Im looking for all kinds of things. feel free to offer.

Sorry about the picture quality - I'll try and upload some better ones tonight. Thank you for taking time to try and look at them anyway! Dyno - i'm not sure where the mechanical room will go, I'm assuming somewhere in the unfinished area of the basement? the architect never mentioned it... Thanks for the tip on the fridge. I have been contemplating moving the fridge to the end of the cabinet line as I'm afraid that it will stick out too far at that spot. We have a bottom freezer w/french doors picked out but including handles it's like 35" deep. I'm also considering just picking a different fridge all together. aa62579 - I definitely get what you mean, but there is a method to my madness. Only two people would be living in the house. the first floor has the master bath and the powder room. there is also a "second bedroom" on the first floor (that will probably actually be used for the office or something like that, it's just labeled as bedroom on the plans) in the basement there are two full baths and then two bedrooms (it didn't seem important enough for me to have the architect change the label in the draw up the plans?) the one full bath in the unfinished area is actually a bathroom/laundry room for my husband. He owns a custom fabrication shop and I want to keep all the dirt from that contained in that bathroom. So he will be the only one using that bathroom. The other full bath in the finished side would be the bathroom used by anyone staying over.

Been there, done that...lint is such a HUGE annoyance to my life. We're in a 2nd floor condo where the dryer vent ducting goes to the roof through the attic over 20 feet and several elbows. My husband bought the condo years before we met, and the ducting was clogged after several years. At the time, he decided to disconnect the vent from the duct. The resulting moisture did some damage to the cabinetry (swelling of the particle board, even under layers of oil-based paint). Soon after we married, he decided we needed to fix the problem correctly. He went up into the attic and disassembled the ducting, brought it outside, and blew it out with his air compressor. I pushed some cleaning tool through it as well. We can't be doing this regularly! I mean preferably, never again! So, I had him put a filter -- a gallon paint strainer -- over the dryer vent where it connects to the machine. This clogs every month or so, we pull the machine out, disconnect the vent, clean the strainer, and put it back. This is still an annoying chore, but not the nightmare of dealing with the whole duct run. My husband had a cool idea, that what we need to do is sew a new, longer strainer that tapers to a skinny point, so that even when it clogs at the point, there can still be air flowing past the clogged strainer, and we should be able to go longer between cleanings. We got a new dryer last summer, and pulled the ducting out of the attic to clean it -- but it was already clean as a whistle. So, our secondary filter system has kept the duct run clean for 9 years. I found you can buy secondary lint traps with a door that opens to clean them out, but we don't have room to install the box in our laundry room, and I don't think it would work any better or be easier to clean than our homemade filter. When I redo the floor, I plan to put magic slider thingies under the dryer feet to make it easier to move in and out, plus I won't want to gouge my new floor. I have researched other solutions. People claim that solid metal vent will maintain better airflow than pleated, but I think it will still clog because we need 2 90-degree elbows to get it connected to the duct in the wall. And if it clogs, how do we pull out the machine with a non-stretching vent? If we could move the duct in the wall to match the dryer vent outlet, that would eliminate 2 elbows and would probably help... I also found you can install a secondary fan in the ducting near the exit, increasing the airspeed in long ducts so the lint won't clog. They cost $150-200, but if I never had to clean out the duct run or pull out the dryer to clean my makeshift secondary lint trap ever again, it would be well worth it. I also think that our ducting is leaky somewhere, because rooms on the other side of the wall (our master bath) get crusted with lint all the time. Finding and sealing those leaks would probably improve airspeed some, plus save me tons of work cleaning the lint all the time. I think the additional fan is the way to go. In 2 other areas where we replaced an ineffective low-cfm cheap fan with a high-cfm good one, like the hood over our cooktop, it made an amazing difference, night and day. Here is a link that might be useful: example of dryer duct fan

May I ask more questions? 1. How frequently do you think you'll be baking? I absolutely agree that you do not want to go on a two-island walkabout to place batter in the oven. So, I recommend that arrangement be reworked. Since baking usually involves intensive prep followed by long term oven time, during which you don't need to hover over the oven, I like out of the way baking centers (relatively speaking), and I like them to have an oven included. However, take care that the oven will not open into a major traffic area (see question below about where doorways lead). 2. I take it the areas that show up on either side of the hutch are doorways? Where do they lead? I ask because my kitchen is sized somewhat similarly to yours, but one side's opening is closer to the butler's pantry and dining room, while the other is closer to the breakfast room. What ends up happening, at least in my household, is that people who clear the table bring the dishes to the sink closest to the room where they ate. That means, if they ate in the breakfast room, they tend to put dirty dishes in the dishwasher in the island; and if they ate in the dining room, they tend to pile dishes in the big cleanup sink on the wall that backs up to the pantry, or into the dishwasher next to that. When I put the dishwasher in the island, next to the prep sink, I did it because I foresaw having dirty prep implements that would need to be washed, not because I accurately foresaw the traffic pattern from the breakfast room. However, "if it's convenient, they will come," so, I recommend a dishwasher near the prep sink, especially if that will be closer to one or more of your post meal traffic patterns. (The kids will be old enough to help one of these days.) Some would disagree, but I thought you'd want to hear all viewpoints. 3. I try to avoid any kitchen aisles less than 42" if more than one person could be in the kitchen. You'll have kids in there baking and prepping with you, eventually? Or hubby? Or caterer? Have you looked at the NKBA aisle guidelines? 4. I agree with everyone about not wanting to corner an island to use the three basic sink/prep/stove points. I only gave a cursory glance at above posts, so forgive me if I repeat others' suggestions. 5. The back-to-back seating arrangement is not conducive to social interaction. Too narrow an aisle, wrong orientation for conversation. Also, I prefer island seating to be at the distant end of an island, furthest away from the prep/cooking action. I believe that's the safest placement, for cook and kids/guests. If that would be too far away, I would consider reorienting the island or islands so that they are rectangular with long sides paralleling 36" sink wall. 6. It's going to be a wonderful space! I need to get back to chores. ;^(