Thoughts, not sure if possible. (1) Eliminate coat closet; steal space from Bedroom 1 for small entry closet opening from hallway. (2) Build a peninsula (raised if needed to block view) along dining room side (opens kitchen to the dining room). This gives you the possibility for a casual eating spot. (3) Keep main kitchen entrance from dining room and close entrance from hallway.

Future possibilities. Replace and perhaps move the picture window in the dining room with french doors to access the back yard (if feasible). You would then have two house entries from the backyard--one through the french doors and the other going only to the basement. This would eliminate traffic through the kitchen from the backyard.

Sophie- Thank you for coming up with this idea. This maybe exactly what will work for our kitchen!

If we put the range and fridge on the same wall (like option3 or Sophie's) then we will only get 30-35" of cabinet space, and split on either side of the range, this will be very small and mostly unusable. It maybe even better if we move the fridge to the sink and dishwasher wall - dishwasher towards the living room, sink in the center and fridge at the corner wall. Right now we have an extra large sink (>40"). If we replace this with a standard double (or 1.5) sink, then we will have plenty of space for this configuration. This will also give 60" of cabinet/counter space on the range side.

The only major expense will be removing the load bearing wall. We will be painting and re-using all our existing cabinets, and using all our existing appliances. We will need to get new countertops (most likely Corian) and two lower cabinets. To move the gas range we will ask a professional, but all other plumbing work to relocate sink, D/W and fridge we will do ourselves.

Comments? Thoughts? Thank you all for the feedback!

You could close up the door in the kitchen for more cabinet space and put french doors in the living space to go outside and switch the entry to the basement in the hallway and keep the island design sophie talked about!!?

Sophie Wheeler has the better idea -- an island instead of a peninsula so you will not need to walk as far from the sink to the dining room -- or, especially if this is a weight bearing wall and you need to leave posts and or need the overhead cabinets, create a thru cabinet room divider but with the sides of the cabinet as stud walls:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/58/6b/d2/586bd23acc936f1d6194eb04decb9127.jpg

Eliminate the coat closet and add a hall tree or hat rack left of the front door or at the end of the new island/see through cabinet room divider.

It would be better to have two short walls than a post in the center of your countertop. If you use posts at each of the four corners, and provided you are careful to create enough ceiling roof support between four posts, you can even add shallow shelving between the posts for your wall hung hat rack on the front end and for a spice or can cabinet on the back end of a see through cabinet room divider unit.

Thank you for the discussion. I would like to know more about openiing up load bearing walls and the relative cost of such. I appreciate the spotlight on remodeling the typical ranch home.

Have you thought about a complete reconfigure if opening up walls? Put kitchen on opposite wall of living and place dining space where kitchen is. Will be more expensive, but might give you more space for storage and better layout.