I'd definitely remove pony wall between kitchen and family room...have you pondered what you could do slightly differently if this were done?

The "wall" between the kitchen and the family room is a 30" high pony wall. Originally we thought it was a "no brainer" to take it down but as we've lived in the house for a few months we've come to realize it does help make the family room a little more intimate for watching movies. The TV is above the fireplace.

We did consider taking out the pony wall and putting in a built in table/desk facing into the family room instead of putting the two seats on the island. We've also considered leaving the pony wall and putting a small cafe table with 2 chairs against it instead of extending the island. I'm open to ideas and I don't think we have strong feelings either way. We like the sliding door between the kitchen/family room.

Are you interested or willing to change where windows are? Where are the views? I would really love to give you ice-water-stone-fire instead of the ice-fire-stone-water arrangement you currently have.

The sliding door actually opens onto a side yard patio that has southwest exposure. The windows in the family room open into the back yard. Views are of the garden not scenic although the house does get good natural light. The house is in a detached condo complex. The side and back yards are our responsibility, the front yard is maintained by the HOA. The wall without windows that the cooktop is on faces driveways and garages of other houses (view not good) and would require precedent setting approvals from the HOA (no other houses have had front facade modifications).

I'll just say that window changes would have to be very compelling. The house is on a post and tension slab so moving utilities away from the perimeter of the kitchen may be tough. Right now the island has power but not gas or water.

Sorry - can't comment on the kitchen as I can't see past how I would want to make the family room into the dining room - conveniently closer, and make the living-dining area one larger, casual living space...but I get that you have already moved in and like how you have it. But still,,,,,

gramarows, definitely an interesting possibility we hadn't thought of. The dining/living area has a sloped ceiling up to the second story ceiling so putting the TV there would cause a lot more noise in the sleeping/office areas upstairs. Also we use the dining room about 6 times per year. At the same time we don't really like the TV mounted above the fireplace and it would work better mounted on the back of the fireplace at normal viewing height. Another plus would be that the current living and family room are each just a little small for the few occasions when we have more than 4 people in the house. The fireplace has gas logs in it which we will never use (we live in coastal Southern CA).

Since the house is two stories on a slab foundation I think swapping the kitchen with the family room is way beyond the scope we want to take on (would quickly turn into a whole house remodel).

I've added a few staged MLS photos of 1&2) Living/Dining room, 3) Kitchen, and 4) Kitchen/Family Room. It is a 1996 Southern CA tract house with 1750 square feet and 900 square feet in the downstairs area (comfortable but not big).

We discussed repurposing some of the rooms as several suggested earlier in the thread and I think we want to leave them as they are. A little bit of divergent thought is always a good way to get a good solution. We don't want the TV under the high ceilings of the living/dining room and we do not find the distance from the kitchen to the dining room to be a problem given that we only use the dining room about 6 times per year. We treat the living/dining room like a sunroom (reading newspaper, etc.) and use the family room for watching the TV. We like having the kitchen and family open to each other.

At this point we've made the decision to leave the kitchen within the same basic footprint. Swapping the kitchen and family room isn't a cost effective option for us. We like the windows in the family room and aren't open to removing the fireplace. We think the basic layout of the existing kitchen is OK and are open to ideas to make it better within the same general footprint. Sorry to impose constraints but we want to keep this as a kitchen remodel not a whole house remodel.

Any thoughts on the original design I posted and how to better use the space in the kitchen/breakfast area? We appreciate your help.

What a lovely home. The only thought I had was extending the island so it's easier to get in and out around the legs. Maybe even extend another 15" beyond that for a 3rd diner on the end. If you're not using the area in front of the slider for a breakfast table you might as well increase your island.

I'd also remove the pony wall, but I appreciate if you put furniture up against it and need it to stay.

benjesbridge, thank you, we feel very fortunate to have found this house in a great neighborhood that's also close to work. The current island is 36" wide (photos with the white appliances). The counter seating would replace the breakfast area seating. The aisle between the island and fridge is currently a little narrow at 40". I'm already planning to reduce the width of the island to 33" and widen the aisle to 43". I'll go down right now and set up a cardboard box to see how it works with 3rd seat.