May I ask more questions? 1. How frequently do you think you'll be baking? I absolutely agree that you do not want to go on a two-island walkabout to place batter in the oven. So, I recommend that arrangement be reworked. Since baking usually involves intensive prep followed by long term oven time, during which you don't need to hover over the oven, I like out of the way baking centers (relatively speaking), and I like them to have an oven included. However, take care that the oven will not open into a major traffic area (see question below about where doorways lead). 2. I take it the areas that show up on either side of the hutch are doorways? Where do they lead? I ask because my kitchen is sized somewhat similarly to yours, but one side's opening is closer to the butler's pantry and dining room, while the other is closer to the breakfast room. What ends up happening, at least in my household, is that people who clear the table bring the dishes to the sink closest to the room where they ate. That means, if they ate in the breakfast room, they tend to put dirty dishes in the dishwasher in the island; and if they ate in the dining room, they tend to pile dishes in the big cleanup sink on the wall that backs up to the pantry, or into the dishwasher next to that. When I put the dishwasher in the island, next to the prep sink, I did it because I foresaw having dirty prep implements that would need to be washed, not because I accurately foresaw the traffic pattern from the breakfast room. However, "if it's convenient, they will come," so, I recommend a dishwasher near the prep sink, especially if that will be closer to one or more of your post meal traffic patterns. (The kids will be old enough to help one of these days.) Some would disagree, but I thought you'd want to hear all viewpoints. 3. I try to avoid any kitchen aisles less than 42" if more than one person could be in the kitchen. You'll have kids in there baking and prepping with you, eventually? Or hubby? Or caterer? Have you looked at the NKBA aisle guidelines? 4. I agree with everyone about not wanting to corner an island to use the three basic sink/prep/stove points. I only gave a cursory glance at above posts, so forgive me if I repeat others' suggestions. 5. The back-to-back seating arrangement is not conducive to social interaction. Too narrow an aisle, wrong orientation for conversation. Also, I prefer island seating to be at the distant end of an island, furthest away from the prep/cooking action. I believe that's the safest placement, for cook and kids/guests. If that would be too far away, I would consider reorienting the island or islands so that they are rectangular with long sides paralleling 36" sink wall. 6. It's going to be a wonderful space! I need to get back to chores. ;^(

What a great large space! 1. I'm short and love light, so I'm all for no uppers and more windows - down to the countertop. 2. I'm not a fan of corner cabinets, so I would recommend dead-cornering at least one of them. I'm thinking dead-corner left of the range, then you can put in a 3-drawer base cabinet and put in great spice storage like this: (which I prefer way over a skinny spice pull-out where you have to bend down to read/reach for spices) Breezy's example for spice drawer 3. where do you plan on doing most of the baking? Where will mixer, toaster, etc go? So if you have no uppers on the sink wall, perhaps bring the upper (to the left of the hood) down to the countertop so you can put in an appliance garage: Mamadadapaige's upper cabinet down to countertop as appliance garage 4. I know you have the 48" range in the design, but has anyone tried to convince you to consider induction? SOOO much easier to clean than than honking 48" gas range. Safer for your 3-future cooks too. my 10.5yrs old son loves making grilled cheese on ours. You can always add a 15" wolf gas hub. GW was very helpful in convincing me to go induction, when I was all set for gas (I grew up in Chinese restaurant businesses). But I am very grateful for the switch. I love my 2 DWs; so will you. Amanda's wall of window, dead-corner, double-decker appliance garage good luck, Amanda

I always hesitate to comment on kitchens that have clearly already been carefully considered because surely my concerns have already been vetted. But just on the off-chance this has not come up yet: 1) I prefer having the microwave in the same area with the everyday dishes (bowls, spoons, forks, etc.) and the fridge. It means you can get something from the fridge, dump in a bowl, and microwave it. I also prefer that conglomeration of items (fridge, microwave, everyday dishes) to be entirely outside of the cookzone so snack-seekers don't get in my space when I am cooking. Your microwave is currently in your cook zone. That makes sense if you primarily use it for cooking (melting chocolate, etc.), but if your micrwoave is primarily used in non-cooking situations as mine is, I would suggest putting it by the fridge and dishes. 2) The upper cabinet above the dishwasher is not a good place for dishes. You will not be able to reach it when the dishwasher is open, so unloading dishes into that cabinet will be a pain in the neck. You will have to stack everything on the counter and then shut the dishwasher and then put them in the cabinet. 3) Have you measured and made sure that all your daily dishes will fit in the cabinets you intend for them? Especially considering that the upper cabinet above the dishwasher is more or less not going to work, to me it seems as if you could use a bit more everyday dish storage. 4) I would prefer the mirror image of your island like this: I tend to pull out all my ingredients at once and then prep them. So, for me, I would prefer to have the long stretch of island counter closer to the fridge/pantry, so where I naturally drop the ingredients is also where I prep them. I'd never have have to move them again. Just grab from fridge, drop on island and get going. As you have it now, where I'd want the ingredients to end up (the longer stretch of island counter) is too far to be the fridge drop zone. I'd either have to grab what I could hold, walk it to the longer stretch of island counter to drop it, and then rinse and repeat till everything I needed was over there. Or I'd have to pile everything I needed from the fridge on the 18" section of counter (which isn't a ton of room for all the ingredients in a recipe), then walk to the island and transfer everything from the 18" section to the longer stretch of island counter. In addition to that, mirroring your island puts your two sinks a little farther apart. It's not a big deal, but it is a nice bonus. When the sinks are evenly spaced around the kitchen, a sink is always near you no matter where you in the kitchen. When the sinks are more clustered, they aren't always quite so handy to wherever you are. And if ever one of the sinks is getting major activity, it is nice to have the other one totally separate from the hubbub so it isn't a big deal for someone not involved in the major activity to use a sink. Again, not a big deal, but it is nicer to have the sinks farther apart. 5) With the island mirrored, it also gives you some options for drawers that pull out towards the fridge. You could add some everyday dish storage (if you agree with my suggestion above that you could use more) or move the microwave drawer (if you agree with my suggestion above that the microwave would be better in the fridge/everyday dish zone and out of the cook zone). 6) I would also be tempted to swap the location of the fridge and the dish storage cabinets next to it like this: I know that means the island is a barrier between the fridge and the cookzone. So this would definitely be a compromise. HOWEVER: a) As I said, I usually pull out all my ingredients at once. And if the fridge and dish storage cabs were swapped, the island prep counter would still be my go-to fridge drop zone, and I'd still have a straight walk between the fridge and that drop zone. So I'd pull out my ingredients, drop them directly on the island and then walk around the island into the cook zone and never go back. Yes, it'd be better if it that were a straight walk to the cook zone, but a single non-straight walk like that would not be a big deal to me at all. b) What would be a big deal to me is that, with the fridge and dish cabs swapped, the primary every day dish storage cabinets (U1 and L1) are now directly next to dishwasher. So unloading would be a breeze! You never have to move. In your current plan, there'd be a lot of walking back and forth in front of the fridge to unload. Not a big deal, but I'd definitely rather ease of dishwasher unloading vs. a straight walk between fridge and cook zone. c) Also, in your current plan, the fridge door swings into a person washing dishes, the open dishwasher door, and the pantry doorway. That's a lot of activity for a little space, and I am not sure I'd want the fridge door to be adding to the chaos. With the fridge and dish cabs flipped, the swinging fridge door is in the way of almost nothing. If you are the type to go back and forth a million times to the fridge while cooking, this swap wouldn't work for you. But if you are like me or you wouldn't mine becoming like me, there are certainly some real upsides to the swap without much downside.

This is a variation of an online plan that we saw a week or so ago, right? I think it is better than what we saw before, but I can still see improvements: Laundry room: Judging from the list you present on the drawing, you're planning on this being a hard-working room. The things you're talking about, however, are mostly "perimeter items"; by that, I mean that your washer and dryer, etc. are mostly things that'll be placed around the edges of the room. Thus, the layout of the room is simple: Line it all up around the borders. You'll want your dryer to be on an exterior wall so you can vent it directly outside, and if you have any other water in the room, you'll want to keep it on that same wall (cheaper that way). Still on the subject of laundry, I'd open up a doorway between the foyer and your closet /bathroom so you could zip between the two areas with baskets of clothes. I would add a second door into the foyer (for convenience and flow). If the room stays this size, no to an island; it would make the room crowded. What I would consider, however, is a tuck-away table. This isn't particularly common, and it wouldn't be cheap, but it would give you the ability to bring out table space when you need it: Alternately, you could leave yourself a spot to tuck away a card table, which would be much, much cheaper. Island shape: In an L-layout like this -- great room to one side, dining to the other -- I'd keep it simple. A large rectangle or rectangle with an oval presented to the great room side is perfect. Crazy window: I don't think I'd do it. As you have arranged it now, the keeping room has privacy -- both visual and acoustical. It's your "away room". I think that's a good thing. IF you do put in a window, I'd definitely add shutters or some other type of closure so you can control whether you're "connected" to this room. Plus, you have an adequate amount of cabinetry, but if you remove some uppers for a window, you're giving away your storage. Finally, I don't think a window in this area would be a plus in terms of looks. Great room size: I lean towards yes, a bit deeper would be a good thing. I have no concerns about the room being wide enough, but imagine the furniture in place. You need 3' on each side for a walkway, which cuts down on your usable area. Master bedroom: I agree that you don't need more space here. In fact, I think it's already too large. I'd rearrange the bathroom and closet (which don't look so good) and use some of that wasted width for them. Bounce-off question: Where's your backyard access door? If it's in the great room, you're losing 3' on BOTH SIDES of the room. If it's in the dining area, you're going to have problems with the table blocking the door. Kitchen-Keeping room door: I would not widen it. I'd keep it a standard door because that keeps the keeping room more private. It also gives you more cabinet space in the kitchen. Serving counter: No, I would not do a serving counter between the kitchen and dining room. It'd create a barrier between the two rooms, meaning you'd have to walk around the island to reach the table. And it'd create "visual clutter" and would muddy up the doorway into the keeping room. Plus, you don't need it: With all those counters in the dining room, you have your serving space. Other thoughts: - You have the Great Room ... plus THREE MORE public rooms. What are your plans for each? Couldn't some of these combine? For example, couldn't the Keeping Room house craft projects? Couldn't the dog kennels be in the mudroom? - Similarly, you have THREE "working spaces" by the garage door: Mud room, pantry, and laundry. I think the efficiency in this area could be greatly increased. - The pantry is inefficient. It's 15' long, giving your space for shelves and shelves and shelves ... but on the other side is ... nothing. All that square footage is devoted to the walkway, and the other side of the wall is completely wasted. To put it another way, you're devoting to the pantry the space of a walk-in closet, but you're only getting the storage of a reach-in. If you really want to increase the size of the mudroom, add 1' of width to the pantry ... now you can have shelves on both sides ... thus, you can afford to give 1/2 the pantry space to the mudroom without losing a bit of your storage. - Your proportions are way off in lots of places. For example, I see single 5' wide windows in some spots, and in others 24" doorways. Neither of these are things you actually want. - Being forced to walk through the mud room to reach the office is odd. - Note that the Keeping Room wall sticks out about 2' farther than the Great Room wall. You want this whole back wall to be flat -- obviously with the bump-out for the dining room -- to keep the roof line simple. - The master bath needs a complete re-do. You have so much wasted space in the middle! For example, you have 9' of wasted space in front of a small 4x4' shower. Why wouldn't you incorporate that space into the shower and make it a nice, large, luxurious space that'd also be elderly-friendly? And one of your sinks is behind the door; that's just a bad plan. I think the issue here is that you're trying to use a design that is appropriate for a long-narrow bathroom ... but you don't have a long-narrow space. Note that your linen and toilet-closet doors cover your clothing-closet doors. - The out-in-front garage is going to be an eyesore. This is something that people building on small city lots are forced to do, but people building on acreage avoid. I'd look at making this a detached garage ... connected with a covered walkway ... and have it enter through what is now the office ... and bump the office to the front of the house, using a portion of what is now the garage. This'll give you more mud room space, and it'll take away what is probably going to be a clumped-up-in-front elevation. In conclusion, parts of this house are nicely arranged, but it's not "there yet".