One more comment, and a question: Note that your plumbing is strung from one end of the house to the other. Downstairs you have the kitchen on one end and the bathroom on the other end. Upstairs you have the master bath on the far left and the other bathrooms and the laundry on the far right. You will save significant money on plumbing if you scoot these rooms closer together. For example, upstairs you have two "back to back" secondary bathrooms. This is economical because the plumber will run water through that center wall, and it'll serve both bathrooms. The laundry room is close to these bathrooms, so a pipe'll have to run across the hall, but that's still cheaper than running the pipes across the whole house. You'll save on installation, and you'll save on materials. Consolidation of plumbing also saves in two other ways: A wall that contains water must be 6" thick, whereas other interior walls may be only 4" thick. Thus, a non-water wall is cheaper to build and allows you a few more inches of interior space. Any pipe is subject to leaking sometime down the road -- perhaps because you accidentally cut into it or drove a nail into it, or perhaps because it grew old and rusty. If your pipes are shorter and more consolidated, you have less plumbing to potentially go bad. This lessens the potential problems you might have to pay to fix, and it lessens the number of walls that might one day have to be opened up to look at the plumbing. And the question: Since windows matter so much, and since a pool is involved, where's north on your plan?

Aisle widths...The NKBA has recommendations of minimum aisles... 6: Work Aisle The width of a work aisle should be at least 42" for one cook and at least 48" for multiple cooks. Measure between the counter frontage, tall cabinets and/or appliances. I would aim for 42" for each aisle for an aisle with no seating (but no less than 36" and only if you have no DW or oven opening into it). 8: Traffic Clearance at Seating In a seating area where no traffic passes behind a seated diner [and not a work aisle or appliances], allow 32" of clearance from the counter/table edge to any wall or other obstruction behind the seating area. a. If traffic passes behind the seated diner, allow at least 36" to edge past. b. If traffic passes behind the seated diner, allow at least 44" to walk past. Since you have appliances behind the island on the seating side (as well as doorways), you should aim for at least 54" b/w the counter edge to the appliance. Are you planning on getting rid of the door directly behind the island? It looks like a basement door, so I don't think you can w/o moving the stairs. All that noted, your kitchen isn't deep enough for those aisles, so you need to make some decisions on how functional you want your kitchen vs what you want, regardless of how it functions. Standard wall runs of cabinets are 25.5" deep...24" cabinet + 1.5" overhang Seating overhang for counter-height should be a minimum of 15" (and skimping won't help...people will take the same amount of space while seated regardless of overhang depth...they'll just be less comfortable with a too-shallow overhang. A human body can be squeezed only so much...) [I was thinking about this Wednesday night as I was seated at an island w/12" overhang for a meeting...no one was able to sit close to the island edge, we were all pushed back and had to lean in to get to the surface of the island...it wasn't very comfortable.] So, if you want an island w/seating in a kitchen, this is what you need for a kitchen depth: 25.5" sink run + 42" aisle + (25.5" on cabinet side of island + 15" seating overhang) + 54" aisle = 162" (13'6") You have 150" or 12'6"...so 12" short. (24" sink run cabinets + 39" aisle + + 42" island + 45" aisle = 150") [That 13' measurement includes the bay window) Now, you can reduce the aisle a little, but not much. Say, make the aisle behind the island 48" to gain 6". However, you're still 6" short. Since the DW is on the aisle b/w the island & sink run, narrowing the aisle 6" isn't really a good idea. Maybe 3", but not 6". Your only real option is to take the extra 3" to 6" from behind the island. But, as Bmorepanic noted, it will limit what you can do when someone is sitting at the island. So, what are you doing w/the bay window space? Have you considered expanding the kitchen into that area and using the DR for all meals and the island for snacks? Dishwasher...I suggest...

"...need a decent amount of pantry/storage space..." If the current pantry is eliminated, consider putting one somewhere else. What is the current "closet" being used for? Pantry? Something else? If pantry, is it big enough? I'm thinking you probably don't use it as a pantry, though, since you also said you have things scattered throughout the house that you want to store in the kitchen. Regarding the tall cabinets flanking the sliding doors, remember there's a 5'+ aisle there...that's a lot different than the 36" aisles you often see...it's pretty open. In addition, you have the 6' wide window on the left wall...and that will also give you a feeling of openness. However, if you can move or eliminate the pantry, that area can be opened up even more. But, what you don't want to do is create a large open space just for the sake of "openness" and then short yourself on storage and/or workspace. I'm not saying eliminating the flanking tall cabs will short you, I'm just saying be careful what you do in the name of "openness". The peninsula, btw, is not only creating the two Prep Zones you need, but also protecting the Cooking Zone. As you can see in Layout #3 above, an island probably won't work unless you eliminate the pantry. We had the same goal, btw, when we did our kitchen...get all the stuff out of the DR, Basement, and Library (yes, Library!) and into the kitchen where they belonged! So, how much storage space do you need? Personally, I would want a pantry somewhere close by...

Glad I came back and checked. I will first answer the questions. (1) Who does most of the prep and cooking? My wife Stephanie does most of the prep and cooking. (2) Who does most of the cleanup? Most of the cleanup is done by me and the kids (there are 4 kids, 3 who are old enough to help). (3) Does cleaning up ever take place during prepping/cooking? Some times, but usually it is after. buehl, I think you are right about the dimensions, so that does mean my estimating for cabinets is way off. I am actually talking with our architect today so this will be a big help. I think we may need to move the door down a foot or two, so we have a little more cabinet space along that wall. Now that we have the dimension right, do you have any good suggestions for the layout? I think we like the idea of having the fridge close to the dining room because then it won't be in the main traffic pattern. We do want to make sure we have enough counter space beside the sink and the cooktop, and we also want enough drawer space, but we think we can add drawers to the island s well.