Anyone else?

I am not an architect or KD, so take this with a grain of salt. I would definitely knock down the wall between the kitchen and formal dining room. Your kitchen would be large enough. I would not extend it into what is now your formal living room. That layout would be odd, imo. Can you post the rest of your floorplan? I see you have a "dinette" off your kitchen. What is beyond that?

@megs1030 Here is another blueprint. It is the original from the house build. There has been a major structural change since then though. You will see a deck in the blueprint. In the place of where the deck is now is a great room that is used as our entertainment area. It is 27' x 22'. I essentially have three "living room" type rooms. This is why I am thinking about going into the other room some. The kitchen would be a very large strip without much depth. I am wanting to add an island, so it might be tight.

What is your budget for changes? Why are you not working with a design professional?

I would make what is currently your formal living room into a formal dining room. Keep the dinette as an eat in kitchen. Extend the kitchen into what is now the dining room. Would that work? Would you use a formal dining room? I think that by extending your kitchen into the dining room, you would be able to get an island. But again, I'm not a KD.

@User I am in the beginning stages of this, so just trying to gather info. I'm not sure if I will hire a design professional. I may attempt to do a good portion of this myself - not sure yet. Budget $30,000 - $40,000.

@megs1030 I'm not sure if I will need a formal dining area, eat-in-kitchen and island (I'm sure the island will be used for sitting sometimes). I'm honestly not entirely sure what to do with the front, formal living room. I was thinking about making it a sitting area.

Perhaps you should research average construction costs before you go any further. Even just a replacement remodel of the current kitchen as it exists would be quite challenging on that budget, even with DIY labor. DIY of sonething of this level will need contractor grade skills, plus an architect and a engineer. https://www.remodeling.hw.net/cost-vs-value/2019/. 

Consider a HELOC type loan for at least 4x that amount, with your current project savings as your contingency budget. Hire the architect and Kitchen Designer that you need to do this, and I’m sure that you can get this moving forward!

The first thing I’d suggest is having that design work done. Beginning any project without a full plan with Constructiin documents and full scope of work in place costs you a huge amount of money in the end. Far more than hiring that design professional on the front end. Good luck!

@User Yes, I knew it would be tight. That is why I am considering doing this myself. My house would easily go up in $75,000 - $85,000 in value with my kitchen remodel plans. It would not only be a modern kitchen, but it would drastically open up the floor plan, which in turn opens up the market for future interest. I still don't understand why I would need to hire a kitchen designer or architect for this. Well I can somewhat see the kitchen designer, but an architect for a remodel??

Where are you getting those value added numbers from? Your existing kitchen looks pretty nice. I'm doing a similar scope of remodel starting with an objectively horrible kitchen and do not expect to gain any value at all compared to the (very high) costs. And that is with DIYing about half the work.

That said, I think you'll get more layout help if you draw up (digitally or on graph paper) a better 2d layout of the area. Your blueprints give a good overview, but they are too hard to read. Kitchen layouts have to be precise.

The fact that you are asking how challenging this will be indicates you should not DIY.

@jslazart I am getting the value added numbers from comps and real market feedback. I just bought the house eight months ago. The house was on the market for quite a long time. It consistently had a lot of foot traffic coming through the house due to sq footage, number of rooms, location, neighborhood, etc. The feedback the real estate team kept saying is that the house was not open enough and they didn't like the kitchen. The price of the house drastically fell due to it being on the market for so long and potential buyers being scared away. Similar houses with less sq ft and yard size are selling for $50,000 - $80,000 more than what I bought the house for. The main difference being slightly more open and updated kitchens. This data is much more accurate than a regional breakdown. Real Estate works off of trends and comps.

I personally didn't/don't like it either, but I am not afraid of a project. It wouldn't be so bad if the previous home owners weren't terrible at design. The counter tops are quartz, which is nice, but they are really ugly.

I'm wanting to do this without a desire for immediate or really any ROI. I just want a better area for myself. I plan to be in the house for quite some time.

I will work on the 2D prints. I might just draw over the existing blue prints to make it easier to read.

I'm sorry, but I disagree with your DIY statement. It is a broad question, yes. However, I know I can do a lot of things myself. I can easily tear out the drywall, take out the existing cabinets/appliances, re-plumb the sink, move electrical boxes, etc. I just have done all of this stuff in single occurrences and never during a remodel. I guess I should have asked the steps of how to do this myself, but I didn't want this to be a DIY guide.

Paying an architect a small fee to draw you a master plan would be money well spent. The improvements you note may (or may not) need to be permitted. This is especially important if you plan to sell someday as structural changes without a permit when one is required would be a red flag for a buyer. I’m all for DIY so long as there is a master plan in place.

I’d also be itching to make that den a mudroom.

At 12’ wide, your kitchen can have an island (probably without seating). Are the dining room windows above counter height?