I’m actually with Jan. What is the current layout? I was assuming kitchen was already in this spot and that’s why there. If not then anything can be changed

Add me to being confused.

Yes the kitchen was already in this spot which is why I erased it from the drawing I posted. Our current layout is you walk into our living room from our front door and I did not want that feeling. our backyard is very extensive with an inground pool which is why we wanted to be a focal point to be able to enjoy the outside viewing angle.

You need to shift the door. It opens into whatever that room is in a very awkward way. If the door moves to closer to the bedrooms then it means there is an entry area and then the room can be used appropriately either as a living or dining room. Right now the space isn’t useable because of the door location.

Its not possible to really help you without an accurate and complete as-built drawing. i have ideas id like to share, but cant try them out without dimensions.

This is our current home. The 36’-2” by 15’-6” was the addition we are able to build, extending the home.

So the location of the kitchen on the new plan is new? The current door is on the left and not centred? Right now the living room feels in the doorway because it is. You have the tv by the door and the kitchen right there too. If you had more space this front area wouldn’t feel so in the way.

Near as I can figure?

The new kitchen and the new seating group is entirely the new addition. Yes/No ?

Or , in some attempt to make sense of the entire thing, ( MINUS a demo plan to scale, which shows the walls coming down and moving in combination with new being built added on )

That's my assumption lol

Yes! The location of the new kitchen and living room is to be placed in the new addition. We planned on centering the front door and knocking down the current walls of the current kitchen into our dining room and living room area to open up the space.

I suggest you go back to the arch.

Your plan shows no entry door "centered" .

It's a useless pursuit here, until you show a more comprehensive plan.

You have wishes such as "two sided fire"

Two sided between what and what? Which rooms? You have all the wasted space on entry. Most important?

Why.....when you have an entirely new addition space is the kitchen even on that ( same ) side of your home, forcing you further from what may be your most frequent entry with groceries?

You're focused on the kitchen? But it seems in the wrong location.

Sometimes, you just have to back to the drawing board.

Or.........you consider a tear down. Often cheaper pound for pound. In this scenario? Possibly faster as well.

The front door is in the centre on the new plan Jan. It’s not a good spot. Also there is no good spot for a two sided fireplace which are generally meh anyway so why put one in. I don’t think the kitchen location is awful but it could swap with living and that would make kitchen open to dining and living more nicely.

Does this house have a basement?

And would you please post the doggone as- built drawing of your current house with DIMENSIONS?

Maybe the OP doesn’t have that. You’ve asked for it multiple times and it’s not been shared after all

I haven't read all the comments. I would not want a dining room with no windows, nor would I want a foyer that's the size of a living room. Decide how you are going to use that space if you go forward with this plan, because a hall tree will only get you so far.

I get wanting a new kitchen but you'd be better off putting your kitchen by the front door and using that big blank garage wall for cabinets. I also am not a fan of the front door/stairs situation, as your stairs don't line up with your door, so I'd plan on fixing that as well. For the amount of money you will be spending, I would want to end up with a better layout.

I have nothing new to offer, just agreeing with those who suggest swapping the kitchen and family/living room…..it’s too far from the garage this way. If not: The primary bedroom seems small; removing the corner walk-in pantry (put fridge there) and putting a cabinetry pantry with pull-outs along the wall where your architect is showing the fridge currently will give you a bit of extra breathing room in the master bath. I would reconsider putting a double-sink vanity there….the space seems too tight. One sink with more counter space seems wiser.

Of course in a perfect world a tear down and fresh build is ideal… in reality… we are adding an addition to our current home.
I am not fixated on bringing groceries from the garage into the kitchen.
Going back to the drawing board was posting on Houzz for some helpful suggestions. I thought this was what the platform was for.
I unfortunately do not have an as built drawing with dimensions.
Yes, there is a fully finished basement.
Swapping the new living room and new kitchen was an idea.
Our goal was to maximize space with what we were capable of adding and affording for our growing family.
We cherish our backyard space and the location of where we live, we are not moving.
A big kitchen and fireplace was our goal. We looked at the addition and opening up the current kitchen living room walls, would allow a blank slate to position things where we wanted. However, we are having difficulty seeing outside of this design. Of course I would love a foyer and entry way but this is what we have and what we are working with. So we are trying to make the best out of it.

You could be "fixated" without realizing you're putting rooms in same place, when you have the option NOT to do that.

None of that plumbing /elec is going to be the old, it will all be the new.

Any idea, that anyone would have here would have to be presented by you , to the arch.

That means you could skip us, and give the arch the opportunity to refine this, and THEN return here . With the new plan.

I say that hoping it IS an actual arch, and not just a draftsman: )

Things that bring that to my mind? A corner corner walk in pantry. .......

In a renovation you work with what you have a lot. It’s reality. I don’t think your plan is inherently awful. I think changes can improve it. I really think you will regret centring the front door. I do think you can create a bit of a foyer with a partial wall and furniture placement. But on the left not centred

Here is a crude rearrangement - mamagoose's kitchen plan (from an earlier thread) moved to the right, dining room to the left of kitchen (with linear fireplace) and living room moved to the front (no fireplace). Front door would need to be moved to the side and there is probably space for a foyer. Add skylights for more natural light in the LR?

You could have a longer island if you wanted to. I think the only places you could put a double sided fireplace would be either between the kitchen and living room, or between the living room and the dining room.

What is it that makes you not confidant in the plan? Is it that it lacks those two things, or something else?

Yes, we considered both of those exact locations for the fireplace!
The concern to place the fireplace between the kitchen and living room was if there would be enough walking space on either side. The concern to place between the living room and dining room was we would be taking away the backyard focal point which we love .

We were hoping for something unique or special detail that would make us confident in the plan.

Since you’re “working with what you have” (which is very realistic for most of us), maybe forget about the double-sided fireplace; it’s something, in the grand scheme of things, that one can live without. If it doesn’t fit, don’t force it. The right kitchen in the right location, with a good layout and well-functioning master bath, imho, are more important. Yes, this is the forum to seek advice, but you’ll get lots and lots of different opinions, many of which you won’t like or won’t work for you; many, however, are good suggestions. Jan Moyer is right: you’re starting fresh with that added area, so put rooms where they make the most sense. You might not be “fixated” on carrying your groceries from the garage into the kitchen, but listen to the pros here: you may quickly get tired of having to do that once it’s all done. You don’t have to take anyone’s advice here….if you have a GOOD architect you’re working with, he/she should be able to alleviate your concerns and amend your layout. Good luck.

Wait im confused. the door is currently on the left and you are moving it to the middle? you don’t like the door in the livingroom but are going to put it even more in the center of the room with no closet nearby? that sounds like the opposite of progress and still makes the front of the house a lot of wasted square footage as far as i can tell. What are you trying to accomplish with that?

eta: seems like you could do kitchen upper right like rthawk’s drawing then put dining table in entry area to keep LR with back view. a little strange to enter to DR but that is current plan anyway and would be better to have DR next to kitchen.

We thought centering the front door and adding windows on each side with stone on the exterior would be aesthetic. On the inside I was going to decorate with a couple sitting chairs, etc for seating. The closet would just be on the left, very close proximity to the door.

Changing the front elevation like that is costly without any functional benefit. I wouldn't try to turn something like a raised ranch into a farmhouse. It is what it is.

I haven’t studied this plan much but a few things to consider. You’ll get annoyed with fridge across the island. My sons house has that.
Steal some space from walk in pantry and make closed toilet with door. Vanity could become longer then.
You don’t want to walk into guest bathroom and see toilet first. Put toilet by shower and move vanity. Looks like you are squeezing 2 sinks when 1 nice big one will do

@jacsturch

I know you have gotten a lot of negative feedback and that can be tough.

I would like you to take a look at your design and give some thought to how you plan on living in the space.

What works and what doesn't work in your current space?

What are your future needs (mentioned a growing family).

Do you need a big foyer? Will the narrow walk in closet give you enough hanging space for all your clothes? Would a reach in closet and a reach in pantry offer as much useable space without causing so much dead space? Will you need more storage space? A mud room? A study or game room? Will you need a place for toys? Do you want a fireplace where the TV should go or maybe plan on where the TV should be placed as the main focus?

A two sided fireplace can be pretty, but it has to fit the space and it certainly isn't as important as how the kitchen and living spaces work.

I think you could have a better design than the one you got. Hiring an interior designer to help figure out how to best use the space may be a very wise investment.

Thank you… we will be meeting with a kitchen designer soon and I hope she can provide insight on these other questions.

If there is enough space, could something like this work?

I think a two-sided fireplace with a vaulted ceiling would be amazing!

This idea keeps a formal dining and living room space up front and the family entertaining space in back facing the yard.

If a formal space is not your style, maybe you could plan something else for the front of the house. I thought possibly doing a large mudroom/pantry/laundry room where the formal dining is instead? I didn’t see a laundry room on the plan.

Definitely come back with whatever your architect comes up with.

I really liked the nice straight traffic flow in @sheloveslayouts plan too! I stole your idea and showed the green traffic lines.

ETA

Here show a pantry idea.

There will never be enough width to place a two side fire in the vaulted space between family and breakfast.

If you want one? Two side at back with one side at patio........climate depending. Otherwise? Nope.

But I want it to fit Jan!

(Insert Sophie’s big feet in tiny shoes picture)

Yep, I don’t what I was thinking last night. Lol, my bad!

I think I saw this picture below and lost all sense of reality. 😵‍💫🥴🤪

There is a vast difference between a kitchen designer and a person who sells cabinets. Make sure you are hiring/getting help from an interior designer who specializes in kitchen design.

Unfortunately, you are nowhere near the stage of needing a Kitchen Designer. They certainly cannot advise in a professional capacity on the extent of the addition and how the whole house lays out. So that would be just a waste of money and time. Last thread, I continually asked about professional architectural help, because it was obvious the slate was still blank, with an "indifferent" direction of which way to move towards in the project. This scheme, it is still obvious. I don't know if you actually have help now (maybe just saying so to cull the "licensed" comments - it can be acceptable for you to feed ideas to a seasoned drafter if you are sophisticated enough in design), but either you are not getting competent service or you are just not telling the whole story. Not having an as-built and photos is a big tell. The information highway hasn't even risen to a trickle back n forth in either thread for any commenters to really help you.

So far your stated desires are a bigger island Kitchen, Living Room, and a double-sided FP. The development on your end of those ideas, and in concert with a budget and the existing house, are very primitive. You need to assess more of what "providing for a growing family" means; what "retaining views or access to the backyard pool" means to you, and etc. There are dozens of ways this project could go - if you are having trouble figuring some of that out, that is where a professional architect should be able to help you, being versed in space programming, schematic design, feasibility (structures, MEP, permitting, zoning, construction processes, etc), and ballpark costs. Right now, what I see and read in 3 threads is you are still in an exploratory stage.

Rebunky that picture you displayed is what I am looking for. I wish I could know the room dimensions or measurements of something like that to apply to mine.

You appear to have less than 40 feet across the new part? It’s not impossible to fit three spaces in that but why force it and then ignore the whole original front side of the house

Just two things: Maybe swap the living room and dining room? That doesn’t take any floor plan changes. Also, I’m just a little confused about the open space between what is labeled as the dining room and the exterior porch. Is this space designated for something? Or maybe I’m misreading the floor plan.

Westcoast- yes, thank you. If I really wanted the fireplace to work then I could place in the original side of the house , separating the addition. But I think at the end of the day, our living room should have our backyard as our main focal point .

What about kitchen in old part, dining and living in new?

Erica - the open space Between the dining room and exterior porch I was going to make a seating area. It’s not that large of a space, but enough for a couple chairs, bar, entry table idea.

The problem with swapping the living room and dining room was where would the fireplace go? Or tv placement? That might sound silly but we were thinking where would we watch tv if this is our main living room. Also right now when you open the front door you’re opening it right into our current living room.

Jacsturch—no, doesn’t sound silly. It should all reflect how you want to use your spaces. And I was projecting—I strongly disliked that in our house, originally, one had to go down a hallway from the kitchen to get to the dining room. (We changed that just by putting an opening where a pantry was located.)

Maybe someday your seating space and porch could become a screened porch or other indoor/outdoor space. Good luck!

So crude but what about this?

Don’t forget you have more space now that the kitchen from the original house is gone. This will create a walkway around the new front room you did not have before and previously people were forced into that room instead

Jacstuch,

This one’s so pretty! I can see a dining table through the fireplace.

So nice!

Now if there was only way to view something like this AND my backyard space I would be set 😂

There are ways

Do you have anyone living with you like kids or is it you and your husband

Jan Moyer- I have seen those options, I just assumed they were incredibly expensive.

Squiresjay- yes, two children. Boys.

Love Jan Moyer’s options….but yeah, they don’t look cheap.😱

I posted this below but not sure if it was seen.