laura, I think you need to make a big level decision before committing to a floor plan. It seems as if you are not sure how you want the southern light to affect the interior space of your house. I would commit to that decision before thinking about other issues. Do you want that for the kitchen or the family room? There is no right answer. You have to analyze your lifestyle and commit. Don't let others pursuade you to the perfect 'kitchen' design until you have committed to the light first. This seems like an exceptional house with an abudance of natural light. Natural light decision is the fundamentally the MOST important decision for your house, much more important than the kitchen decision, IMHO. The way the house interacts with natural light sets the tone for your mood and feeling immediately upon entering the house. Breakfast area is nice facing out east for obvious reasons... Another big level decision is the TV viewing and noise in general. Depending on how you will use the TV, there maybe way too much light for TV and media in the options B and C revised. My kids use the TV more for gaming than TV viewing and we have it in the basement. There are families that manage to raise their kids without any gaming consoles. My hat is truly off to them! We have made our TV room double as a guest room because we don't have guests often enough. I also don't want the noise to bleed into the rest of the house. You need to make a high level decision about the 'noise' associated with 'TV and media'. We have a completely open floor plan with a grand piano. There is no way TV and piano can compete for noise in the same open space. In my house, someone is at the piano quite often throughout the day (much like yours, it seems). Again, you have not addressed that issue. If you have multiple kids and one has a friend over playing a console game/watching a movie and the other wants to play the piano.... (Do you have a digital piano that the practice can be done with a headphone?) To me, the house has not solved the essential question of separation and togetherness; noise and quiet with many of your plans.... I am not good enough of a parent where I can limit TV/media viewing to only night time and only when it will not interfere with anything else in the house, hence the TV's banishment to the basement. I wish you the best. I have a 12 yo and a 9yo. I have TV/media room in the basement and piano on the second floor. Our LR/DR/K is on the top floor to maximize the light and view. Having said all of the above, I like the original plan the best. This is why. 1. The kitchen has the most amount of light. You will spend the mose of your time in the kitchen as a family. The breastfast island is facing East if you eat on the island. This is a nice way to eat breakfast. We see the sunrise nearly every morning with our breakfast. 2. If you will keep the TV where it is (NW interior corner), it is the most isolating of the noise. You have essentially relegated the least desirable area to the kids to watch TV and hang out. IMHO, this will create the adult zone in the formal LR/DR when you have company. When we go to people's houses and when we have families over, this is essential: separation of adults from kids. As your kids become more independent, they do not want adult interference. Basements work exceptionally well. You do not have that option.... In the absence of that, this is the best option for kid/adult separation. (can you make your guest room into the media/kid zone? That seems not to be an option for you) 3. With the original plan, I see your family using the DR regularly to eat and the banquet as the kids school work zone. You will use the DR more because it will be quite pleasant and easy to use due to the window placement and the proximity to the kitchen. IHMO, DRs are not necessarily formal rooms. It is just another room in your house. If you have it, you should use it. I only have 2 eating areas. The island and the DR which is open to the kitchen. Many families have 3 eating areas. The time that is handy is when you entertain. In your house, you put the kids meals (banquet) separate from the adults (DR). 4. The kids will sit at the island preferenctially because of the view out the garden (over the other plans where they look at the wall of cabinets.) If you were sitting, do you want to look at a wall of cabinets or out the window? In other plans the kids may prefer the banquet because of more light... Again, what you do want? Do you want the kids at the banquet or the island? Even children instinctively gravitate toward light. I like your house's abundance of natural light and easy access to the outdoors. I also like the open floor concept very much. I wish you the best.

I think the viewing height is very important. I would not rush the decision Instead try to somehow get a 36 inch height in room by putting another table there or builing up some kind of stand just to see. Place the TV at 36 inch for a week and view it alot. also same thing for shorter height. Then make the decision.

Some fireplaces are deserving of being called a monstrosity. Our old one certainly was. Bellsmom on the kitchen forum enhanced the monster so you can see it better: I begrudged it taking nearly 4' of depth for most of the width of the room to support its tiny firebox. We considered putting the TV over the fireplace in the remodel, but we wanted wood burning and the low emissions fireplaces are all quite tall. Also, I didn't feel it would be comfortable for me that high and the hood might block some of the viewing area from the kitchen. Post remodel we have a tamed fireplace, definitely not a monstrosity: The new fireplace takes just a small bit at one side of the wall leaving the center to our - horror of horrors! - 60" flat screen TV. We like the size because it makes it easier to read the screen when using it as an internet browser. The large size is also very nice when viewing from the kitchen which is over 20' from the screen: The new fireplace is an EPA Phase II wood burning fireplace. It runs efficiently and produces minimal particulates. Convection air flow around the firebox heats the room nicely and the intake air control allows control of how quickly the fuel burns. We live in an area with cool winters - enough that the additional warmth in the evening is nice since we usually keep our thermostats low. It heats the family room and kitchen nicely and the room is still comfy in the morning. Because it is EPA phase II, it's legal to use on most "No Burn" days. So far we haven't had to buy wood. Our yard and tree trimmers of neighbor's trees have supplied enough.

Great thread. I resisted the tv over the fireplace for years. When we built I had a space next to the fireplace in a cabinet set up for the tv. We put a regular 36" tube tv in there. It was fine. Then a few years later we bought a 48" flat screen. It wouldn't fit in the cabinet so we created a media room downstairs. I added a small kitchenette and set it up for up to 6 people to watch tv. The too had the added bonus of not having the glare of the upstairs. Guess what, no one ever went down there unless we made a production of it. So finally we bought a 55" flat screen and mounted it over the fireplace. I love the fact that it is right there where everyone is and tends to hang out. When we have gatherings I put pandora on and that is good,too. My mother in law was an interior designer and I thought she'd have a kitten when she saw it but she agreed it worked for our lifestyle. In our next house we will have much less space so are planning for the tv over the fireplace again. Admitting that I am powerless over my need to binge watch Netflix made my life much easier :D. The builder we are working with has done some nice things to address this, in the really high ceiling rooms he did a double mantle. I'll see if I saved a pic and post it.