Tell your DH that he should be happy he doesn't have to worry about these details..... The beauty of your dilemma is that if you don't like the placement of the table, you can always move it. Remember, options can be our friends. I would wait until the space is finished, place the table in one location, try it out for a week, move it to the other location and see which I like better. Then I would have the light installed. If it costs a bit more for them to come back and install the light that's better than having them move it from one location to the other and having to repair the dry wall and repaint. Then you can post photos of the two options and your equally neurotic GWers can give you input. It could be worse, you could be unsure about kitchen cabinet or appliance placement and that you can't test-drive!

Thank you so much Rosesstink and Remodelfla! I knew I should have explained about the two bedrooms and long walk to the kitchen but didn't want to bore everyone with too many details. I guess it's going to be helpful for this question and the many more to follow over the next few months, so here are all the details. I thank you for your candor because this will only be my second house and first build so I have a lot to learn. The community is far from town with very large nature lots. While we plan to live there full time, it's a vacation home for most. Our lot is deeded for two guest houses and because the residents here don't have children living at home, they seem to be happy to build guest houses for their friends and family who visit. Because of this, we'd really like to just build the rooms we are going to use. There could also be another bedroom added next to the guest room for a future owner as well. We will probably be in the house for 25 years but things are not always that easy to predict. Thanks for pointing out the size of master closet and bathroom. We are actually working with an architect, but I just had him allot some space for the master suite and kitchen so I could think about and tinker with what kind of setup we'd like. I didn't want to spend too much time making things perfect until I was comfortable with the flow. I've been reading this posts for so long that all I can think about is flow and function.. even if I'm not very good at it!! We will be enlarging or shrinking rooms as we start to fill them in. And sorry my question wasn't clear. I guess it's because my brain is fried from thinking about this so much. Yes, our living room and dinning room currently share one space. I wasn't sure about the kitchen table and dining room table being so close to each other and wanted to know what you all thought about that. Also if you would prefer the idea of moving the dining room table to the entry space so it was not open to the kitchen. I'm probably so unclear because I'm confused about what I would prefer myself and would love to hear some other opinions on the matter. I knew you would notice the walk from the garage :) The architect originally put the kitchen on the right end of the living room so we wouldn't have to walk by the kitchen, but I knew that was too far for me to live with. We've spent a lot of time thinking about this and while not perfect, I am fine with this because we are going to get some sort of cart so I can load groceries all at once from my car and take them in one trip to the kitchen. I'll have a place to store the cart in the pantry as well. More background on why the layout is the way it is.. The lot drops off on the north, east, and south sides. We are basically on the point of a hill. The entrance from the property is from the northwest. The architect liked the garage here because that way you don't drive up and just see garage. This neighborhood is all about the views so it really drives the design of the house. He liked the view out of the north east for the bedroom. The south views are quite special so we wanted the house to be long to capture them. The east/west hallway is going to be higher than the rest of the house with opening clerestory windows which will supposedly create airflow through the house. We'll have big overhangs on the south side to try to offset all the windows. The kitchen could have been closer to the garage but that would have meant taking up prime real estate to put the garage on the south side or not have the south view from the kitchen. We also really want to have a big courtyard. The temperatures are comfortable all year but it can get really windy so the courtyard may turn out to be a nice place to be. Because of the cart idea for groceries, we decided it was a reasonable compromise. The right hallway leads to outdoor space. That hallway probably won't wind up sticking out as far as it's drawn. It's really just for a little drama and gives us a little niche to put a couple of chairs to watch the sunrise when not in the bedroom. Did I mention that we really like views :) Are you still there or did I bore you to death???

How do you envision using your dining room? Many people opt for island seating and a breakfast-type table and call it good. Others want/need seating for 18 of their nearest and dearest every Friday, Sunday and/or holiday. Some people are good with a dining table in the same space as their kitchen or living room, others either must have or despise a separate space where you aren't looking at the dirty dishes. I think you could make space in either the kitchen area or the living room area, but they will have a different feel. I know you must be decisioned out by now, but maybe you could find one not-dead, not-frazzled brain cell to give the function question some thought, and that might help. Also, have you posted your kitchen in the Kitchen Forum? There are people there who are very good at kitchen space planning and more than generous with their time. I was wondering about that space in the bottom right corner of the plan, but I suck at kitchen design, so don't take me too seriously. Ask over there, and that might help you decide on what to do about a dining space too.

Afton, it would help a great deal if you'd post a plan of the room with measurements and all openings (windows, doorways, etc). How many people do you need to seat regularly? Is there anything else you need/want in the room besides table, chairs, and sideboard? When you say "the rest can go", what pieces do you mean? I see a toy truck, so I'm going to mention now that my favorite kid's chairs are from Ikea, either the Ingolf or Agam. Keep those in mind when you look for a table and chairs so you can co-ordinate one or more child's chairs.