I would call a great room or family room. The "closet" off the kitchen is a walkin pantry. I guess that is obvious, but still.

I originally had the refigerator recessed next to the pantry, but the architect said to move it because that was a traffic area, but now I'm not sure because what you said makes a lot of sense too.
I think the kids will use the Family/game room more than the living/family room that is open to the kitchen. In that case, they would be walking through my workspace rather than past the nook to get to the fridge.

Thanks for your comments. I just want to make sure we get this right. We plan to live here a long time.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/69340843@N05/6309526030/

Here is a link that might be useful: 1st floor plan

Posting images directly:

What's your plan for the nook? Could you loose the family room closet and have an additional opening from kitchen to family room?

I don't know about the ref. It depends on who will use it how often. Plus maybe where they are coming from and how much traffic will be rounding the corner to the game room.

Where its shown, its convenient to the nook, and to the prep area but not to the dining room or the game room. It can block the aisle coming out of the kitchen proper towards the nook and might be able to hit a seated person.

Roughly where you had it, its NOT convenient to the nook, but is for the dining area and game room. Prep is a little far away. Great room access is about the same either way, but when you look at setting up for entertaining one way or the other might have an advantage.

rhome has two refs in two different places - roughly one for everyone to grab drinks, fruit, etc. and one for cooking meals. Perhaps consider something like that? Maybe as a two foot wide column plus a regular ref? They'll only eat more as they head into their teens and they'll start to cook, too.

Another thing to consider is that the kids will start to help with cooking and clean up. It may not be the best thing to have both the sink and range across from each other. This is partly because a person standing at one may not notice or remember that another person standing at the other opened an oven or dw door, turn around quickly and trip. The other part depends on how you take stuff out of a low oven. I stand in front of the open oven door and bend over, so I'm likely to bump someone at the sink.

Maybe think on how stuff needs to be clustered together for it to be efficient for different people. Certainly weight you as the chef higher than duffers drifting by while taking a break from shooting things, but what needs to be together to bake, to stew, to make lunch. How do the kids make their own breakfast and how will that change over time? What happens when the kids get home after school? How does stuff move from prep to outdoor cooking? Where does the refrigeration come from if drinks are provided outside?

hth

Thanks for the comments.

dilly_ny - we have a load bearing post in the closet wall so that cannot be moved, but we could add a passage where the fridge is right now. We considered it before and I'm not sure why it disappeared - something to think about. I was definitely planning to move the fridge over atleast 18" before so as not to have the doors open into the breakfast table.
I really wanted a banquette, but I have been told the space is too wide for that - so I am thinking that we will build in a wall to wall storage bench along the back, but leave the sides open for chairs.

bmorepanic

wow- that is a lot to process. It will take me awhile to think about the questions you posed. I had considered a beverage center, but we will also have a second fridge in the garage - it seemed a little excessive to me. The kids drink mostly water and milk so the beverage center would not work for them - we try to avoid bottled water and stick to reusable containers.

I see your point about the cooktop and the sink being right across from one another - that is why I made the aisle between them 5'. I knew it could be a problem, but I liked the idea of the hood being centered in the space and I just couldn't think of another way to lay it out. Suggestions?

Thanks so much for taking the time to look at it and comment. I really appreciate it.

You can influence where "center" is - an example would be adding a full height cabinet on the game room end for the micro. Something like that might come in handy for storing bakeware or cookware. And of course, the ref is already pushing center.

Below is likely not the best way, but its got some thoughts you might want in pieces. The light blue lines are the paths from food storage to prep to cook. You get a little hallway traffic, but otherwise good. The darker blue lines are everyday eating paths to cleanup. Cooking has access to the prep sink or the cleanup sink.

The absolute bummer is distance from cleanup to dining room. Less important, but perhaps still a bummer is placement of dish storage.

The island drifted towards the cooking area a little and also down so that the aisle between the island and the ref is about 50". That move makes space for a more pleasant seating of two and two around a corner of the island - but still out of everyones way. It helps cut down on veg or pots dripping into the aisles. It should help by eliminating cutting through behind you to get to the ref. Somehow the dw doesn't exert the same attraction for children.

Moving a couple of thing changes the perception of center.