Aside from the flow from the kitchen to the dining room, consider how many people you plan to entertain in the new space. A 9X9 room seems tight for a "traditional" dining room, which are spaced generously.

Here's a article from another "Houzzer" that might help answer some of your questions (be sure to scroll down to "square dining rooms"):

https://www.houzz.com/magazine/key-measurements-for-planning-the-perfect-dining-room-stsetivw-vs~25889832

Best of luck!

The sunroom is just a breezeway or mudroom, it does not get heated (I live in New England) and connects to the garage. That would be a more preferable location relative to the kitchen but a bigger project than I'm willing to commit to (adding heating, proper exterior walls/insulation, etc).

Another option I'm considering is eventually renovating the kitchen, which would involve relocating the refrigerator (more traffic space from the entryway), eliminating the peninsula, and adding an island. This opens up that dining area significantly. It might we worth waiting to do that and re-purposing the 9x9 room some other way.

If you ever plan to sell this home, you'd be wise to keep the bedroom as is. Real estate market for 2-bdrm homes is poor. Three is the minimum.

Our old neighbors did this with one of three bedrooms on their upper level. They tore out the entire wall including the closet. The two exterior corners of the closet wall remained as support.

A new family with more children recently bought the house and they just had the wall rebuilt and added the closet back. Both sides of the project were more than standard DIY but both happened fairly quickly.

Hi there, I would take down the wall between the Living room and the 9x9 bedroom giving you one nice open space with great flow between the areas. Open entryway to kitchen as much as you can, and trim it out nicely.

Another option is to combine existing kitchen space and sunroom area and create a brand new kitchen. If so, keep it mostly open to LR. using architecture such as columns for definition of space. Use slate for flooring with radiant heat......so toasty for those CT winters!

Enjoy! Barbara Brown Interiors, Inc

Wondering if your neighbors had to concede anything on the price due to the necessary remodeling.

Not to my knowledge decoenthusiate. The house has sold twice in the past 10 years and the prices seemed to be similar with the comps of other houses in the neighborhood at the time.

Well, in that case I agree with the advice Barbara Brown gave.

I like the ideas presented. Opening up the living room wall, if it is load bearing you can install a beam in the ceiling or just make a very long opening and eliminate the penninsula and install an island parallel to the stove/cooktop bank of cabinets. Another option would be to bump out the window over the sink and also bump out the wall where the windows are in the eat in kitchen; it will give you more movement in the house.

Enclosing the sun room is not a difficult option. Insulation, framing two walls, adding a heat duct; looks like you could reuse the existing windows and it would open up the kitchen substantially.

@decoenthusiaste, I have another three bedrooms upstairs, so no shortage of bedrooms for resale! I think everyone's advice to open the floorplan is great. I've considered opening the living room into the kitchen/dining. The open space will be great and eliminate the issue of traffic leading into the kitchen through the one doorway. I appreciate all the discussion here

@decoenthusiaste, I have another three bedrooms upstairs, so no shortage of bedrooms for resale! I think everyone's advice to open the floorplan is great. I've considered opening the living room into the kitchen/dining. The open space will be great and eliminate the issue of traffic leading into the kitchen through the one doorway. I appreciate all the discussion here

Well, please show us the reno pix when you're done!