Thanks for the replies so far! Just to clear things up - The "Den" is also going to be an office - we need two. The idea of making the dining room into an office is about function over form, and actually using the space instead of wasting it. We've had guests over 0 times in the last 15 years. We've owned 6 homes in those years (including the one we are in now) with formal dining rooms and not used the dining table once. There is just us two - Our family lives 3000 miles away - and we are busy professionals - in retirement we will be at our country club for food/entertaining.. As is - we eat in the family room 99% of the time and only use our nook table for holidays... The large counter in this build would replace functionality of the nook table. The patio/pool area will have an extension with a fully screened in cage, and be a gathering space with tables/chairs - though where we live, it's miserable to be outside 8 months out of the year - so it's never used. That's our life - it's not even close to the same for everyone - which is why we wanted to make the conversion temporary - so it can be converted back for resale.

Thank you so much mama goose_gw! These are real breakingthrough ideas for us! And yes RTHawk, your question makes a lot of sense, however the garage wall of the mudroom is where the toilet plumbing is. I am guessing a major undertaking. However in floorplan B, I am thinking to remove the wall next to the garage door and move this door hinges to the right, so the door opens toward the mudroom. These ideas don't work for floorplan A though, so I may just drop the mudroom, and follow mama goose suggestions. I may still move the hinges of the garage door to the right and put some hooks on the PR wall though. And I'll figure out something else in the garage then. I need to work on a new floorplan now. Thank you so much for your great help!

I have an open concept living area so my office space is open to the more formal living area. I recently remodeled and what I did was incorporate as much storage as possible so that things could be hidden away. My printer is installed inside a lower cabinet that rolls out so that it is hidden. This also stores paper. There is an outlet in this cabinet to plug in the printer. I don't need huge amounts of file storage so at this point almost everything is digital but I have one smallish file cabinet to hold some hanging files. My desk counter area runs the width of the wall and also does a turner at the corner. This is where I have my computer. I have upper cabinets which have sliding decorative doors and these hold a multitude of sins - they also complement the design choices of my living room in terms of color and style as they are Art Decoish in style. I have a little covered compartment by my computer which holds my external hard drives which I use for backup and additional storage of digital files. My designer had suggested using a fabric on the wood between the counter/desk and the upper cabinets which would be a decorative way of pinning stuff. My office needs really aren't into pinning paper as I try to get rid of as much paper as possible but this would be an attractive option for people who do pin stuff. I purchased a very stylish (and comfortable) office chair. It is upholstered non-traditionally in teal blue faux ostrich :-). Again this complements design elements from the living room. For me the key was balancing functionality and aesthetics and maximizing hidden storage.

If your existing plumbing (coming down from 2nd floor as well), HVAC, structural framing, and budget let you move the Powder Room into the Dining Room, giving you an adequate size Office, the same Kitchen, and a large informal dining area between Kitchen and Family Room, that is a possible scenario. However, then the Family Room would be more noticeable as the odd one out - a smaller, even appear smaller yet because of the existing circulation and proportions of the usable footprint compared to the large, broad, open Kitchen/Dining. What's the room off the Family with the slider?