Thanks for your responses everyone! I appreciate each and every one. Kippy -- looks like your pantry will be super functional! Unfortunately can't add any more width to our pantry. Stan -- thank you for your input. I think I agree with you on the 8" counter. No can do. Also thanks for your suggestion on the 4" shelves just on one side. That might do the trick! Practigal and Looklake -- the 18" pull-outs sound dreamy, but I really really really want a 36"x24" countertop. Those appliances need to be out of my way. I would leave them out if I used them consistently at least once a week, but there are times when I use them every other day, or not at all for weeks at a time. And Looklake, the size of the pantry is hardly ideal...we are turning a coat closet into a pantry and the size cannot be changed. Karenseb -- when you say pull-outs, do you mean drawers or roll trays? The roll trays would waste more space, right? And any idea what the weight limits might be? Also would it be ok that the pull-outs couldn't fully extend? Since I only have 45" total pantry depth minus the 24" depth of the base cabinet.

benjesbride, one reason for rotating the shower and running it the width of the exterior wall would be to get rid of the existing half wall, which now creates a large dark area by the vanity. If I rotate the shower, I was thinking about putting both the shower head and the controls on the left hand wall. Stepping into the shower to turn on the water is not a big issue and I don't like the idea of having the shower head and the controls on separate walls. cpartist, thanks for the tip on the sliding glass doors. They certainly have changed over the last 25 years! I understand your point about a shower bench. Maybe a footrest or a couple of curved corner shelves would add a little bit of decor to that end of the shower, even though I doubt the spray from the shower head would reach that far. One question: How wide was the curb on your 3' x 6' shower?

This is our first remodel project and we've certainly learned some lessons. We interviewed 4 companies - 2 design build firms and 2 architects. DH's uncle is an architect in another state and he was our sounding board as we went through the process, and gave suggestions on floor plan. Ideally, we would've had him do our house, but we couldn't afford it. We liked one architect's design portfolio, but decided we didn't have the money to do what they could've designed to really take advantage of their creativity. One of the design build's firm work was more in line with what we knew we could pull off. The floor plan they came up with is a good use of our space. If we had unlimited money, we would've gone a different option. Be prepared to consider options. We were dead set against touching the 2 bedrooms as we needed the space to live in, but the weird walk-in closet in one bedroom was the perfect location for the master bathroom. There were 2 closets in this room and it was minor change - building a 5' wall to close it off from the bedroom and creating a doorway in the other wall for access to the master. This one change made the entire layout work. We did consider minor changes, but they didn't fix underlying problems with layout. That's why people are suggesting you consider relocating kitchen or opening up some walls. Yes it is more to do that, but it costs so much to do anything in the first place and it may be worth it. You won't know until you check.

I could fit a full sized mattress in the width of our walkin and have at least 3’ to spare in length. The longer side has two levels for hanging and goes the whole length, while the other is just one level of hanging shelf for longer items and we use the other for pants and shirts since they aren’t as long when using hangers designed for such clothing items. There’s 3 small shelves on the narrowest wall at the back of the closet with a thing for hanging belts and accessories. I put the laundry sorter on the floor below the lower hanging level on the long wall since we didn’t need quite that much hanging area - I have a ton of clothing but not *that* much. I save the boxes that every pair of shoes comes in and store shoes in those, placed on the shelf part our hanging bars are attached to.