I'd love to help.

What are the dimensions of A B C and D? Are C and D open or is D a wall?

Are the fridge, Range and sink planned for their existing locations or are you moving something?

Thank you so much! Didn't realize the measurements would end up blurry.

A: 18'2"

B: 11'7"

Far left wall: 8'2"

Walls C and D are not actually walls. That's all open space. The bottom wall with the door opening is 8'9". That wall is what separates the kitchen from the dining room. There's actually currently a door there, but we're going to be removing the door and widening the opening (as seen in the picture).

Fridge, range and sink are probably staying where they are, only because that's where they are currently so in order to save money, we thought it would make sense to keep electric lines/plumbing where it is. This is kind of a bummer to me, because I'd like to get more of a working triangle going on, but I guess it is what it is.

Hope that all makes sense - and thanks again!

How tall are your ceilings? Did you choose 30" wall cabs to save money or maybe you have a low ceiling?

Sorry - so many questions. What are the widths and locations of the door and window? Can you explain whats happening in the lower right corner?

I like to work in the Ikea planner during nap time. 1.5 hours and counting...

:-)

Well thanks for pointing that out! I actually didn't know there was a different height! My husband says he chose those because the ceilings in the kitchen are actually two different heights. Weird I know. Half of the kitchen is actually an addition that the previous homeowner's put in and the ceiling height on one side of a supporting beam is slightly lower than the other (why they did this, I have no idea). I don't think the slightly lower side is THAT low though. Maybe 9 feet? Does it looks better to have cabinets that go to the ceiling? I'm assuming the answer is yes. I'm also realizing that we need to make sure of the ceiling height(s).

As for the door and window. Window is right above the sink and is currently a pretty small window. We're planning on widening it to about 52 inches, which is what is represented in the planner. Door to the right is not to the garage, it's actually just a door opening that leads to a hall where a half bath is and then past that a formal living room. The other door is, again, just a door opening (about french door width) that leads to the dining room. It's located along a wall that, on one end, leads to the formal living room, and on the other end, it just stops short. That was probably what used to be the end of the house, but is now the beginning of a family room, which is located basically across from the kitchen...well, the family room and dining room are both across from the kitchen. Hoping this all makes sense.

My two monsters are up now. What about yours? :)

Ok, those uppers should definitely be 40. Thank you for pointing that out!

The kids are playing so nicely that I'm pushing back nap time a bit :-) how tall is the ceiling on the low side? You want to make sure you have enough clearance between counter and bottom of uppers.

They're 9 ft on the low side. I revised the Ikea designs. Linking them here.

http://imgur.com/kqvFPxP

http://imgur.com/YuRkGjC

Yes, inches matter. You don't need a pro to get accurate measurements. Just a good tape measure and repetitive measuring in the same place to ensure that you consistently get the same measurement. Of course, also double-checking that you're starting and finishing your measure in the proper location.

I wish I had the proverbial nickel every time someone said they aren't moving electrical or plumbing due to the expense and then, if we can talk them into getting quotes, they find out what a small percentage of the kitchen remodel budget it will cost and go for it to get a better designed kitchen. Of course, I can't guarantee you that but it's still worth looking into before nixing the idea. Is your kitchen over a crawl space or unfinished basement? If so, the changes should be inexpensive. Expenses would increase if in a slab or over a finished basement. But the costs still might be reasonable for what you gain.

Personally, I would put the money into what makes the kitchen function well and hold off on nicer finishes until my budget frees up. Oh! Actually, I have, lol. You could always, for example, use plywood counters temporarily until the budget allows for the more expensive counters you're dreaming of. Or re-use old lighting, or buy cheap lighting, to use temporarily until you can afford nicer lighting fixtures. Re-use old, working appliances if they're the right size instead of buying all new. You get the idea.

Do I have the rooms and walls right?

Is there a way to get from the family room to the dining room without having to go through the kitchen?

Like Funky, I'd like to know what's in that bottom left corner.

You really don't have enough depth at 11'7" for a substantial island. You could push it using 15" deep base cabs and a 15" overhang. This leaves you with 81.5" to be split between the range side of the island and the dining room side. Too tight! You need a minimum 152.5" of depth for a standard island.

When you're using the Ikea planner, be careful to include 2" fillers next to the walls and panels on the cabinets on either side of the range and the dishwasher. You don't want to design it so tight that you can't fully open cabinet doors or it looks hobbled together. You also don't want to sit down at Ikea on a busy saturday, have the Ikea person add in the necessary panels, etc, find it doesn't fit as planned and have to change course on the fly. If you don't know how to add panels and fills let me know. I can't tell from your images if you've done that.

I'd ditch the upper corner cabinets and just run uppers across the range/sink wall. I'd also skip the base corner and cabs on the right side.

If you did an island with 24 deep base cabs (a microwave base cab opposite in my drawing) and an overhang for one on the end, you'd meet minimums for walkways.

Can't thank you guys enough for all your advice. This is awesome. Ok, a little bit about the house: it's a foreclosure. We are renovating it from top to bottom using a rehab loan, which means we really need to do as much as we can all at once. Funky, it is over a crawl space. I didn't realize it wasn't that costly to move electricity/plumbing. That's great to know! Would you guys have a better layout to suggest given that we can possibly move that all around? What annoys me too is that window, which is smack in the middle of where the old kitchen used to be, but which is obviously weirdly off to the right in the new layout. That's why we wanted to widen the window, but we also considered adding in another window on the other side (symmetrically). We sort of nixed that idea thinking it might be too costly, but maybe we'll re-visit?

To answer your other question, yes, you can access the dining room both from that opening off of the kitchen but also from the family room via french doors.

The bottom left corner: the kitchen is a rectangle with the bottom left 90 degree angle removed. So there's space there, but if we extended it more, it would feel like it was going into the family room. Just occurred to me that I should post some pictures of the space! They're not great, but i'm linking them. Maybe they will help make sense of the space.

http://imgur.com/IZ3lkHI

http://imgur.com/b6Lf6p7

http://imgur.com/r6vUf4V

http://imgur.com/E3DQMNa

Oh, also, we weren't envisioning using the island for seating - just extra prep/counter space and cabinets. Not sure if that matters...? Now I'm rethinking that, though. I didn't think we had enough room for seating.

Can you sketch out the whole floor layout please? We should see how the rooms relate to each other.

I think you misread Benjesbride's post showing the seating. You really don't have room for it without creating congestion.

I don't know if moving plumbing and electrical will be low-cost in your area. A lot of that depends on how many jobs are out there for plumbers and electricians. If you live in an area with a lot of construction and rehabs going on, the cost could still be high. If not, it would likely be much lower. I simply stated that with a crawl space or unfinished basement under the kitchen, the costs would be much lower and maybe within your budget. You will want to get quotes.

The thing to consider is this: doing a remodel with a poor layout that isn't as functional will pay off less when you go to resell. Usually. The extra costs to move these items usually result in a more functional and attractive kitchens to future buyers. So if you're flipping this house, that's still something important to keep in mind.

If you plan on living in this house, it's even more important. Why would you want to live in a house with a less than functional kitchen?

I agree with Benjesbride. Even with your photos, I'm having a hard time really getting a feeling for the way the rooms work together and how traffic patterns work. We really need a layout. Something hand-drawn is fine.

Here's a rough sketch of the kitchen in relation to the other rooms on the first floor. I hope it's relatively clear.

Thanks again for all your help. I completely agree about the function of the kitchen winning out over the potential expense of moving things around. We are planning on living in the house for probably 5 years, at which point we'll most likely sell (we're military), but I still want a well-functioning kitchen for both us and for the future buyer. So, in short, if you can think of a way to lay it out that would function better, by all means let me know!

What's the area behind the fridge at the red circle on the drawing below?

is the green circle your front door?

you should probably remove your name and address from the latest image.

Do you require a formal dining and formal living?

Tossing out a quick idea that will get you ample clearance around peninsula seating. I'm guessing it won't be a big deal to go through the dining room to get to the powder room. Also, unless you're on a slab I would hope plumbing a sink in the proposed location wouldn't be a huge job because there's already plumbing nearby for the powder room.

Oops, geez, thank you. Red circle is currently a laundry room but will be turned into a full bathroom. Green circle is front door. Formal living we definitely don't need but we're probably going to use it as a sitting room/library of sorts. Formal dining we'll be using since it will be our only source of seating.

Since the kitchen is fairly small, you could also do this. It just doesn't the follow Ice-Water-Stone-Fire perfectly.

That looks great, thank you! I hadn't thought about closing off that doorway to the little hall. So would you recommend keeping that pass through to the dining room? We initially wanted it there to keep the space feeling open, but would it be weird to have the fridge on that wall and then have an opening right there? Maybe not? As far as accessing the powder room, in your proposed plan, we would actually be accessing the powder room only through the formal living room/front door area, right?

What do you guys think about keeping original layout but switching fridge to the other side (the powder room side) to get that ice/water/stone/fire flow. And then creating a peninsula on that other side where the fridge is currently. Would that work?