It would be possible to put a play corner in the first two drawings but not in alternative 2. I would recommend a corner of storage furniture to corral the toys. I am usually a fan of built-ins but not in this case because eventually the kids will outgrow their toys and you won't need that storage there anymore. The built-in exception would be a window seat under one of those windows on the plans. Some of the storage could be cabinets or bookshelves for bins or toys underneath a window seat. I'm not a fan for toy box style storage because they either become a black hole or the kids throw everything out of them looking for what they want and then do't put the rest of it back. As for the kitchen placement, near to the deck would be best in you like to eat outdoors on the deck or entertain on the deck. We entertain a lot and the kitchen is on the other side of the house from the patio. It's a real pain and a big part of my design brief for the architect was for the kitchen to be next to the patio. I even wanted a pass-through window from the kitchen sink to the patio for ease of clean up but unfortunately I wasn't able to work that out.

If you don't get replies here, try the Home Decorating forum. This forum is more about the technicals. Good luck!

You have a budget of $15K to remove, purchase and install 1850sf of flooring. That works out to be $8.11/sf - which includes install I am going to assume. Removal/disposal of laminate can be as much as $1/sf. With that assumption, you know have $7.11/sf. Assume that roughly HALF OF THAT will be labor (preparation and install). Excellent. We are down to $3.55 per square foot for flooring + under pad. Another HIGH END laminate will do the trick with a high-end under pad. CoreTec can START at $4.50/sf and go up from there. Other LVT = $1.79 from Home Depot...rising all the way up to $7/sf from high-end independent dealers. The "laminate is splitting" is the INSTALLATION in the KITCHEN...not the laminate itself. The LACK OF TRANSITION STRIPS through the DOORWAYS is causing ALL THE PROBLEMS (and the fact that they installed an inappropriate floor in a kitchen = big NO-NO)! With a budget such as yours, and a kitchen that you wish to "deal with" I would save my money, fix the floor so that it stops doing what it is doing, get a REAL kitchen floor installed and deal with the counter tops to suite your lifestyle. Congratulations - you've just spent $15K. The laminate throughout the house is fine...you just need to drop in some T-mouldings through doorways (couple hundred dollars) and install a PROPER kitchen floor ($1000 - $3000). You can do that when you deal with the counters/cabs. And to be clear, you will use the $15K just on the counters and cabinets...with only a small amount left over for the "proper" kitchen flooring.

Don’t panic…I just finished a living/dining room with high ceilings and it came out so gorgeous. B.M. Mesquite. Looks wonderful with Hale Navy. Unfortunately the inspiration photo has used purple, but I hope you see the possibility.