OK...so you're also opening up the "lower" wall. The cooktop is much too close to the wall, I'm not even sure you have room for handles on the left, let alone emergency landing space. You should have at least 12", preferably 18" to 24" on both sides. You have a 36" span of wall and you're putting a 36" cooktop there. You don't even really have sufficient space on the right side of the cooktop as well...by recessing the bay window run of counters you're eliminating workspace directly adjacent to the cooktop. I'm not a fan of recessing so deeply...it constricts your workspace (both surface and floor) and eliminates useful workspace & storage. I would probably add a prep sink in the bay window area b/c right now you will prep on the peninsula...but there's really not enough room for it...plus the DW is in the way of the Prep Zone (to the right of the sink b/w the refrigerator & sink and across from the cooktop). Prep Zones usually end up near the closest water source to the Range/Cooktop & Refrigerator and right now your sole source is on the peninsula. The counters to the right of the cooktop won't get used much b/c there is no water source convenient for prepping....so you have quite a bit of wasted counter space on one side and nowhere near enough counterspace on the sink side (if you prep there). I would also consider moving the refrigerator to the other side of the sink/opening...right now it will bring outsiders deep into the working area of the kitchen and they will get underfoot! If you move it to the other side of the sink/opening, it will still be in the kitchen but when outsiders come looking for a snack they will not be underfoot. The other reason for moving it is to make it more convenient to the eating area(s). You don't show a MW...but I would locate it either next to the moved refrigerator (other side of the opening from the sink) or on the bay window run on the far right...it should be on the periphery for the same reason as your refrigerator...easily accessed from the kitchen but also located so outsiders looking for a snack (like MW popcorn or reheated leftovers) will not be underfoot.

I agree with Jan. The perfect Christmas tree obsession is only one symptom of how Christmas has been hijacked by the commercial interests. Our holiday of celebrating the birth of a selfless savior has perversely mutated into an orgy of insane greed and shopping. This year there are 5 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. 5 weeks of insanity. My neighbor already had her tree and lights put up the day after Thanksgiving. One of my students had to work 8 hours on Thanksgiving day at Old Navy. The magazines tout how to have "the best Christmas EVER" for the umpteenth year in a row. Baking cookies for everyone you know. Santa Claus wasn't good enough--now there's Elf on the Shelf, and even the Mensch on a Bench for Hannukah, so all children can participate in the gimme, gimme culture. Black Friday gave way to Cyber Monday. More and more craft projects taking more and more time. I say get off the treadmill and only do what means something to you and allows you to appreciate the true meaning of Christmas. Do something for someone less fortunate. Spend time with your children and parents. Visit the sick. Donate to a worthy cause. And ironically it's better for you than getting a new scarf/pair of boots/iPhone.

Thanks for the feedback all! To those who love those old details- you are MORE than welcome to our blue tub and tile and remnant pieces of God knows what for the vanity : ) NO THANK YOU. For our Master bath, we're thinking demo the tiny neoangle shower, replace the pan, and build up a pony wall on one side so we can still have the vanity there. The other side can either be a pony wall as well, like in the picture, or full glass, next to the toilet. I think the glass walls (and taking out the moisture-trapping almost enclosed top) will help to open the space. We've thought of pocket doors, but any of the walls that have space for it have electric, so that's a no go. That's about all we can come up with (aside from new tile on the floor, new toilet, decorative kind of things) for the master to be improved. For the guest bath, replace the tile and tub with white or similar, and build a nice double vanity and maybe a linen tower at the edge or in between, since it's such a long stretch of space (74" I think). Remove the painting above the toilet and beautify that area. And for the colors/walls/theme- yellow, gray and white. That's the best we've got, and I'm not sure that will visually open up the space a huge amount (excepting the frameless glass shower in the master, I'm sure that will), but it will brighten and beautify. Thoughts?

Yes you can mix the deck with the patio but IMO the deck needs to be much larger with no second set of of stairs and I think the deck is the place for the dinig area and the patio for the seating and fire pit since in a home the DR would be next to the kitchen I always think of the outdoor space just like a home. You will need a good landscape designer to pull this off and IMO yes you will need to rebuild the deck maybe make it 2 levels one for the BBQ and outdoor kitchen then the next area down the DR and then the patio I do not like fixed seating for fire pits they do not allow for movement away from the smoke. I love the 2nd pic a perfect way to handle the seating around the pit and the whole space just look so inviting.