malhgold, Thanks again for your excellent input. I'll answer your questions. Yes, I do have a big walk-in pantry in my current kitchen and yes, it houses many items that are not kitchen related because I have very inadequate storage in my home. BUT the good news is that in this remodel/addition, I'll have another storage area for non-kitchen items so the walk-in pantry in the new plan will contain only kitchen items. Yes, I already made a list of everything I want to include in the kitchen and plugged it into the old plan (#3)and I will work on plugging it into the corner cooktop plan today. I did a quick calculation and looks like I'd be losing approx 69" (5.75') of cabinet space with corner cooktop but the good news is that it would save $$$ in cabinet costs which would be extremely helpful right now! :) cheri127, I've already been drawn into the black hole of kitchen design minutiae (smile) and YES, I do believe perimenopause makes one indecisive (I'm there, too). We decided on this kitchen addition/remodel in May and the foundation was poured this week so I'm having to make decisions very, very quickly which goes against my analytical nature but could be a blessing in disguise if I don't make major mistakes along the way. Thanks for helping me think it through! Any other input on pros and cons is welcome!

so as not to be influenced by the others, I am not reading all the above posts first. But, honestly your cabinets are very worn, especially around the sink. I would NOT leave them alone and just embrace the oak. I had dark oak cabinets. I now have a white kitchen. It is a painful process to get them to look good. If you are determined to make them look good, you will be able to do it. I had such a fear that they would look and feel like crap that we took a very long time to do ours, and do it right. I have been in some kitchens that were painted by a professional, they feel icky, and I'm seeing chipping! Yikes. You don't want that. I won't go into all the details, but in a nutshell, there is the taking the doors off step, removing hardware, washing with a tsp solution, rinsing, sanding. (maybe reverse that order....) Then I used Pore-o-pac brushable wood filler. Spread it on, squeegee it off, dry, sand, and repeat until you believe the grain is filled. Then, move on to the primer. Then the finish coats. I used oil based paint. So, add in the drying time between each coat. (including the steps between pore-o-pac coats) and each door's side had to be done at different times. Spraying while hanging really didn't work for us. Also, remember that oil based whites will yellow down. Not badly. Just plan accordingly. I love how creamy my turned out. I would add chunky crown molding to build it up before painting. I think you can get rid of that higher counter if you want. And I would certainly add some hardware to jazz it up a bit. As far as the guts of the cabinets. We added really heavy duty wire roll outs from Lowe's. They really offer so much extra storage in those base cabinets. They can be pricey, but they are really worth it. I think ours were around $80 or so for a set of 2. I keep all my heavy bowls, some appliances, and other stuff on them. And that ceiling fixutre really is something! You will be amazed at how much more updated the room will feel if you rip that down and add a light or a fan. bee

I adore arabesque (and lantern. and other spanish -influenced traditional shapes-after all it's my favorite style ever, if I have to choose) but it doesn't spell modern to me.depends of course of what one means by modern because often people mean different things by that -some mean certain style, some mean something being more recent, contemporary. here's Fireclay tile blog..I liked glazed bricks on the first pic..second as well-shapes but less fluid shapes, more geometrical ones..and I strangely like this sweater pattern..I think last from the top? the one they call prep school. it might be too much and one needs to make sure they have enough space on their backsplash to pull it off. yet it exudes certain warmth..as if it was a sweater..:) https://www.fireclaytile.com/blog/ (as for the brand itself. I never used Fireclay myself, it's not inexpensive either, yet many people on these forums did, and remained extremely pleased with their quality. take a look at what they offer..they have many interesting products. including a lot of black plus white designs, some with a lot of contrast in the pattern, some, paler, more "barely there" of an effect)

"I've only lived in a condo and rarely entertain. I probably only need 3,300 at most. I figure since I am building, why not build as big as possible since that will be the trend?" I am going to ask you to think about things again. When I looked for a new home I measured every cupboard and drawer in my kitchen, every linear foot of hanging space in my wardrobes, every cupboard and drawer in my bathrooms and every room in my home. I then went through my house and noted what I loved about each room, what worked in each room, what was wasted space in each room and what failed to meet my needs in each room (Remember - I am a data analyst). Then I made my list of criteria for the "perfect home". I was planning on building, but visited tons of homes that were new builds and existing homes on the market. I knew about 3 years in advance of my move that I was going to move, so I had time to educate myself and find ideas that I might not have thought of on my own. I happened to visit a home that was a custom build in 1970 and it checked every box (even had a large office with no windows - required by my company for work at home staff - computer cannot be viewable from any window and must not be in a common or shared area of the home.) But my point is that you may be able to afford a 5000 sq ft home, but if it is not needed it will increase the initial cost, it will increase the cost to furnish, it will increase maintenance costs, cost to insure and property tax. Someone also has to clean this space - if you hire someone, that too will cost more. Is this the best use of your money? Could you have less and retire earlier? Will it bring you more joy than spending that money on family vacations? Trends don't matter. We live in our homes, not on the glossy pages of some magazine. What works for the designers may not work for you or your family. What works for your sister or brother or best friend may not work for you and your family. The only important piece of this puzzle is what will be best for your family. My sister had a couple that cleaned her home for years. They drove a beater car, lived in a modest home and raised 2 children and somehow were able to afford to send both through college. Then they came to my sister and told her that they were going to stop cleaning homes at the end of the year. They were still relatively young - late 40s, early 50s. She asked what they were going to do instead of cleaning homes. They told her they were building their forever home, retiring and traveling. They had saved over 1.5 million dollars and no longer needed to work. Only wish I had had some of their foresight.