FIXIN' MY KITCHEN : THE PLANS

Here is the layout of our existing kitchen:

Again, at first glance it is typical, nice, roomy, etc.  But in our everyday use there are a few issues.  First, all action happens in the top right corner of the kitchen.  It goes sink, trash, DW, cooktop, MW.  So two people cannot do any of those things at the same time.  Stephen is unloading the dishwasher? I cannot cook or use the microwave.  It just gets really crowded and with five people in the house, usually all in the kitchen at the same time, it is inevitable that toes will be stepped on, babies will be tripped over, and chaos will be had as five people fight over four square feet of floor space.
Also, and perhaps the most disturbing, THE SINK ISN'T CENTERED ON THE WINDOW.  And this drives me bonkers.  This was obviously done because there is not enough room to center the sink AND put the dishwasher to the right or left side of the sink on that same wall.  But I don't care.  The designer in me screams at that big black sink and asks the original builders from the fifties: why not just put the dishwasher on the left side of the sink, on the perpendicular cabinetry??? why???

So, in our first "remove and replace" plan, I was focused on fixing a few of these issues, plus opening up the kitchen a little to the den so that, while I am cooking, Stephen and I aren't completely closed off from each other.  We also took in an unused portion of our Master Bedroom and the existing panty to create a new walk in pantry.

This was our plan for the past few years as we kept putting off doing any work to our kitchen.  It centered the sink on the window, opened up a bigger cased opening to the den, planed for a range instead of separate ovens and cooktop, and provided a sitting area in the kitchen for kids/family while I am cooking.  However, there was no eat-in aspect to this plan, and while our dining room is right off the den/kitchen...there is something so nice about highchairs and barstools for quick and easy feeding {and it is what we are used to with our existing kitchen}.  So I came up with an adjustment to this plan that added a bar area against the wall opposite the new refrigerator location, opening up a peek through space in between the kitchen and the dining room.  And this was going to be our plan until recently.
When we really seriously started talking about our kitchen plans again several months ago, I realized opening up this peek through would make that peek through the first thing you see as you walk in our front door and turn to the dining room.  Not so nice.  I thought it was much more important to leave that wall intact in the dining room for furniture piece, lamps, and artwork.
Since we decided against the new bar area, I started playing with the plans on AutoCAD, seeing what else I could come up with.  What if we demo'd a little more, cleaned up the cabinets and countertop space a bit {save $$ there} and really work on fixing several issues that bother us all at the same time...namely changing the back entry/laundry room {the main entry into our house by friends and family} to just a simple {CLEAN} back entry.  And voila! It worked and {somehow} stayed within the same budget.

With this plan, when I am cooking/washing dishes I will be literally staring at Stephen sitting in his chair in the den and that makes me very happy :).  Everything has more of a symmetry/balance, there is room for three to four barstools, we still have ample storage, and as a bonus the entry to our master bedroom is much more private.  I am thrilled and cannot wait to start! {T minus 1.5 weeks and counting...}

Next I plan on sharing the vision for our kitchen...namely inspiration and materials we plan on using!