We are currently working through floor plan options to improve our kitchen layout and would greatly appreciate some advice from those with more experience.

Our current kitchen has a lot of counter space, but we actually use very little of it. The stove and refrigerator are less than 3' apart, which means the person at the stove is in the way of the person getting something out of the refrigerator. Plus, there is no vent over the oven and when you walk through the front door, you see right into the kitchen.

Also in this process, we are hoping to:

increase the space in the living room, which is very narrow

Make the side entrance more usable with a closet

The problems we have:

The living room is an addition with cathedral ceilings and a crawl space underneath

The living room wall with the couch is a load bearing wall.

The whole house has hardwood floors, but the living room/kitchen is different and perpendicular to the dining room.

The office floor is 3" lower than the rest of the house and is a converted garage with no real crawlspace.

We will be reusing the existing kitchen cabinets but can modify box dimensions (my husband is very handy)

We do not want separate living room and family room; we do not want the dining area in the kitchen; we need an office as a separate room.

If you can review our kitchen layout, and offer comments/suggestions, it would be most appreciated. If you can find a better layout for our house than what we've come up with, that would just be gravy! I posted this on the remodel page but didn't get any feedback on the kitchen aspect.

Existing house:

Zoomed in view of existing living spaces: