I like the openness & overall flow of your plan. I do agree with you on the kitchen space. Have you thought of doing a large island with a bar area on the family room side vs the small island and then another counter with peninsula? You could move the ovens to the opposite wall giving a framing effect for the rangetop & hood (they will be bracketed by cabinets on either side bracketed by the fridge & the ovens. I think this configuration would simplify the overall traffic flow of the kitchen space and optimize the space. I personally don't care to walk through my laundry room everytime I enter the house. I agree with some of the above comments above about putting your pantry area where you have your laundry room now. I'd then delete the door separating that space from the kitchen. You could then make your current pantry into a laundry room. The powder room is pretty far away if you're outside and need to use the facilities. If you're working or playing outside, you could be tracking dirt, mud or grass through the whole house or through the master to get to a bathroom. I'd probably see about reworking the current laundry space to make it pantry space as mentioned above and combine it with some of the storage space off the work space in the garage to create a new entry & powder room. Love the shower in the master bath, but no tub? That might hurt resale if you ever decide to move. Tub or no tub, I think the master bath could be reworked to be more efficient. Off the top of my head, maybe you could extend the walkin closet at the door down to where the sinks currently end and have 1 big closet vs. 2 smaller ones, then move the sink to the opposite wall in a straight run. I'd shift the toilet down to the end of the sink run. The door to the bath could be moved over toward the sink run a little which would allow a little extra depth in the closet on the opposite wall. If you wanted to, you could move the closet door out of the bathroom and give it a separate entrance on the bedroom wall if you wanted. Here's a visual of these potential changes for you... (Note: Shower remains same size-just relocated, tub can stay or go, pantry remains same size-just relocated, swapped refrigerator to wall bordering laundry and put double ovens where refrigerator was originally.)

blakey - My brown sugar is stored in a Anchor Hocking cracker jar (the ones with the aluminum lids in the close up of the jars) bought at Target. Haven't had a problem but someone else said they didn't think those were really airtight. So maybe a bailjar / fido jar with a rubber gasket would work - that is certainly airtight. Flyleft - yup - love the Nambe - I think they are so sexy looking. But can you believe the big bowl in the center is a $20 knock off from Target? cotehele - can you believe that tin ceiling was hidden under a [gasp] drop ceiling when we bought the house. Unfortunately, we had to sacrifice two thirds of the tin in the other section of the kitchen because it had been destroyed, but were happy to salvage this little bit. Plus we are fortunate to have tin in very good shape in the Master. Tin was considered a fire deterrent and our house belonged to a Fire Chief in the early days... ncamy - glad to have helped you with your planning. I have learned so so much from this site and have been so inspired I am glad to pay it forward.

Thank you justgotabeme! It is true, we find ourselves in the FRONT of the house quite often! The first evening, we poured cocktails and just sat out front and stared. We are very pleased! CEfreeman-Ohhh, what a long, peaceful country driveway that is! I wouldn't want it to look too "maintained!" Hi Lyfia! I posted quite awhile ago, I was very gung ho on the faux wood grain...as a matter of fact, I wanted to do a faux carriage door look, adding the rustic hardware. Most people were against it...and this was when I was planning on painting my house a dark color. Now that my house is so light, I don't want a big dark expanse that takes up such a huge chunk of the front. If my house were bigger, or the paint darker,I would consider it. I do love that look, just not for this house at this time. birdlover-yes, we are thinking two big black pots on either side of the arch...and maybe on the far side of the garage...with bougainvilla or some flowering vine set on a trellis just a bit off from the house walls so they don't actually grow on the walls! The reason we are thinking black pots is...when you drive to our house, you first see the south side of it...with a row of windows with black awnings over each window. So we feel the big black pots will tie the side and the front together. lukkiriish-thank you, I just love those california spanish homes! Thanks for comparing my home to one of those! Ok, again, I really appreciate every single comment. It has been so much work and money and as much as my hubby and I enjoy it, it is nice to see it be well received here!

Lynn-I so love my bathroom and closet. To top it off it all has heated floors. My thoughts were-get out of hot shower on warm tile, who wants to walk on cold tile to get dressed?? Not ME!! My builder questioned me. I've had it on for about a week now that it got cold. Yes, I thought correctly!! As for no carpet in closet: For those of you who don't remember...I don't have a any carpet in this house. The whole downstairs is tile and the whole upstairs in wood except tile in baths. Sure I have area rugs but not wall to wall carpet.(Lesson learned- we put white carpet in the house we built 10 years ago-I learned very quickly to HATE carpet!!) 2 now teenagers, 2 dogs and 1 cat.