The computer nook can be your pantry!

Pantry- I'd flip the Butler's pantry to the other side and slide the doorway over. Then I'd place a door where the current Butler's Pantry counter is to access the space the runs between the dining room & family room and use that as your pantry.

Powder Room-Works for me. What do you find odd about it? I like the powder room off the mudroom as it keeps a bathroom close to the garage (family) entry. It also keeps everyone from tracking dirt& grime from outside all across the house if they are mowing/gardening/kids making mud pies/etc and have to use the bathroom.

Computer Nook-I like it, but I have to wonder how much actual access you're going to have to it, the entry to the master bedroom & the pantry once you've put a table & chairs in that space. It will be very tight.

Master Bedroom- I cannot stress enough how tight that space is going to be in the breakfast room that you will have to pass through to get to the master suite. I would think long & hard about this plan and that access issue before you build it.

Laundry Room- No problem putting in a door from the master closet. If you have kids, I would expand the laundry room to include the garage storage area too so it can be a very functional space.

What type of entertaining do you do? Is the dining room large enough?

Hope this helps!

Powder rooms are often situated off of the mud room because many people want them located where kids who have been playing outdoors can get in to use a bathroom without coming all the way thru the house. Also, some people like to have a bathroom right near the garage for those times when they find themselves rushing home to reach the bathroom. But, for those of us without small children who see our powderroom as being mainly for guest use, a location right next to the garage can be awkward, especially if our garage entry area tends to stay a bit cluttered.

How about moving the powder room to approximately the space where the computer nook is now and having a door into it that opens from that back hallway? That would allow guests to use the powder room without having to go thru your mudroom area.

Then, you could use the old powder room space as a walk in pantry. For ease of unloading groceries, it is best to have a storage pantry near the garage anyway. It wouldn't be a HUGE pantry but, probably plenty big enough for storing extra groceries and things. Plus, I think that location would be a bit better for access from the kitchen than if you used the current computer nook for a pantry.

Also, I don't understand why the closet between dining room and great room is so deep. Who wants to have to walk 5 ft into a skinny little 3 ft wide closet in order to reach the hangers??? I would suggest making that closet a lot shallower and expanding the butler's pantry into the freed up space. Although doing so would shift the door from kitchen to dining room over a bit toward the great room, it would allow you to have cabinets at both ends of your butler's pantry. That would give you twice the storage for things like seldom used small appliances and big serving platters...plus a staging area for fancy holiday dinners.

Then, especially if you don't have kids, you might want to forget about the "kid's nook" thing. The space provided on the plan is really too small to really function as cubbies or a nook anyway. If you tried, I think you'd just end up with stuff spilling out and blocking the aisle from kitchen to garage anyway. I would probably just put in a drop-zone cabinet/countertop and maybe some wall hooks next to the door out to the garage.
Anyway, here's a sketch done on Paint showing what I'm envisioning....

Finally, I have to say that I'm not at all enamored with the kitchen design in this plan. The fridge is poorly located for access from either the breakfast nook or the bar seating area. Anyone trying to reach it from either of those locations would tend to walk right thru the aisle past the cooktop. Additionally, the cooktop island is a barrier between sink/dishwasher and the fridge. Very often when cleaning up after a meal, don't you transfer leftovers to smaller covered dishes and carry them to the fridge and stick the original dishes into the dishwasher. If so, you'll be walking round and round the island while cleaning up. The fridge location is also not exactly handy to the cooktop. If you need a little more butter while cooking, you have to walk around the point of the island to reach the fridge. Don't know about you but my hips would be constantly black and blue.

Unfortunately, without getting rid of the cooktop island entirely and then doing some major kitchen redesign, I don't see any particularly good fixes.

I should probably admit up front tho that I am not a big fan of kitchen islands anyway - mainly because they so often seem to force one into a design that, IMHO, just doesn't function well as a WORKING kitchen. But, since most people do seem to like at least the IDEA of a kitchen island, I'm always hesitant to start suggesting alternatives. Someone who actually likes kitchen islands themselves could probably do a better job of suggesting how to keep the island while organizing the kitchen to function better. So, you might want to run the plan by the folks over at the kitchen forum to get their input.

Oh, one more minor thing. In the master bath, I made the toilet room a bit smaller and suggest using a pocket door for access. While the original toilet room was marginally big enough for an in-swing door, it was still small enough that, if someone passed out in the toilet room their body might still block EMS from opening the toilet room door to provide aide. With a pocket door, the toilet room can be smaller which allows the vanity to be made longer so that your two sinks aren't crowding one another.

Hope some of this proves helpful.

WOW you guys are amazing! totally picked out things I would not have. I never thought of the kitchen in that regard and now that you've mentioned it, it makes complete sense. Back to the plans to see if I can find something more suitable. As far as what entertaining do I do? Typically dinner parties of 6-8 people and then all out (everyone we know) open house type events. Mostly I need extra space storage for all my entertaining pcs such as platters, drink dispensers and the like. I have quite the assortment as every holiday function/meal is at our house (as my inlaws nor my mom are much of a cook) but we are a small family of 8 total for holiday meals (at this time)

I had to log into a different computer to see the layout you provided, and I do love the changes that you've made. Perhaps I should go over and visit the kitchens board and see if something different could be done to make the kitchen a better fit.

What tool do you use to make those changes?

Sorry i see now you advised you used paint.

Any thoughts of removing the linen closet from the master bath, moving the tub down and making a larger walk in shower? I personally dont feel a linen is need IN the bathroom since the closet is located off the main bath and you could use space in there for towels etc. Thoughts on this? Am I crazy or is my husband correct? LOL

Personally, I would absolutely get rid of the linen closet in order to enlarge the shower! I didn't suggest it because the shower shown is "big enough" but I LOVE my 3.5 x 5 ft shower with a seat at one end! I would never willingly choose to go back to a smaller one.

You might also consider putting the shower down next to the closet and the tub across from the vanity. You'll have a window over the tub and having that window up near the entrance to the bathroom (and reflected in the mirrors over the vanity) will make the bath feel much more spacious.

As for linen storage, I'm with you. With the closet nearby, you can easily store most things there or, if you put a door in from master closet to laundry room, you could even store extra linens in the laundry room. Drawers under your vanities can provide room to store plenty of towels and washcloths for immediate use. And you can always stick a cabinet above the toilet (even recess it into the wall for extra depth) to give you another spot for linen storage.

You could also put wall cupboard above the computer desk for extra storage although, if it were me, I'd probably use the space above the computer desk for books and pictures.

I suspect that once your husband actually experiences a shower in a spacious shower stall, he'll be glad you went for the extra size and he'll never miss the linen storage.

The dining room may be a bit small for a formal dinner party for 8 and it is definitely too small if you ever need to seat 10. If you don't want to enlarge the dining room, perhaps you could widen the opening between foyer and dining room as much as possible... maybe just have the columns at the very edges of the room to "suggest" a separation between foyer and dining room. That way, if you ever needed to, you could turn the table and have the chair on the end stick out ever so slightly into the foyer space without it feeling awkward.

Definitely do post on the kitchens forums. There are some folks over there that are whizzes at kitchen design. Somehow, when I start messing around with kitchen design, I always seem to wind with something very very similar to my own kitchen (LOL!) even tho I KNOW that not everybody is going to like/need the same kitchen that I have.