hmmm... I'm a little confused about that "future elevator" is going to fit. On the first floor you show a pantry plus two small storage closets that you said were grouped together so that the space could eventually be turned over to an elevator. On the second floor though, where the elevator shaft would have to be, you only have a single storage closet that looks much smaller than the combined area of the lower storage closets. Unless I'm misreading your plans (which is quite possible b/c the numbers on the measurements aren't quite big enough to read clearly on my monitor) it looks like the elevator would stick halfway out into the upstairs hallway which would make it impossible to get to get from the top of the stairs back to bedrooms 3 and 4. I also strongly second the recommendation about finding a way to move the laundry room upstairs. If it was me, I'd cut the size of the master bedroom down, even by as much as 25 to 30 percent, in order to make room for an upstairs laundry. With three kids, you are never going to "love" that luxuriously large bedroom nearly as much as you are going to HATE lugging basket after basket after basket of clean laundry back upstairs on a daily basis!

1) I think it is a very nice 1st floor plan and, yes, the kitchen/greatroom ought to be beautifully spacious - plenty large enough even for a family of five! 2) If you want to ADD something to the exterior to give it more pizazz, I'm afraid I can't help you. I personally think the problem is that you already have too many different finishes/textures. Between the stonework, two different siding textures (one on the gables and one on the rest of the house), the roofing shingles, the unnecessary porch column that partially hides your front door, and the rather complex textured garage doors, NOTHING predominates. The exterior is a broken up jumble of textures with nowhere for the eye to rest. If it were me, I'd get rid of the stone entirely and I would use the same siding in the gables as on the rest of the house. I think these changes would allow the eye to flow across the front of the house and notice the rhythms of the repeating pairs of gables and the three paired sets of windows. I'd also get rid of the porch column. Your porch is short enough that you don't need the support for the roof. Without the column, your front door would become the focal point instead of being hidden. I did a little playing around using "paint" to see how the elevation would look with fewer textures and this is the result... 3) Have you considered swapping the location of the screened porch with the deck? My concern with the screened porch attaching to the great room is that the porch will block natural light from reaching your great room. If the screened porch attached to the dining room - with sliding doors where you currently have three windows, you could add additional windows to the north wall of the dining room for extra light there. Just a thought. 4) Like you, I also don't like having my closet open into the masterbath so this would be a BIG deal to me. Do you really need that separate little linen closet that is outside your master bedroom door? If not, then how about pushing the masterbedroom entry door down the hallway a couple of feet (creating a little entry hall in the masterbedroom). Then you would have the room to put a door into the closet that wouldn't be blocked by the master bedroom door. The little linen closet could either be turned into a built-in bookcase/display unit just inside your masterbedroom or added to the linen closet in the bathroom. Maybe something like this... Now, a couple of questions... Where do the stairs go? With a family of five, you must have more bedrooms but I don't see any windows on the front elevation for upstairs rooms so I'm guessing the stair go down to a basement and you have bedrooms down there? Basement rooms, especially bedrooms, can be problematic if not well designed for PLENTY of light so do post that plan too so we Gardenwebber self-styled experts can pick it apart too. Just in case your architect missed anything... ;-) The only other thing I notice is that, with a family of 5, I would want my larger laundry room to be quite a bit bigger. I'd probably make that closet off the mud room smaller and my laundry room area bigger - but that is just me.

Ok, so if I was to scrap the dining room.... Could I put the basement stairs and a seperate laundry room in that space? Would that be okay and where would you put them? I could shrink up the dining room and bedroom/office closet about 2 feet to line up with the foyer/front door line, so it would be straight across instead of bumped out. Then I could use that square footage to make the breakfast area to be the same width as the family room. Would that free up enough space? So that would make the breakfast area 11'8" X 14'. Is it ok to have it one big space with no breaks in the wall lines? I would then rework the mudroom/garage entrance and bedroom nearest the garage. I guess my main thing would be what do I do for a window beside the front door now? Obviously we wouldnt put a triple there, like it was in the dining room. It would be a window in the laundry room now, so what kind of window should it be to make it look right?

Again, thank you. I've rethought a few things and will have DH work up the new plans and repost them on another thread (incase anyone is interested). If I keep the island as it currently sits, I can have a nice long, maybe 18" deep, counter where the fridge currently sits. I plan to move the Fridge to the area you all suggested which means the island will be less of the "barrier island" you pointed out. I plan to get the GE single oven (but 2 ovens--I posted a link somewhere) and will put them under the counter----I will swap the sink and the range. I think having the sink closer to the fridge makes more sense. The oven(s) will then go to the left of the range (not directly under it so it is not hot if I am cooking and baking). I am starting to lean towards all wood counters because I just think they are so gorgeous. I"m still not sure about cabinet color (cherry or buttercream) which means the wood counters are TBD (cherry, maple or Wenge). I adore stainless but we may have to build long distance and I just worry that the added expense and interface with getting it done may be problematic. It may not be, but I'm a worrier. If I keep the current table/island, I think the "T" will be a nice juxtaposition versus the parallel, but maybe not. I guess when I post the updated info, I look forward to more input. I guess my last thought was if I get the long bank of counter against the wall where the fridge is in the posted design, should I keep with wood or add a "pop" counter like Marble or solid surface or something.....or stick with all wood? I'm still not sure we will get a prep sink. I'd thought this could be a "wet bar" type area, but maybe leaving a prep sink on the island (if we get the prep sink) would still be a better option. Thanks to those of you who have read, suggested and shared your ideas thus far!!!