I have a kitchen that is too small for an island but I do need a "landing strip" from time to time. I went to Ikea and bought this cart <http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80035920/>; I see it's gone up $10 in price since I bought it in March! It's very well made. I had the base painted black so it would disappear, and I've been oiling the top with mineral oil. It looks terrific, is very practical and it fits in my kitchen and is not a "barrier island"!

Has someone checked on what existing walls are load bearing?

Forgive my crappy drawing and possibly crappy idea (I'm on my phone), but would it be possible to situate an L-shaped kitchen on the left, with an island running parallel to that left wall), and then do a laundry closet to the right of the backdoor? The walls between the current kitchen and living/dining space would all go.

Thanks everyone! I really like the idea of an island on casters. Kathryn, I love your plan, but we can't remove the wall on the right side (where you have the table) because there are built-in bookcases that she's not willing to rip out. I think we could take out the wall where your island is, though. Something to think about.

I tweaked your plan A, added a cart and come up with this.

Oh, Sena - that is really good! I like the oven over by the sink. Thanks for mocking it up.

I tweaked Kathryn P's basic plan, with the bookcases rebuilt on the right wall. Instead of a cart I added an island with a prep sink, but it could just be a cart or a work table. If island style, you could have standard base cabinets on the working side, and 12" deep cabinets on the back, for extra storage.

It is more open but has a beam--with support columns. I also added large windows. :)

Mama goose, looks great but there are actually large windows on the wall where you put the bookcases :) I'm with you, though - you can never have too many windows! The bedrooms do have closets - I just didn't draw them in because she's not touching those rooms. Really, it's just the cutest, most livable house, except for the dollhouse sized kitchen.

I love bungalows--we lived in one with built-in bookcases and DR hutch, but it, too, had a small, narrow kitchen, with one of the built-in ironing board cabinets.

If she wants to open that wall (and if she doesn't that's OK, some of us still like separation between the kitchen and LR), she could put the bookcases on the back of the extended pantry.

Yeah, it's a great house. I think she'd like to maintain that wall between the kitchen and dining room, although I know it poses some problems with cramming her wish list in there :) But I wonder if she'd be willing to put the laundry room over on the right side, where you have the table, and open up the wall on the left. I'll have to play around with that!

The laundry on the back wall, right side, was another of Kathryn P's suggestions--if you have 'Paint', feel free to download the graph and rearrange the little boxes--I cleaned it up a bit.