The only other thing I came up with (for a pretty staircase) may cost you too much storage. If you could do without the buffet in the dining room, you could run the staircase along that wall...from the living room/entry, to the wall with the french doors. This would give you a more open stairwell and easy access to the downstairs...but again, don't know if you want to lose the dish storage. If you're considering a basement...have you thought about putting one or both guest rooms and a bath down there? Then, you could have the pantry, laundry, mudroom and garage in that other wing and maybe save a little bit, on your square footage. Just another idea...and if you don't want a daylight basement, all you need are egress windows in the bedrooms. This would give you guests a little more privacy, but I've heard if you make it too nice...the kids want to move back in :)

Hi, Looks like a great plan. Here are my thoughts --- I can't mark it up, don't have the software, but here is what I see.... 1.) The entry to your closet wastes a wall because your door to the closet is in the way and hugs the exterior wall. So, to fix that, push the vanities down toward the exterior wall and put the doorway between the 2 sinks. This allows you to bring the potty room more into the master bath (up next to the shower (it would turn 90 degrees counter clockwise. If you do this, it frees up a bit more space in the laundry area (from plan 2) --- you could square off your closet (take the laundry sink out of the closet square) and then have a long wall of laundry cabinetry with W/D and sink all along a straight wall that uses the previous master potty space. Did I lose you yet? I believe once several of these steps happen, you'll gain a bit more closet space, your master bath will be just as pretty, but it will be a bit more efficient, you'll get a nice mudroom, and you'll get rid of a couple of those wall jogs....Your stair location will work great the way you have it shown in plan 2. Good luck, can't wait to see it!

I am going to make some kinds of generic comments based on one of my favorite remodeling columns as well as a well-known architect. The remodel-column guru always hit home to me with her proposed solutions because they were based not on adding so much square footage, but on identifying why certain rooms in the house weren't used much, and why folks gravitated to one area, and then flipping or re-orienting the spaces and traffic flow to use all of the home to best advantage. Whereas so many typical remodel solutions seemed to involve converting a garage or adding yet another room when the original home had significant sq footage already. Of course the innovative re-purposing solutions still might have involved some additions, bump outs, wall removal and so forth, but quite often involved taking into account the best views or adding great windows, French doors when needed to access the deck or yard, flipping the kitchen so it was oriented to great views rather than a less-used dining space, and so forth. So an example of a common "mistake" is that someone might add a large sunny family room or sunroom to the back of a home that already has kitchen, DR, FR, LR, etc ( at high expense)in order to have light and air, but not connect it well to existing spaces, and then the whole family crowds into the sunroom and drags meals out there ("we spend all our time here"), but still does not like being in the existing kitchen and DR and FR, which still must be heated, cooled, and cleaned, instead of getting the right design help to remodel the existing spaces to work together and have the light and views and connections needed to "feel good". That would just be an example, and is not to say that one can't add a terrific sunroom that was the best thing they ever did! You're already thinking along some of those lines. Continue with evaluating the light and views and what your family expects to do together and apart; as noted, screened porch provides access to fresh air, but the effect on light entry is to be looking out into shade and dimness ( unless you add skylights to the porch, which is also an option to consider in remodeling,for just that reason). You would know more about how you might use the kitchen-FR connection (this was a useful combination for my family in order to allow kids to be on computer, do homework and feel connected to the kitchen). As another form of inspiration, you might also like to read The Not So Big House. It also speaks to the features of home design that contribute to the "feel" of the spaces so that we create spaces that are really used and enjoyed every day as opposed to lots of "rooms" that are not. I think many architects and designers are more comfortable with "additions" rather than the idea of re-arranging existing space within the home.

In 5-7 years, your "new" kitchen won't be new any more. Any trendy choices that you make now will look dated then. I don't consider soapstone trendy, but it is certainly for a niche customer who doesn't mind patina. Most customers don't want patina. They want shiny and new--always. I don't think that having soapstone counters will help you sell your home eventually, but I don't think that in a 7 year old kitchen that any individualized taste countertop would limit a home sale. A new owner might want an allowance to rip it out if they didn't like it, but it wouldn't stop the sale. Get what you like, and don't worry about 7 years in the future. However, if this will put you at the limit of your budget, DON'T do it. This isn't the time for blowing the budget on something that you want when something else that is 90% of what you want will be 50% less.