Wow MrsPete thats a lot to think about! I was not expecting to have to request so many changes to this plan. Considering we hired a professional designer to do the plan. I will do my best to address all the issues mentioned. Again thanks for everyone who has chimed in.. Great point on the double entry doors. I did not even think about turning the lights on. It looks like the master bathroom has double entry doors too. I am not sure I want to shut two doors every time I go in the bathroom. So if we flip the washer and dryer to the kitchen wall and make it come off the mudroom. What about the door entry from the mudroom ? Looks like the washer and dryer would hang out some past the doors edge. But I think this may be ok if they are placed on down the wall verses right beside the door. With the fridge I actually like it where it is for the most part. I like that when you look back towards the kitchen from great room, you dont really see the fridge. But this is also one thing I told the wife she could make the call on the layout of the kitchen. Also as far as all the plumbing goes I will be running everything. I have done a few houses that are rental properties and have all the tools to run pex and the drains. Ok, so maybe we need to make plans to eliminate a bathroom and add on for the pool area. When you say you would build one nice bath between the two bedrooms and having into opening into the hallway for a guest bath, do you mean the bath will have 3 entry doors, 2 from bedrooms and 1 in hallway? It seems like this would also put it really close to the half bath. Also what are the thoughts on a jack and jill? On the closets this is one thing I requested. I want some space for myself!! Otherwise the wife will take it over! I thought the divider wall would actually give you a little more room to hang things also. I do like the idea of putting the shower in the corner and moving the toilet. But at the same time I like the privacy of it being on the outside wall away from everything else. With the windows in the closets I am not sure what to do on this. I do agree its not the best scenario. I also do not know if I want a large window in the toilet room. I know the designer said he had a very difficult time making the windows work on the front of the house. We do plan to make changes to the doors leading out to the porch. I am concerned about furniture placement with all those doors. Also if your looking outside from the great room who wants to see the backs of outdoor furniture? I am kinda at a loss on how that will look. You all have been a great help so far, I am sure we will get this all worked up and build pics will be coming before you know it. I will also try to attach some pics that I gave the designer for ideas on what the wife and I liked. We basically gave him some pictures and he had us fill out a 3 page questionnaire.

Congrats and good luck on your build! I too am an engineer and we're just finishing up the build of our custom home (close on Dec-2!). I can tell you that from an engineering standpoint your drawing is very thorough but from a garden web standpoint it is very busy and difficult to read! We're building a two story so I can't comment on much of your layout, but I would consider knocking down the seperation between the kitchen and the living area. Take functionality over symmetry. As the designated cook, I like my time in the kitchen much more when I'm not seperated from friends and family and football. I love the mudroom, keeps the clutter and mess out of the rest of the house. I also love the 3 car garage. That is, unless you have 3 cars, then you need a 4 car garage.

Do you really want your view from the family room into the kitchen to be a wall of tall, towering, cold lineup of stainless fridge/freezer/ovens? Wouldn't you rather put the cooktop with a really cool hood there instead? Also, as others have mentioned, your island is way too wide for the space. The length seems OK. To be honest, I would give up at least the twins for a standard 36" wide fridge, and possible do a range instead of cooktop and wall oven too. But, I like a challenge so I have thought out an option that leaves you with every appliance plus about 30" of pantry space. :) Here we go... What I would do is redistribute the appliances so that left wall is not so ugly. I would put the range with a nice hood on the left wall, with the wall ovens down towards the bottom of that wall. I would put the fridge on the end of the sink wall which will give you a pretty nice work triangle, although the island is a bit of a barrier and the DW is in the way. If you want, you can swap the ovens and fridge at this point and add a prep sink to the left end of the island. The freezer is accessed less often so I would put it on that 72" pantry wall with a 30" side tall pantry cabinet next to it. At this point you have no nearby landing space for the fridge or pantry - but do you really need it for frozen or room temp items? I don't think so, but if you think you need it you can swap out 15" of the pantry space for 15" of countertop next to the freezer on whichever side the freezer opens to. Either way I would not go less than 48" for the top aisle, 42" for the bottom aisle, and 42" for the left aisle. This means your island can only be 27" wide, which means: a) just the base cabinetry (no seating), or b) just counter with no cabinetry underneath (seating allowed on both sides), or c) 12" deep base cabinetry (standard depth is 24") plus an inadequate seating overhang of 12" (recommended minimum is 15", your sitters will be uncomfortable, or d) 12" deep base cabinetry (standard depth is 24") plus an adequate seating overhang of 15" (which will reduce the bottom aisle to 39" - would not do if you put the fridge on the left wall, since that will then be a major traffic aisle), or e) some combination of the above a-d. Personally I would do one or two base cabinets at the left end of the island (option a) and then extend the countertop on legs, with no cabinetry beneath (option b) to allow for the seating that you want. I hope this helps!

Thanks very much everyone for the feedback! Sorry for picture difficulties, I couldn't get the pictures to load otherwise for some reason! I had 3 contractors and a kitchen/cabinet designer over yesterday. Fortunately, it seems like my budget range overlaps with ballpark figures the contractors were willing to throw out, so that's a relief! The KD agreed with the general layout and said I should have minimum of 36" from the pantry to the peninsula, but I will see about trying to make the clearance there as much as possible, like up to the ~42". I can put down some tape and stack some boxes and see what clearance would work best for me. Its already a small kitchen, so anything I can do to make it feel a little more spacious would be valuable. Also in agreement on the lazy susan - it adds nothing and drawers would be nice, and I could put in a cookie sheet insert or something, just generally get more out of the cabinet. I will definitely do that! The KD also mentioned that instead of a kidney-shape pullout in the blind corner, I should just give up on that space and go with normal drawers as it would be a good way to get more fixed-size drawers in the kitchen (right now, the only fixed-size drawers I'd have would be those next to the oven, probably 15" wide, and ones at the top of the peninsula). So eating that dead space would add 3 or 4 drawers. The KD also recommended a single bowl sink. I don't know, it seems so convenient to have 2 bowls, though maybe 36" cabinet isn't big enough to have a 2 bowl sink with at least one bowl big enough for pots and pans? The KD also said that reducing the sink size doesn't really give me much benefit, only a wider cabinet at the other end of the counter that will be up against a wall anyway. I will have to research if a huge one bowl sink or maybe a 70/30 two bowl sink might work. Out of curiousity, would more than 24" between sink and oven be for more prep space? I can't fit anything bigger than about 24" in my oven, so I figured if I was doing a pizza or turkey, I could pull it out and put it right on the counter. Unfortunately I am pretty restricted on the sink because I can't move the drain enough to put it on the other wall with my state's plumbing codes. I can easily run water line down for fridge, but the drain is the greater issue. I actually mapped out a plan with my sister very much like yours mama goose, but the building engineer said people tried in the past and it wouldn't pass inspection. I don't like the corner sink, just a personal thing, and I like having my drying rack in the corner there. Any recommendations on where the trash can pullout should go? I'd like it to go in one of the bases.. If I were to drop down to 60" of cabinets on the peninsula, could I switch to a 30" cabinet, 12" cabinet and 18" cabinet for trash? Or maybe they'll have a 15" trash can pullout, though I doubt it. I still get a drawer above the trash cans, but would the top drawer get smelly and gross with trash underneath? KD also recommended microwave in a center cutout of the pantry, which I'm inclined to do as it would take away a small eyesore and I personally very rarely use a microwave (though I know future owner may want a place for one). As an aside, two of the three contractors told me they'd only work with me if I used their cabinet lines, as its where they make most of their money. One of them only used Bellmont cabinets, which I read about and was not impressed. The other had a little more selection: Marsh, Wolf, and J&K Cabinetry (Chinese made). The Marsh seem ok.. but reviews are mixed and contractor estimated $6-7k for my small kitchen. The last contractor said they are fine with whatever cabinets I choose, and, despite having carpenters that can install them, would understand if I wanted to have cabients installed by someone else. If Woodharbor comes back in my price range, I'll almost certainly go with their cabinets and the contractor that offered flexibility.