Xc60, I am so jealous of your drawer cabinets! I planned on 2 drawer bases, but had to sacrifice the smaller 24" one for the microwave drawer, although I do have a nice, big drawer beneath it. And having the microwave drawer was definitely worth the trade off, solved several problems and I love it. The only drawback to the microwave drawer is it is expensive. I do have a 30" 3 drawer base and I love it! I really wish that my 33" base cabinet was a drawer base also and I am seriously considering ordering 2 drawers for the 15" base cabinet that is next to my range. I keep my smaller pots and pans in there and drawers would be so much nicer!

I'll definitely 2nd the completely separate laundry, I would have liked our laundry room to be a bit bigger for a table but just the fact that if I'm crazy busy and can't do anything but wash the clothes and they stay in there on the floor and I just close the door, it's SOOO nice, greatly reduces the stress that endless laundry brings. We also put our main laundry upstairs with the kids bedroom and added a separate washer/dryer hookup in our master bedroom closet for a small stackable. Our house build I also love that we have a an island big enough for 5 chairs and our breakfast "nook" (which isn't really a nook, it's just in between the kitchen and the family room) is big enough for a dining room table and we can also add a foldable table for when we have large family gatherings. Everyone can be in the same room, which was never possible when we had a formal dining room. We also put in an attic fan or whole house fan. It's great for energy savings if you want to reduce your a/c usage. At the end of the day when the kids finally go upstairs to get ready for bed we open the tops of all the windows and turn on the attic fan and it pulls in the cool night air, cooling it down fast. We also put in a full freezer and full freezerless refrigerator in the kitchen, side by side so it looks like one unit. We can fit everything we want and not constantly losing stuff in the back of those super deep fridges. We also had insulation put around our 1/2 bath so that we can't hear people in the bathroom and it really works!! I really, really wish we had done that around our master bedroom so if one of us has to get up early it doesn't wake the other still sleeping. We really like our blue star open burner all cast iron rangetop. We just take off a grate and put in a round bottom wok and we're stir frying. Blue Star is a great price for what you get. The cast iron stays looking better than stainless steel and we love the open burners. I love the layout of our kitchen. The kitchen is mostly used for those quick and easy meals, like cereal, sandwiches, or reheating leftovers. We really thought about that in the design. We open the fridge take everything out and put it on the island right next to it. Then we have the microwave in the island and the pullout trashcan right under where we put things. So it's easy to brush trash and crumbs into the trash and heat stuff up and our sink is close for washing. But for more involved meals we spread out from there which really works if there is more than one person in the kitchen. That's where our sink in the island comes in. We've had 6 or more people in our kitchen preparing food and there was plenty of room. We have a place for a formal dining room but we made it big enough to be a formal living room which is how we use it. I love it, I sit in there for some peace and quiet while the kids are in the family room. It's close enough to keep tabs on what it going on but separate to relax. I could go on, but I linked some pictures to my house we built, we since added some things, like built ins in the family room. I do wish our mudroom was bigger and had a door b/c it needs to be completely functional and it's always messy. I think I would have liked to have a desk in there since that is where mail ends up, oh and a table or something for all those kids crafts that are messy and don't get cleaned up right away.

I'm with you nancyjane on the hand watering. It gives me a chance to pause and really look at each area as I evaluate the water needs there. I feel like I really know the garden well after a few times through with the hose end watering wand. I'll notice pests, weeds, produce ready for harvest, etc, etc, and go back and deal with those later. But for the present moment, I'm just playing with the plants and water. Harvesting is also a favorite except when it is something very time consuming that I've over planted. Processing the bounty is NOT my favorite so I try to adjust my planting to spread things out so I can eat most things fresh. For later use, I'll go for things like onions, garlic, winter squash that don't require much work before storage. I also like things I can overwinter in the ground or protect with row cover. It's interesting to see that some of the things I like least are favorites of others. I worked with a lady who loved to weed. I did not. But after working in a school garden with her over several years, I came to like weeding...at least a little bit. The change was due partly to attitude and partly to techniques I learned from her.

Love ( in no particular order) Extra deep counters with a full row of appliance garages and lots of outlets and plug mold so I have plenty of room for my toys without having to put them away every day or haul them out, so they are always on hand. An extra deep appliance drawer for those appliances I don’t use every day. My skylights and extra windows bringing in extra light. My Aga induction Elise ( boils a cup of water in 30 seconds). My double height ceilings with stunning ceiling height tile behind my Aga creating a focal point. Lots of drawers. Lots of storage space. My pantry with lots of space for mason jars and vacuum sealable containers. So much counter space and workspace for multiple cooks and helpers ( should we ever get back to having extra people over ) Great combination of aesthetics and function. Convection steam oven. Lots of refrigeration space. A great extraction hood. Orienting my work space to my view. My Koehler ombré sensation faucet (my cat gives it a thumbs up too. It provides hours of entertainment for her ). My unique cedar( with inlaid glass )countertops. Some glass fronted upper cabinets for interest and display. Ceiling fans. Places for my cats to sit and access to windows for them. My monogram 48 in refrigerator/ freezer ( on close out). Didn’t think I’d love it as much as subzero. The appliances I got on close out, saving a ton of money. 1 and Half hp garbage disposers. My instant hot water and filtered water dispenser. Hate Not having ( some of) my appliances panel ready. ( what I’m used to ). The stainless steel always shows everything and I’m always cleaning them. Hate my copper sinks. Also never look clean and don’t drain well. And a break down in communication resulted in them not being under mount. That the lighting designer never got here so instead of a centralized Lutron panel, light switches are in different areas. Don’t miss My microwave.