Buehl-- we're hoping that the spare bedroom upstairs will end up becoming the new playroom, and some stuff will be in their rooms. We'll end up with a small toy chest in the living room and the rest upstairs. So the whole "new space" thats created when we take down the wall will just be kitchen and dining room. After seeing Raenjapan's kitchen I may be swayed back to keeping the kithen to the left side and moving the bench for the banquette along the 94" wall and putting a penninsula between the other two windows. Lyvia-- the two 24" bases you see in the current kitchen are actually an island with a strange overhang. I wouldn't be able to put a fridge there. (I know the drawing is a little confusing, it was drawn mostly to show the layout of the first floor.) I also think I won't really have room for two separate seating areas in the kitchen, even if one is really small. Once I start drawing things in, and factoring in wide enough walkways it gets crowded fast. nini & florantha-- seems like G-shaped kitchens are more popular than I thought!!! That is what I origianlly was thinking for the kitchen (towards the left of the empty floorplan above). I love hearing that you have this same thing and it works for you. Also, we currently have Austrailan Cypress flooring in about 75% of the downstairs and plan to push it right through the new kitchena nd dining space as well. Its really beautiful (here is the internet pic.) LRy-- I think the pendants are from Ikea. if not, they are almost identical. If you go to their website ikea-usa.com I think under other departments they list lighting, and its 3 or 4 pages in. $29.99!! I saw them last weekend in person and fell in love. They are really sharp looking. Mnerg-- there are LOTS of possibilities with this blank space. TOO many! LOL! I am having a terrible time making up my mind. I keep worrying I won't ever get it right! I have also considered a small movable table for the center of the kitchen. I guess if I end up with a large center space I can always buy something like that to hang out in the middle when I need it to. Thanks everyone for all the help!!

Thank you Beekeeperswife! I love your kitchen so much, I checked it out on the Mission Tile and Stone site too, fabulous! I asked my fabricator to make me lazy susan's out of my sink cutouts. I have one marble and one in granite. They're pretty heavy but they blend right in when they're sitting on the counter. The marble one is going to go on the wood breakfast table because I'm not so sure I want that one to blend in. Aokat, thank you! You're kitchen is going to be spectacular. If I could have chosen any size, layout and style kitchen I wanted, I'd have plucked yours right off the page! I tried to remove the corbels myself this morning because I'm off from work. No luck. Best left to the carpenter I guess. I bet he'll do that last. Thanks Pricklypearcactus! I appreciate the positive feedback. It's scary to spend so much money and then fear I'm creating a frankenstein every time something gets installed :)

xena45 - funny! No one ever asked about my paint color until this week and now this is the second time! The paint is Enoki by C2 Paints. It's less beige than the photo makes it out to be, at least in my house, it has a gold-green tone to it, maybe a bit more camel? Anyway, I love C2 colors, they are very drenched with color and use about an average of 7 pigment colors in each paint. We do like it, it seems to blend with many different colors. However, I have been toying with the idea of a French Grey now that our lovely countertops have been installed. You have to understand, I love change and am constantly updating here and there around my house. If we do go with the FG in the kitchen and family, we will keep the Enoki in the master suite, it's lovely. Thanks for asking! Mindi

We have the common low-priced all-wood backless stools that are being imported from Malaysia these days. Overhang is 15 inches. When pushed in, the stools entirely disappear under the overhang, which pulls them out of the walkpath. Works for us. We also tow a stool into the working part of the kitchen; backless, it also is unobtrusive when area is seen from a distance.