One of the reasons you are having so many issues is all the doors. You have a door to your hall, dining room, outside, AND family room from the kitchen.

It is hard to know what to suggest without knowing what is load bearing, but overall my strategy would be to start closing off doors and reorienting the space. Where are the other stairs? I see 2 stairs between your living and dining room, so is the dining room at the same height as kitchen floor or....?? There has to be another height change that is missing.

Also where does the 36" exterior door go? Garage? Deck?

How big is your current family room? Would you be willing to gobble up 3 ft of it?

We used a kitchen planner and came up with this:

With this layout, we close off two doors in the upper right hand corner. The island is too small. The island has to extend at least 11 inches for my tall family to sit comfortably. Lunch is usually three people; dinner three or four. I don't see where I would store my pots and pans. Walking to sliding door is twice as far now. I don't know. Maybe I just don't like change!

Well moving into either the dining room or family room w a new plan is logical if you want a better space w zones that 4 adults can use and be a destination . So what do you want to do ? 8 feet of windows in dining room and a patio door in family room . It’s hard to tell what would be best. Maybe show the entire first floor. Where do groceries come in .., what is the traffic flow for guests ....where is the bathroom / etc

Here is a 3D of what we have now:

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5500754/new-to-kitchens-read-me-first#n=910

Okay, so just to show you what I mean. Look at this quick sketch I did. This is the direction I'd be going if it was my house.

You close off the hall door, you close off the 36" exterior door. You move your door to the dining room down to the corner and you reduce it to 30". You knock down the wall between the family room and kitchen, even if it means a beam.

Look what this gets you. A colossal granite top island/peninsula eating area(or you could just put a big dining table in there.) You get your bigger oven. You keep a full size 30" deep fridge with no restriction. You get about 8 feet of countertop + that eating area countertop. If you want even MORE countertop you could move the door back to the hall and close the one to the dining room if you are okay with that, for 10-ish solid feet of counter.

There are lots of variations on this but they all involve losing a wall somewhere to get that space.

Thank you all! I am digesting all that you have said. I need to make up a better 1st floor plan so that you can see traffic flow on the main floor. And I will answer your questions. I'll be back!

If you block off the two doors, and flip appliances to the long wall, you could use the same table for seating. You could have a tall pantry, or wall ovens--but the wall ovens wouldn't have a convenient landing space.

You need to start with an architect before you get bogged down in “kitchen”. The house needs a big picture overall space realignment. The overall is inefficient. Fix the big picture, and the smaller spaces will drop into place.

Heed live_wire_oak's advice, involve an Architect. Hopefully you will continue to enjoy your home for many years to come but, at some future date, your current floorplan will hinder resale value.

Your plan is a bit like my own, and I wouldn't be happy if I had to remove any one of my 4 doors to my dining room, hallway, outside or family room.

Here's food for thought. I drew the traffic paths in blue boxes. The 3-seater 72" peninsula interferes with the traffic path to the dining room, which (I am guessing) is your least-used one. That's a compromise. You'll see I moved your dining room opening. The peninsula also gives you a landing spot for food from your wall oven.

I find that the U-shaped work area really keeps people out of my way while I'm cooking, especially since they are usually coming in to get something out of the refrigerator, which is outside it. The refrigerator door does interfere with the traffic path but refrigerator visits are fairly brief, unlike work at the stove or sink. You also have a good uninterrupted work area to the right of the refrigerator, albeit not in your work triangle. Hope this gives you some food for thought! You may want to move the refrigerator closer to the hallway wall, to move it out of the traffic path and to have the work area closer to the work-U. The compromise is that it's more steps from your U shaped work area.

I had considered drawing a plan with a peninsula, but couldn't find the space on a more accurate grid. It also looks as if the seats for the peninsula in the above plan are half-way across the opening from the DR. Although that would be a nice plan, there isn't enough space in a closed-in kitchen ap 13.5 x 12.5.

You guys are sharp! Lots of good questions. Lots of suggestions. I realized that the plan I gave you was not enough to understand the traffic flow or the overall first floor plan. So I have now improved on it. I hope that will answer most of your questions.

Additional notes:

Can't close off the hallway door.

Exterior door is not being used. Not convenient due to the other interior door next to it.

Super Lumen, you have been an eye opener for me. I wasn't able to come up with any good kitchen plan by simply closing off a couple of doorways. I believe that was because, like you mentioned, we will have to move a wall! You've really made that clear . . . and I believe it now.

Mama goose, interesting idea to flip the kitchen. But when I enter my house, I will be looking right at the kitchen table from my front hall. That wouldn't look right.

Live_wire_oak, architect is definitely a consideration!

Chiflipper, resale value wouldn't be affected too much by current floor plan.

Partim, I am afraid the peninsula and chairs would also be the first thing you would notice from our front door. I don't mind closing up doorways, or moving them. I just need to gain from it in order to make it worthwhile go through the mess and be worth the time and money.

We had a kitchen designer come. He drew a rough drawing. Put in a peninsula. We figured out the peninsula would have to be almost 36 inches deep in order for our tall family to have leg room. That would limit the rest of the space for the kitchen cupboards and counter. And being in the corner not so great. Here are the photos he gave:

So here is the updated and improved first floor layout. Our house is considered to be a two storey split level. Only room in the house not used on a daily basis is the living room. The dining room is used as there is a computer there. The table is handy also for putting things on temporarily. There are also plants in the dining room that need attending to. The back of the house faces south.

Can you make the living room at the front of the house the new dining room? Then extend the kitchen into the current dining room with a large island and large walk in pantry.

Could you

build your new kitchen in what is now the unused living room ... creating one entire wall of cabinets/countertop and appliances against the right interior wall

except moving/removing the pantry so that opening can be your entry directly from that front entry hall to your kitchen without going through any other room and no need for anyone else to go through the kitchen (where you're often working) to get to any other rooms;

creating an "L" shaped row of cabinets -- along the interior wall and also the front wall of the room so you can put your sink against the "front" wall by/beneath a window;

then add a second row of base cabinets/countertop (with or without cabinets overhead) to be an island parallel to the cabinets against the right/interior wall of cabinets

building that entire second island row cabinets as an island you can walk around;

building that island deep/wide enough for both full sized base cabinets facing the cabinets along the right/interior wall;

and wide/deep enough to include an overhang on the left side (exterior wall side) for use as a breakfast BAR on the side closest to the left/outside wall of the room as your only "in kitchen: dining'

NOT use any "table" in the kitchen -- moving the kitchen table into the enlarged family room as a game/snacking table;

using your dining room table in the dining room as your primary dining space;

enlarge what is now your family room by the size of what is now your kitchen after you can/do move your appliances, making your family room, in which you now actually "live" anyway, your actual living room ... easily accessible directly from the front entry.

Any kitchen cabinets you don't want to reuse in your new kitchen might be usable in the garage?

The reason you're stuck is that you insist on keeping walls that should have long been gone. Closing up the the two doors and leaving the other two (dining room and hall) while opening the wall to the family room will totally change your space and give you a functioning kitchen with a great island, and the ability to interact with those in the family room. You've got to give up something to get something.

A simple solution is to put informal eating in the family room or to eat all your meals in the dining room. If the latter, then move the computer to the family room. This will give you have space in your kitchen for more cabinets and counters.

We also had a too-small-kitchen dilemma and ended up removing the wall between the kitchen and the family room, because we didn't have a TV there. If the family room is the TV room, I personally would want it to be separate.

New homes in my neighbourhood don't have a separate dining room, but instead have a big kitchen with a table plus an island with seating. That would be my recommendation.

You'd need to find another room for the computer (living room?), or maybe you could still have a computer desk in the new larger kitchen. With the new space being almost 24 X 13, there should be room for your plants too. Choose a table that extends for holiday meals if you need that.

I'd add a wall where you currently have a railing between the dining room and living room, unless you want a very open plan.

If you don't want traffic thru the kitchen, don't leave it between two other rooms ... one of which is the most used "living" space and the other with a patio door (dining room).

Take this opportunity to make good use of your unused "living room" space. You'd not be adding or removing major walls -- just altering one between kitchen and dining room: you can create a kitchen cabinet wall island between kitchen and dining.

https://www.bhg.com/home-improvement/remodeling/architectural-details/home-design-ideas-room-dividers/?slide=slide_2bf3e1c7-021a-4262-9de6-fd5daf3777a7#slide_2bf3e1c7-021a-4262-9de6-fd5daf3777a7

Putting a "bar" overhang on the dining room side of this room dividing kitchen cabinet (or creating a "desk" within the center of it) could give those that insist on your company while you're working in the kitchen a place to sit down out of your way while still being able to see you and talk with you. Since it is an island, it would also help with the traffic flow that does end up in the kitchen and make it easy for your to reach your computer from either kitchen or dining room without taking up dining room table space or needing to keep moving it about out of the way.

Being able to reach your computer from either dining or kitchen side and not needing to keep moving it about for clearing space to eat would be a plus, too.

itsourca, my dining room would be rather large is I put it in the living room. Not sure what my view would be from the DR. I wouldn't want to look at kitchen mess from the DR. I don't know. I will give it more thought.

suezbell, in the process of trying to remodel our kitchen, I have allowed myself to dream. So I am imagining my kitchen in the space of my living room. I'm sorry, but I can't do it. I am not sure where my living room would go, but most of all, my LR window gets a minimal amount of sunlight before the sun swings over. I would find that depressing. Also, my south side has no windows.

I don't quite understand your second post. The divider looks nice. Not sure if you realize that there is no wall between my LR and DR and those rooms are at different levels. My LR and FR also have a fireplace.

Design Girl. I hear what you are saying. Years ago we went to an open house. That house had exactly the same layout as mine. We believe that the kitchen was renovated in order to sell the house. They had removed the family room wall and put an island in. At first sight it looked very nice. But there was no furniture on the first floor. I quickly took a couple of pictures and I can show them to you.

Picture of kitchen while I am standing in the FR. They moved the doorway to the dining room to allow for a larger fridge. They removed he wall oven and put in a slide in oven and stove. There are minimal cupboards. Looks like the pots and pans have to be stored in the island. Pantry is still in the hall.

Family room. Photo probably taken from the same spot as I took kitchen picture.

Not sure if other walls had been removed. I didn't think FR furniture would fit very well in order to be able allow access to the sliding door. I considered that the house would be desirable for a young couple with small children. But for four adults with different schedules, I would like to have more privacy and quiet in my FR (my room pretty much). The kitchen can be a noisy place!

Yvonnecmartin, I think eating all meals in the dining room is a possibility.

Partim, my FR is my TV room. That's probably why I don't really want to remove the wall between the FR and the kitchen. So you are saying put a wall between my DR and LR and extend the kitchen area into the dining area. Have one table and one island and not close any doors in the kitchen? I think I could see something like that working. Our LR and DR windows need upgrading. Maybe put in a sliding door or french doors in the DR?

I think I am going to try planning out a kitchen/dining room combo on paper. The visual will tell me what I will gain and what I will lose.