Hi, congrats on the new baby and new home. We now have 6 boys (I have not figured out how to change it on here). I think LL did an awesome improvement on the plan. I was wondering a few things.... Are you planning to use the master sitting area for "mom and dad's office?" That is what we have done in ours and think it will work out great. Where will the home school area be? The game room? If there, it does seem rather far away from the most used areas (kitchen, laundry etc). Perhaps that is a good thing. If it were me...I would open the wall between the study and laundry area in a heart beat. I would close off the doors shown into the study sides and have just the one door going into the room. I would use that area as a large laundry/flex room. You would need to define spaces between that area and the home school area or just use it for home school. Assuming again that the master will be mom and dad's office. We have a long narrow laundry/flex room now and it could be twice the size and I would love it even more. We do crafts, computer work, etc all in there while keeping the laundry moving. As shown the bedrooms and closets look rather small for sharing with siblings. Especially the closets seem on the small side. We have 2 boys in each room with nice walk in closets for each room. We keep all clothes and "more" organized nicely in the closets. I do not use bunk beds (have always had a fear of them). We as of this Friday will have 2 twin beds in each kids' room. The middle 2 boys have used a queen together. I think they might end up in a twin together during the night ;). We have separate his and her closets in our master and believe it or not we use the one for the nursery and share the other closet. He will be 2 in April and it has worked out well having the nursery attached to our room, yet separate. Someday we will have separate closets with our items spread out. The closets really are larger than we need. I would square off the dining room and master sitting area walls, unless that is a look that you have been wanting. You will gain a little room and cut down on cost related to the extra corners. And personally I think it is a nicer look:). We also have 1 eating, table area besides the island. It is located off the kitchen to the back of the house too and we LOVE it. Ours is just over 12X18...so great for an oversized table 4X10. For large parties we can add another table in a T off the main table and have room to seat 10 more easily. Our dining area has a 10 foot arched entry to give it a little separation from the kitchen. I would work on straightening out the angled area in your kitchen plan. Actually I would definitely try to steal some square feet for your kitchen and have a larger island too. I'm sure you have lots of little helpers and cookie makers that love to gather around the island. I just reread the suggestions above about moving the pantry to the mud area or utility area. That is a great idea, I really think you need that extra kitchen space too. A mud room really doesn't need to be that wide. You can organize a lot of coat/shoe space in a narrow area. Wide hallways work great for this...cubbies etc do not take up much space (but, help out so much). Sorry if this is a scattered post with random thoughts. I'm having a case of insomnia and desperately need to try to get back to sleep. Another thought, I wanted to mention...the laundry/study combined fleas area could also easily have a half bath and then you would get your bath by the mud/garage entrance. I must agree IS high on the priority list of must haves.

We are pursueing an unusual route. We have what was a somewhat grandish 1882 home that is a mixture of Second Empire and Eastlake. Typical for the time, the back rooms (including the kitchen) were not finished to anywhere near the standard of the front (public) rooms. All the trim, moldings, floorings, hardware etc are/were several grades lower. Trying to recreate such a kitchen would seem fun for a museum, but not practical for the 21st century. And trying to create a muddle left us uninspired. Then we asked ourselves this question: What if, in 1882, they valued and utilized their kitchens as we do today? What if the kitchen was meant to be public and just as grand as the rest of the house? What would it have looked like? That question now forms our basis for design. We found the drawing below for a great ceiling and were able to order a replica, which we finally got installed about a month ago (lots of work!). We will do the floor in the Victorian style tiles from the Tile-Source. This week my wife is applying Venetian Plaster to the walls from Vasariplaster in BM August Morning, so that covers the large surfaces. The cabinets I am building and designing myself (thank God for Sketchup!), and they will be highly ornamental in the original Aesthetic Movement style, with no toe kicks and inset doors, ect. Crown Point has been an inspiration, but we are taking the design a lot further than they do in really trying to recreate period furniture/cabinet design. The idea is that upon viewing a person might reasonably think the cabinets are original to the house, with the exception that such cabinets were not built in kitchens at the time. It's all a bit risky, but it is exciting and we have our fingers crossed! Here is a link that might be useful: Tile Source

I think I'm getting closer. I found this picture of joan2121's kitchen during naptime today. I am in love. I can see tile samples over her range, so I'm guessing she hadn't gotten to the backsplash yet when the pictures were taken. I haven't been able to find a more recent picture to see how or if she tiles the space behind the sink. I don't have quite the expanse of windows like she does, but I think it would still be wonderful. I looked up on my official plans, and we're supposed to have two 2' double hung windows behind the sink with transoms above. I wonder if it's too late to make it a 5' space with a 15" window, a 30" window in the middle, and another 15" window. Do windows even come in those sizes? Well, something like that. A bigger picture window in the middle that doesn't need to open, flanked by two smaller windows that can be opened. Would I still want a transom above? We will have 10' ceilings so I think there will be plenty of space. What do you think? Is this possible? Is my builder going to tell me I'm crazy or that it's going to cost a million bucks? Here is a link that might be useful: joan2121's finished kitchen post

Ok, kiddo, here's spacing and all. You need to leave 5 feet between the edge of the counter and the edge of the breakfast bar. Seated people take up 2 feet beyond the counter edge (temporarily using 32" to get into or out of the stools) and you need to leave at least 3 feet behind them for passage and for people to be able to use the breakfast bar. are you aware the overhang for the counter as shown on the drawing doesn't match the size stated for it? If I remember correctly, you're using the ikea planner but have no plans to use ikea for the actual cabinets? That sink is smallish for cleanup (ask me how I know), a better choice would be to plan on using a 27" to 30" sink. You can't put a stages sink in a 24" sink base. The part of the sink that is less deep - in cabinet terms, is still too deep to have a top drawer in the adjacent cabinet. And you'd need to make significant cuts in the cabinet sides of both the sink base and the cabinet beside it. Even the small stages has an array of rack, board, bowls, etc that live on a rack under the less deep end. I'm not sure it would be possible to use the storage rack with two cabinet sides in its way. Plus - no rolling cart - or at least none over about 26" tall. The dishwasher positioning means two things - you'll need to be careful to choose an integrated one to avoid having huge fillers in the corner because: -- Dishwasher doors frequently sit in front of the cabinet line - even integrated ones. The filler on the drawer side would start out being 2-3" deep. Generally, with framed cabinets, the minimum corner filler is 1.5" on both sides, but dishwashers don't have cabinet sides or frames but you'll need to allow 3/4" for the corner overlap, another 3/4" to get beyond the cabinet door, plus extra to get beyond the dishwasher door. -- Drawers perpendicular to a dishwasher need to avoid its handles. I have a bar handle on mine and it sticks out 2.5" beyond the outer surface of the dishwasher. I would need to add at least 2" to the filler on the drawer side - making it more like 5". -- It is impossible to get into the cabinets to the left of the dishwasher while the dw doors are open. This is a sorta galley without extending the room at all. If I could do something more, it would be to replace the former kitchen window with a door + transom. I'd put a small deck out there to connect better with the screen porch. I garden, so it would have steps so me and my garden produce and dirt end up directly in the kitchen.