Thanks for all of the nice encouragement. There are several areas of the kitchen which I feel pretty strongly about, and then there are the ones I am uneasy about. I think the Marcolo / rhome concern of too many steps for something as simple as a bowl of cereal is certainly worth considering, and I am going to work to tighten up those functions which are common for us. I have one of those little "planning desks" in my current kitchen and at any given time it is piled with papers, bills, kids pemission slips, and mail. If I have somebody coming over, I quickly dump it all into a basket which quickly becomes a black hole! My little room behind the cooktop (Rachel's space) is to allow my mess, keep it close by, but keep it out of the kitchen area. I know this little space will be a favorite, and it is really there only to handle a roofline issue. The home planning area, is where I was thinking the kids could do homework --- they would be close by, but not in the loud main room --- I knew it would be darkish, and would have no windows, but that is a bit by design as the computer will not have a glare and the printer and all of that stuff can be tucked away in here. The butler's pantry will likely house the more formal china, and it is where guests can help themselves to wine, beer, drinks and a food buffet, though I think it will mainly function as a bar during parties, and food will likely be on the island. My thinking is the butler's pantry is a good connector to the dining room, and the great room, kitchen and porch. The corridor is wide enough for some milling around, and there will be a sink in there, but the related clean-up area will really be on the island. I'm OK with that. One of the other things that you've all made me consider, is the steps to do things like get cereal. What if the 2 cabinets flanking the kitchen table have a fridge and freezer drawer, coffee maker, mugs, sugar bowl, glasses and bowls on one side. On the other side, what if they have 2 big drawers (size of fridge drawers) filled with the cereal boxes. Silverware is another issue. Would it make sense to keep the daily silverware over by the table? If so, couldn't I just take the silverware basket out of the dishwasher and take it (or have the kids take it) over to that area to empty. In that case, a daily meal (cereal and coffee, and juice) would all be handled right there at the table. Clean-up would involve setting the dishes through the little pass through (I could make this a door, but I think I like the pass-through) and then loading the dishwasher, etc. Not too bad, it only involves the breakfast and clean-up area. Now, things are more complicated for other meals. Setting the table would mean getting plates, etc. out of the "dish pantry" area. In my little baking area, I think the comments are totally on --- I think I need to put uppers here for baking supplies. That would allow me to put drawers below for things like mixing bowls, pans, mixers, etc. The toaster could also go out here as well. I know I have lots lots more to figure out --- but thanks for all of the help thus far. Marcolo, thanks so much for the design and reclaimed wood, etc. encouragement. I have always loved these things and sometimes people look at me like I'm crazy, but I really love them. Good to know that I'm actually going to be current for a little while at least!

I'm also including the updated floor plan for downstairs. So I can reach into the closet cabinets in the laundry area, I'm told the only solution is to use bifold doors which I hate with a passion. The width of the closet is about 7'3". Originally if you notice in the original plan he had regular doors but the wall cut my cabinet area in half so it would have been useless. Any other ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! PS As per suggested in the bath forum, I switched the door into the bathroom to a pocket door. Not ideal as I don't love them either, but this way the swinging door for the toilet closet won't now bang into the door to the bath. Oh and the kitchen in this is incorrect. See above thread for corrected kitchen.

Hey there, I have a somewhat similar set up, with an exit an hallway to the mudroom sort of cutting through the path between the main sink and oven and just wanted to throw in my 2 cents. Major caveat: our kitchen reno was not well planned out. Those who have seen my past posts know we made all sorts of mistakes so I'm calling out the below to help others avoid my (costly) mistakes. While I love having a triple window over my 36" farm sink, I would personally do it all over and put my main sink in the island so that I could have my oven and main sink across from one another. The biggest lesson I learned from my reno is I much prefer that set up as it's so efficient. Granted you have the prep sink in the island - I don't (and plan on putting one there one day.) I find it SUPER inconvenient to have the main sink far from the oven. Especially if you take the dishwasher out of the island, any time you bring your used pots and pans for cleaning your walking across a traffic area to get to the sink. Also, where are utensils and bowls and plates? My oven being far from my main sink is also far from my utensil drawer. Because most people put the utensils close to the dishwasher so when they unload the dishwasher every thing is together. So if I want to stir a pot of whatever on the range, I have to walk to go get the spoon which is near my dishwasher, not the oven. It's annoying. Just make sure (because no one told me this!) to think through how all your activities will work: loading, unloading dishwasher, set the table, filling pots with water AND dumping them, etc. :-)

I already mentioned this once, but consider the location of your prep sink. If you take everything out of your pantry and fridge, you only have 18" to place it next to the sink, and then you will need to wash it and move it to the other side of your sink to prep it. If that's how you want to work in your kitchen, then it's fine as is. Personally, I like to throw everything on the counter and wash as needed, so having the sink on the other side of the island would be preferable to me (I wouldn't want to have to transfer things from one side of the sink to the other, or have to carry things from the fridge/pantry to the other side of the sink). Regarding drawer size, I would agree that you should at least get yourself 36", but I can't comment on whether 42" is a good size. @cpartist I just heard that Barefoot Contessa puts her all-clad in the dishwasher, so I started to as well! The fewer dishes I need to hand wash the better!