Is the reason for the distance from the garage to the house the topography? Do you get wind, rain, and snow at your altitude? If so, I'd want the garage closer to the kitchen if possible, because the older we get (we're retired, too), the less we'll probably want (or be able) to lug groceries long distances. Also, I wouldn't want the front door opening directly into the living area in a cold climate. And I don't like having anyone (mailperson, FedEx, UPS, neighbor kids selling stuff, etc.) who comes to the front door seeing everything that's going on in the living area. A defined front hall area would block cold air blasts and provide some privacy. Just some thoughts, which may not apply to you. We just built our house using ICFs to the top of the first floor. We seriously considered radiant heat, but went with geothermal instead. We also put 2" of XPS under the lower level walkout slab to help keep the heat in, and put the wood stove down there in case of emergencies and to provide supplemental heat to the entire house. For more energy efficiency, we went with solar hot water, which I highly recommend since it is cost effective, especially with the govt incentives now (that we didn't get). Anne

Laura - we just finished our remodel and the layout part is agonizing. Take your time to really think it out and play with it multiple ways. Only you know how you will use your space and what is going to work best for you but certainly be open to what GWers have to say. My suggestions/comments/questions: 1. Definitely put a garbage near your prep sink. Ideally in the island and such that you just open a drawer and sweep your trash in. We actually have two pullout trashes on opposite sides of our kitchen b/c it is so long (about 20 feet) and it is so nice. One is tall and narrow near the prep area, the other is smaller and a double bin for recycling too. As far as compost goes, you will want to take it out regularly so you don't need a giant garbage can. A small pail with a lid is more like it. 2. I like the island more "turned" as Lavender originally suggested and people have played with. IMO, I'd make it a curved triangle. You just don't want it so big that there are parts of it you can't reach from any side. Or if you leave it how cam suggested, only put 4 chairs - 2 and 2. It looks like you have plenty of space for a high chair in several places. You'll make it fit. 3. What side of the sink do you like to prep on? I have always prepped to the left of a sink. Make sure you are comfortable with whatever set up you decide on. In your original drawing, you didn't have much contiguous prep space with the sink almost in the middle (and it was on the right, further from the fridge). I think cam's suggestion of putting the sink in the corner of the island is a good one. Prep is usually fridge to (counter space) to sink to stove. This makes that part of the work triangle excellent and makes filling up pots with water to put on the stove easy too. Prep is like 70% of the time spent in the kitchen. You don't want to be doing it in a cramped little space in such an otherwise large kitchen. I can't remember the exact numbers but I think it's suggested to have 30'' of continuous space for prepping. HTH (Hope that helps. I had to look up a lot of acronyms when I first started using GW too.) The advice you'll find here is excellent though. Oh, and not to throw a wrench in it, have you given any thought to where you are going to work on a computer? I know everyone down on desks in kitchens these days, but as a mom of little ones, I find my desk in the kitchen invaluable. It is a little bit away from all the kitchen cabinets so desk messes down wander but I no longer get to my desk in the basement as often (sometimes not for days) and would be miserable without my computer and desk in the kitchen. As a mommy the kitchen is your new office (regardless of if you are a stay-at-home mom) and you'll spend a lot of time there. Just something to think about knowing you are expecting and want more than one child.

So...I kind of like it. I imagine it looking out over a view, so I like layout at the back. I liked the original guest room door because it wasn't visible from the reset of the house. With so much wide open, I like a hall that makes you wonder what's around the corner, but it's also more private for the guest. Some folks do want two dining spaces. This one is nice and airy-looking, but I would probably multi-task it with a home office, with my filing system of binders hidable behind cabinet doors. I'd like stools at my peninsula, but not for dining. More for perching, coffee with the today show, recipe-studying. I do like the fireplace between spaces. Can't quite tell what is between the fireplace and the window, maybe bookcase? That helps with the separation. I like the powder room turned toward the foyer, and would NOT want it back behind the mudroom. Although, I was doing yard work a lot, it would be convenient especially for washing up. An option could be to have a half bath back there, but have the guest bath available as a company-ready powder room.

Have you considered a residential elevator? Might open your options up to other plans as well. Just throwing out ideas here and they are worth what you paid for them ;) What other plans might be available as a starting point. I can see plenty of ways to re-arrange things so it might work better overall. How much freedom do you have with changes since you mentioned semi-custom? Since you won't be using the upstairs it seems like you'd have a massive roof on this as a one story and thus a lot of extra cost to build something you wouldn't use. How wide can the house be? The location of some of the rooms, the choppiness with the room re-arranging and the sizes of rooms seem less than ideal for long term living and may make you feel the house isn't as nice as you wish when you live in it so hence my questions to see if we can help you achieve your goals, save you some money, and have a well thought out house that will work for you and your family as well as your care-giver. Our very good friends and next door neighbors have a handicap accessible house that works really well for our neighbor who is in a wheel chair and ours is built with handicap features as well and he can navigate just fine in our house. I think the way their house is laid out might work well for your needs and be able to create a care-giver's area with 2 extra bedrooms. It is a fairly simple shape, but they do have a detached garage. What are your requirements beyond accessibility? Square footage, garage, max width/depth of house? Here's an idea of how you could re-arrange it a little differently, but still has an addition at the back. I made the laundry the common access point, unless you absolutely want that to be separate. It could be accomplished. By moving the laundry I also made it easier to vent to the outside. It seems to me like if you can arrange your house space a little separate from the care-givers it will flow a little better, be more private for both. Just one wall to make sure noise doesn't travel and the house seems a little more integrated and not spread out so far. A little more like a duplex and the care-givers guests won't need to even walk by your front door to visit and inadvertently ring the wrong door bell. It is more like a duplex type design. This is just an idea to illustrate the concept and the layout could still be better, but just to give you some ideas of what I'm talking about. If you absolutely have to stick with the other design I would consider at least changing the bathroom up to be more like the one I drew in the care-givers area so you can get some more space for the kitchenette and sitting area. The other bathroom wastes a lot of space and since used by only one person for the most part could be simplified and use the space elsewhere.