That is a weird layout with the living room in the back of the house and the only way to get there is from the kitchen?

Personally I think you need to reconfigure a lot of the house as it is now. It's really strange with poor flow. No way to go from room to room.

Thanks for sharing your opinion about the flow. We're not concerned about that. I'd love any thoughts you have on the questions I asked :)

Take your time and think about what works for your family. You mentioned you just moved in and it is a working kitchen. I would probably just refresh as that is what I did myself - new counters, apron front sink, backsplash and under cabinet lighting. I have been very happy with it - but, I am not you. I am opposed to debt that affects other things you want / need to do in life. Would the added cost of a total redo would be a burden or not? You don't need to answer that - just a thought:)

If the counters are driving you crazy, keep the crazy away by window shopping for the possible new surfaces and looking at pictures - then you will not be rushing decisions when the time comes. This is my wood kitchens idea book with both newer and older, refreshed kitchens. You might not even stay with wood cabinets if you do the total remodel, but you might, or you might see something to help a refresh:

https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/75202366/list/wood-kitchens

I do hope at some point to increase the size of the doorway to our dining room, but I like the separate rooms. I don't like seeing my kitchen while eating - just personal preference:) We use our dining room as our main eating area and sometimes run into each other getting dinner on the table. The island is only used by people grabbing snacks. The island doesn't work for our family of 6 as a main eating area, and I am usually using it during prep. Our dining room is not formally styled. We also have a colonial style home and the dining room is styled similar to the kitchen. I would like a new - more colonial dining table - wood table with black chairs - but not happening anytime soon:) I also would like a wainscot so I am jealous - though I want it up 2/3 of the wall in the dining room:)

If this was my kitchen and the cabinets were in good shape, I would do the same as I did, but I would also replace the microwave and shelf above with a hood. The fridge, range, sink layout is not that bad. I've seen some really poor layouts and this is not one of them. You may feel differently - there is no right answer unless budget dictates a refresh only.

I would seek a reversal of den and office. Once the den was between kitchen and deck I'd re arrange that middle area w bath and laundry and closets. Goal would be to come from deck and in thru den to a wet bar w direct cut also over to kitchen. Currently from deck is a long route to kitchen:not good. I'd leave kitchen and dining room and re-engineer to get more liveability and access from deck and den to a new wet bar setup which is a section of your kitchen once it's figured out . wine fridge w other small fridge? Sink.?....storage cabs ?....recycling and trash? kitchen is big , but remote..,,.this will help and you can leave the kitchen be for now. Don't take offense if people look at kitchen in relation to living spaces....kitchen planning also means improvement in how you live ....wet bar in this spot will be tremendous. On graph paper look at those 4 closets ,half bath and laundry:total sq footage and ways to do This. I do not see value in disturbing kitchen /dining room at this time....maybe later.

I'm not sure it's going to be worth putting in major dollars for a total reno of the kitchen unless you are also prepared to address the awkward layout of the whole floor. You could very easily spend a small fortune on the kitchen and never see a return on investment because of that. So, Id be inclined to go minimalist on any changes to the kitchen itself.

I'm sure that I wouldn't do option 2 at all. wouldn't even cross my mind-and I also love semi-open concept. I think it already is semi-open concept though..dining doesn't need to be formal to be used daily, also so many things can be done at the dining table.

it's really matter of a name you give to a room, and you give a name according to your needs..say I'd do more formal "living" in your "den", and do more relaxed "family" in your "living". I'd think: depends where might the better spot for a library be( maybe it's in the dining by the way. I'm not saying you need a library, I wouldn't know about that-I'm trying to say that first, you figure out how the house works for you, how you need it to work for you-and then you can assign names-or skip them, whatever works. Or invent your own. But drop "formal" in front of "dining"-and you might see you already have what you imagine you might want.

(well I hope it was coherent 'cause I'm not really sure in my writing abilities right now)) it's just that your house got me excited. with its fabulous flooring)

Now to option 1..I wouldn't hurry with it either. knowing myself I might easily spend years in this kitchen and do nothing. it doesn't mean that I'm huge fan of everything-but nothing drives me crazy. But since it's your kitchen, and it shouldn't drive you crazy-i'd take my time to figure out what exactly I change, to what, and why, and how. Still will take a lot of planning, and shopping, and action itself- just enough headache to go through to get the kitchen you love, without going into major expenses and inconviniences. If you ask me.

Meanwhile. I'd rather shop for island chairs, and paint walls to my liking, and do other stuff around the new house that is more pleasant to do than big remodels and has positive effect on my daily life.

it it was dysfunctional kitchen-my answer would be different. But it's not. It's livable, so again, I'd take my time studying how it works for me/family, and think what I'm doing for option 1 . Maybe what you think drives you crazy now, won't drive you as crazy as you think, and vice versa.

Congratulations on your new house!

I would go with Option 1, Refresh. Here's why:

1 - your floors are GORGEOUS and are going to be difficult to patch if you move walls. It can be done, but you'll need someone who is really good at working with those old boards to do it. It will take time to do it right

2 - I'm not sure how completely updated your home is, but this vintage of home is risky to start moving walls. You'll want a larger-than-normal contingency budget for unexpected surprises and "the town says since you are impacting more than 25% of the square footage, you need to update all of the fire alarms or add sprinklers". That kind of stuff bites you hard when it bites.

3 - You might find that as you live in the space you don't need quite so many doors or need to change the location or size of some windows. The double hung over the kitchen sink could be replaced with casements that LOOK like double hung, for instance, and they are so much easier to use when reaching across a sink. Whatever you do in terms of adding, moving, changing openings is something you'd want to do all at once. That would give you the best overall result. So for now, I'd say updated counters & live in it for a few years before plunging into a bigger change.

Your estimate for the bigger update ($120k) is about right, at least in my area. I just completed a big reno of kitchen, dining room, and first floor bath that included steel beams & a lot of cabinets. I wound up between $90k & $100k.

Don't touch the layout I love it! The only thing I would do is what you said with opening the wall between kitchen and dining. We aren't dining room people so I'd do a bigger island and an eating area when it's opened up. Get rid of all of those closets and do a wine fridge, coffee station area there. Move the stove out of the corner. Etc. I wouldn't do much until then, we lived with our kitchen for 4 years before we had the money to renovate and remove walls, it was worth it to wait!

Lots to consider – thank you to all for taking the time to respond, especially jhmarie, anglophilia, herbflavor, aprilneverends, Pam A, and casamacho.

For some context, the overall layout works well for our family. Perhaps what threw some people off was the room labels – I posted the listing floor plan image without changing the labels to reflect how we’re using the space; my bad.

So the “foyer” (i.e. mudroom) entrance is the door all visitors use - it's closest to where visitors park their cars. In that entry, folks have a place to leave coats/bags/shoes, and they have immediate access to the kitchen – which is our social hub of activity. The living room adjacent to the kitchen (which we use as a family room) appealed to us because we can hear and talk to folks in there, but also close the door if the TV is too loud.

The room labeled “office” is our kids’ playroom. We love having a dedicated space for all their toys, thus keeping it out of all the other living spaces of the house. And the room labeled “den” is my home office – tucked a bit away from all the action, making it nice and quiet.

Jhmarie: thank you for the suggestion to be patient and build some ideabooks to get ideas about materials. Love the images in yours! And thanks for sharing how your family uses your kitchen and dining rooms. We’ve only used the dining room once so far, and that was for overflow seating when we hosted a 15-person BBQ. But it is probably wise to give it more time and even experiment with how to style and use it. Thanks too for the idea about replacing the microwave-over-the-range with a proper hood.

Anglophilia: thanks also for the encouragement to be patient. I should know by now that our needs and tastes will probably change; I’m (maybe) over-eager to put my imprint on the house. At the same time, in our last house we waited and waited and waited to make any changes – and thus lived with a truly crappy kitchen situation – for 3 years. And then we moved. In retrospect, I wish we had done some smaller stuff early on to improve our use and enjoyment of the space. So. There’s that.

Herbflavor: thanks for the layout suggestions. The thoughts on creating more connection between deck and kitchen are ones we’ll ponder. We’re definitely considering a wet bar where all those pantry cabinets are, but probably not a larger reconfiguration of the laundry/office area – though I can see why you suggested it! We’re using the office as a playroom and the wall adjoining the laundry has floor-to-ceiling built-ins that we’re not inclined to disturb.

Aprilneverends: yes, agree that we can repurpose the rooms. J Thank you for reminding me that we do have a functional kitchen – it’s no disaster, you’re right about that. The things that are currently driving us crazy are the countertop – we think grouted tile as a kitchen surface is just gross: it’s a germ and stain collector and it’s not a flat surface, which is annoying. And the refrigerator: we are tall people and really dislike having to squat down to see what’s inside the fridge… we much prefer bottom freezer configurations. Maybe we’ll get used to them… ?

Pam A – good thoughts on all the surprises we might find if we do a big reno. The house was built in 1996 as a colonial reproduction, so great care was taken to use materials and finishes that evokes an older and more traditional feel. So we might be less likely to have big surprises, but you never know.

Casamacho - thanks… your thoughts track our thinking pretty well, including the wet bar idea. :)

Theres no point in putting a $1 into that house unless you fix what is actually wrong with it. It will still be a major turnoff at resale, and live poorly until then.

Is is it too late to buy a different house with better bones?

LOL. There were 3 offers above asking price within 5 days of listing. if that's how our local market responds to a "major turnoff" house with terrible bones, I'm fine with that. :)

I would change the countertops, and not do anything else. The black appliances look to be in good shape, and they do go well with the kitchen. I wouldnt open wall between dining and kitchen. I really dislike dining rooms, where the view people see when eating is a kitchen, particularly when you have just prepared a big meal, and have pots and pans in the sink, etc.

What are all of the closets in the kitchen? I would consider moving the refrigerator over there & making the opening to the dining room much bigger. There seems to be a lot of wasted space here. A complete remodel would be nice to get the maximum use out of the space in your house, but it probably is not worth the $$$.

It is

a reproduction build? OMG ... you get the style of an antique without sourcing molding that hasn't been made in 50+ years. In that case ... I would start planning for a bigger scale remodel. So many of the high risk items just got retired.

It has a lot of positives but I see so much value in a more open floor plan. We just finished opening up our kitchen and we love it for everyday and when we have houseguests.

I would update the appliances and just enjoy it. You can always renovate later.

I like it. Maybe redo the counters/backsplash (after deciding for sure the layout works). Appliances if they're not good. The floor plan is a little weird but so what? It's not BAD weird. I bet it's not even noticeable weird when you're IN it. The home appears to be designed for cozy entertaining, right down to the refrigerator location.

The "fire-ice-stone" thing isn't really a thing. It's just something someone came up with and proclaimed it to be law. Yeah, it makes sense, but it's not the only way to lay out a kitchen. If a kitchen is comfy to work in, it's fine, no matter how it's laid out.

3 months into living here: still learning our home but increasingly feeling like opening up the kitchen to the dining room is the direction we will want to go. Our last house had an eat-in kitchen, and our condo before that had kitchen & dining open to each other. Here, we've used the dining room only twice in 3 months. So I think our lived experience seems to be telling us that a separated eating space doesn't suit our lifestyle or habits...