The location of the patio door in the heart of the kitchen seems very sub-optimal to me. Could it be moved to the living room?

I like the last one! It has a nice flow and the second sink gives you another great prep area :)

Definitely eliminate the door. I like option 5 better than the others.

Have you consider making the island longer? You could put the prep sink in the island and the stove where the DW is in option 5. Move the clean-up sink and DW to the west wall. That would give you a prep zone and a separate clean-up zone that don't run into each other.

I like option 2, but I' d change a few things:

- remove back door,
- move main sink to the north wall,
- have a prep sink on the south wall.

Also, instead of the shallow cabs on the north wall you can end that cab run where the window ens with a rounded cab (if you don't dislike them), and then have 18" deep tall cabs next to the fridge, for storage and MW.

I don't know if you'll be able to use the blind corner on the south west. If not, maybe you can consider a 36" corner susan and have the prep sink slightly of center.

Thanks for all the ideas!

GauchoGordo, we have french doors to the patio from the living room (2 of them!) but then we'd have to take the trash out to the garage through the living room, and we like our big dutch door in the kitchen.

Cindy103d, I think the stove would still be under our window if we move it to where you suggest - it's probably hard to see in the illustration, sorry about that.

Sena01, that drawing looks fabulous! It makes a lot of sense to me. I think we keep running into this problem where that North Wall, with the 3 windows, looks out into our neighbors house - it is also DH's boss's house (we live right next to a private school, where DH teaches, and the headmaster is our neighbor). We have put some window film up on those windows so we can't see everything they're doing in their great room, but it's still really close - and we have a much better view out of the South Wall, into our garden. Maybe it doesn't matter so much. Right now we don't have a DW so we're at the sink A LOT, washing up (on the south side), so it seems like we spend a lot of time there - but once we have a DW this will reduce, in principle. And we'll still be cooking at the south wall and eating there.

DH is also unconvinced that two sinks are necessary, in his effort to keep costs down. I would need to do some more research on GW to gather arguments for both sinks. One thing in our favor there is that we have two right, so moving/adding plumbing isn't a problem.

With you guys plus architect involved, I'm sure there's a very good reason for a high window on the west wall, instead of the north wall, but I am curious because my first thought was to put one on your north wall, showcasing the sky but nothing else. Is there another problem out to the west to be edited out?

BTW, losing that west door seems...necessary to the ignorant view from this side of the screen. :)

Hi rosie, sure - here's a photo of the space, looking at the north wall from the dining room door. The kitchen is gabled and we have a slate roof, so we're not messing with the slate :) We can squeeze a window in above the cabinets on the north wall.

I think we're settled on losing the west door, the gains seem to justify the cost (and it was just a cost issue, really).

Can you remove the wall between the kitchen and dining room? I'm thinking that part of the reason that you feel you need the door to the patio is because the kitchen is closed-off from the rest of the house, and that you wouldn't feel it necessary if the kitchen were more open.

One more thought on the door to the patio - could you move it to the corner of the kitchen, where the window currently is? It's easy to replace a window with a door so long as it's wide enough and the header is >=6'8" high.