Michelle, Congrats on a great thread. It is very rare to have a thread attain 100 responses and you clearly will go way over that. Another first for Camelot in SW VA Fritillary (sp.) I couldn't get close enough to determine what species. BTW, This beats my earliest Fritillary ever by 3 days. mike

Catching up on this post from yesterday… it just gets progressively funnier. Since we’ve bypassed delicacy, I’m not actually concerned about the *need* for an exhaust fan… And I agree that I don’t expect a guest bath to see much use…just the general strangeness of sitting on the sofa chatting with friends, while some one is in the bathroom two feet away. How often that would be a problem? Probably never… like you said, they can go upstairs. Bellsmom-- I’m impressed with your photoshop skills. That looks really nice!! Thank you! There really isn’t another spot for a powder room. We had considered moving it to the other end of the kitchen, where it could be aligned with the fridge and you wouldn’t see it as a boxed-out area, but then it’s really IN the kitchen. And disrupts the whole layout of the area. We’ve gone back and forth on the backdoor. Bumping it out to square the room would be ideal. But it would require adding a foundation, and also removing the concrete and brick stairs that lead directly down to already existing concrete patio. So it’s not just the door… it’s the other twenty things it affects. I wanted to square the room, and put French doors on the right hand wall, but there is a tree there, and adding steps down to ground level would require removing it. I love seeing it out the window, and was unsure I wanted to take it down. The problem with this project is that we are trying to fix someone else’s poor design rather than doing it right. Which may be only marginally easier than starting from scratch. Thank you so much for sharing all your thoughts!! I will upload a photo when we have some kind of mock up of the wall… hopefully it will give us a better idea of how it might look in reality. Bellsmom’s photo kind of looks too good to be true. And I liked the idea of bookshelves, although the wall would probably be better as a sofa wall, since the room is long and narrow and the sofa depth would be better not sticking into the room.

amberley - sorry I didn't check in sooner. I love your layout - what a great 1st try! I spent an hour writing a post two nights ago an then managed to delete it just before I submitted it. I don't know if you've moved on from the drawing you posted, but I'm going to put in a couple of thoughts and hope at least one or two are helpful. Please bear in mind I'm not a "layout guru", but since this is a Chef's table I'm jumping in. 1. Would you consider switching the dishwasher and the trash pullout so the dishwasher is on the left? That would give much better clearance for walking behind the person unloading dishes. You could simply move the sink to the right 6" (the sink would be a little more behind the island, but 42" clearance should be enough for passing anyone washing dishes). Or you could also steal a few inches from the pantry to the left. This might make the hall/LR entryway a little tight. I don't know how much traffic this entryway gets, but there is another entry way just on the other side of the fridge. Stealing a little from the pantry could move your range a little to the left and give you a little more counter space on the right (it looks like you have only 15-17") for ingredients/utensils/mise en place and "on deck" pots/pans" 2. Also for better dishwasher clearance, would you consider shortening the marble area 6", getting rid of the mixer cab, putting your mixer underneath the butcher block and expanding your baking drawers from 30" to 36"? (don't know if this would cramp your "rolling" style) I'm biased against the mixer cabinets which have a shelf that positions up to the counter, because the ones I've seen tend to shake a lot once the mixer really gets going. 3. If you're doing volume baking, would you consider leaving space for a 18"x18" rolling cart w/5-6 shelves underneath the area labeled "bookcase or open for stools"? I made a 6 shelf one for myself out of Metro shelving. It has a cutting board insert top. It acts both as a cooling and loading rack for baked items (when kids are little allow pans to cool on counter for 15 min before putting on cart). It can store all sorts of baking and cookie pans & parchment paper/silpats. And it can be rolled to wherever it is needed in the kitchen. Just an idea! 4. Also for sheet & baking pan storage, have you considered using the cabinet above your fridge. I went with a 24"d x 36"w cab and put vertical inserts in it to keep the pans sorted and standing up. That way you only have to be able to reach the bottom corner to pull them out. It's a great use of an area that's normally "hard to reach" storage (unless of course you're really tall which I'm not). 5. I like having the microwave by the fridge as a lot of what I use it for is heating up leftovers. Would it be possible to add a shelf above the "Micro T.O. Stack" and put the microwave on it? (I know for some the unenclosed microwave is an "aesthetics violation"). If you can go with a smaller microwave that's only 18" wide, you get a little counter right by the fridge. This also keeps the microwave out of reach from little ones (Although now that DD just turned 11 and is allowed to use microwave, she's complaining it's hard to reach). You could also put plastic wraps and bags in the top drawer stack and use this station for wrapping/putting away food that goes into the fridge. I like having the plastic wrap by the microwave because I'm always using it to cover containers and bowls I'm putting into it. Again, I hope at least one of these is helpful. Congratulations on your fine start.

It was the first one for us too. Really loved the many decisions we made during our reno. 1) The 36" wide deep zero radius sink with a low divider really came in handy. Its amazing how much stuff can fit in this thing with still room to wash/clean 2) The double convection wall oven worked all day. Everything turned out perfect. I have no idea what conspired to make the turkey perfect this year. I am sure I won't be able to reproduce the result next year if I tried 3) The 36" 6 burner bluestar Rangetop worked all day. All six burners were in use at times, but didn't leave anything to be desired. It slowly simmered a big pot of turkey stock all day while the other burners were used to do a variety of boiling, sautéing, and gravy making. 4) The biggest "wow what did we do without this" moment came from the touch activated Delta faucet. I wash my hands after every step, especially when processing raw meat. being able to wash every 15 seconds at times without having to fiddle with the control was awesome, and keeps everything sanitary 5) The quartz counters really helped. Never a worry about spilling or raw meat juices, or spices, or anything else sitting on the counters. They were pretty messy all day through a rotation of meats, and eggs and milk and flour and cleaned up without a hitch. 6) stone backsplash - Cant tell you how nice it is to not have to worry about splashes during the various activities. Everything wiped off easily, unlike last thanksgiving where I scrubbed the paint off my walls trying to wipe off some of the gravy splashes. Things I wanted more of but just not possible in our size kitchen: 1) More counter space or a big island. Our kitchen and layout of spaces around the kitchen didn't allow for more. Its perfect for our every day, but would be nice at holidays like thanksgiving. 2) A separate prep sink - Day to day, its never one of the things I regret not having, but would have been very helpful at thanksgiving 3) A warming drawer. Maybe I will get one installed one day. Not a need day to day, but would be nice to put things once done when you are making several items. My oven has a keep warm function, but since both ovens were being actively users, a separate drawer would have been handy