Hi Radley, The doors appear to be a mix of original stain and a newer gel coat. I had to paint the half bath and utility doors in the nearby area as they were so badly done. I kept three doors in the badly done wood at the end of the hall along with double doors (just like entry) going into the master bedroom. I will tackle the striping and re-staining down the road. I was told the kitchen cabinets were cherry but I swear they look like Lyptus. The crown molding appeared to be a sort of walnut stain (now painted wall color but in a gloss).. Close-up of door stain on master doors. These are different to the attempt at gel coating on the other bedroom doors to hide a “mom stay out” carving and multiple dog scratches. I don’t have a close-up of front door but these master doors are close. Thank you Kswl, the house has been a lot of work believe it or not to get it to this point. Lots of oddities here! Husband and I have worked our way to the end and have closed this guest bath slider in and added a door with a doggy door. It’s not magazine worthy but will make my life easier. This week we also gutted the master and master bath and will be adding a closet. The fireplace was tweaked as well as it was originally an attention hog the minute you walked in. However, so was the kitchen so we tweaked that a bit and it doesn’t scream as loud. There were no electric outlets beyond the wall cabinets between windows. About that brass thing at fireplace…yes I think I agree and that’s why I haven’t hung it. After I finish the drywall in 2nd bath husband will hang to dining light and we will take it from there. Also, in my mind I would love to find an old but nice black metal cabinet of some sort with brass on it to use as a media cabinet. There does not seem to be any such thing in my searches. In fact I can’t find any of the ideas that are in my head. It just seems like that area needs some brass (a bit) to say it’s part of a certain time. An area I'm doing dual time in. And, some "before" pic's.. Geokid I like that idea and actually looked on Conestoga last night. They didn't have my configuration. It's looking like I need to find a vintage something with brass and tweak it. I'm thinking that although I like the light wood it seems I might need more of an anchor...and brass! This post was edited by jterrilynn on Mon, Apr 14, 14 at 12:29

Also can see into kids toilet first thing when arriving at front foyer. I would not pull the garage forward. I'd leave the sunroom in the corner near the kitchen but move the entry from the kitchen to the corner of the "L". This will improve your cabinetry a lot because dead corners in kitchen require lazy or super susans or pull outs which are $$$. A straight run of cabinets is cheaper. Avoid the corner altogether. You might benefit from seeing this floorplan: https://houseplans.co/house-plans/22157aa/ This plan has a lovely vault that takes serious advantage of rear views. It has all of the same rooms you are looking for and you can expand to have an upstairs bonus. The rooms are generously sized so I think you can pull out the square footage you need to and still have a lovely home. I think you could pull in the entire back wall from the nook to the master to greatly reduce the square footage and eat in the dining room instead of having a nook and just utilize island seating. I've walked this plan and it have great flow.

chisue, Me, too! I like the Abandoned Plan -- first one -- *with* elevator, and presumably AP quarters off the first floor. So...why did you scrap it? First off, these are only 3 of the many iterations I've knocked out, so I hope you all see that I'm not wedded to a plan and trying to defend it as perfect. I'm very willing to scrap and start again. My problem is that they're all variations on a similar theme. Anyways, to your question, I scrapped the plan because 1.) That huge basketball court of open space by the fireplace, behind the LR, just gnawed at me, I couldn't think of how to use it or fill it, and 2.) as I analyzed how I live I realized that I'd never be sitting directly by the window playing a board game or what have you - that "keeping room" solution was more of an idealization of how I'd use the space than a reflection of how I live now and how I would live in such a house. Once again that volume of space between the kitchen and the living room was driving me bonkers. I already had the bench seat by the window covered in the LR. Here is a render of the bay window. Another issue that bothered me with that 1st plan is the bathroom being an island room. If it was a powder room it didn't take up enough room, by putting in a shower my office could do double duty as a guest room. Then I realized that if I have a full bath and bedroom down on the first floor, why do I need to put another fully dedicated bedroom for my parents up on the 2nd and install a 3 floor elevator system, Now all I needed to do was connect the bath and bedroom and away we go. Oaktown, The thing is, much of the in-law suite, the stairs, and every upstairs room but the master BR currently are "buried." The inlaw suite has windows on two walls, it's just the closet and bath which are buried. As for the upstairs, the plan isn't completed, but every room up there has windows except for the "kids bath" and the laundry room and I'm completely fine with using a bathroom without windows or doing laundry in a room without windows in that I'm hardly spending any time in those two rooms. Thank you so much for your ideas on a new layout, that's exactly what I need to break my ideas out of the rut, some fresh eyes and ideas looking at my problem. I'm really going to play around with what you've laid out. Don't take this short paragraph to be indicative of my appreciation, you've done me a great favor. I dpn't know if it will work but it's definitely a reimagining. cpartist, The dining room doesn't need to be facing the best views because hopefully when you're using the dining room, you're interacting with your table mates. I agree that the DR doesn't need to face the best views, but some room does. That fireplace will be aesthetically interesting, like a massive sculpture and across from it will be a wall of windows in the center of the house, so just having a hallway there rubs me the wrong way. With a dining room people are sitting down, spending time there but with a hallway all I'd be doing is walking past a central focal point, which is what led me to revert the DR back to that location so that at least we'd be sitting in a room bounded by a massive sculpture and impressive views. All of your comments regarding the 1st plan are appreciated because I suspect that they represent the issue of resale value and how future buyers, with tastes and interests different from mine, will see the house. I need to find a way to square the circle here.

Second plan, with the addition of a prep sink on the island. Your fridge doesn't need landing space on both sides, and the island will be extra landing space. Pull the cabinets on the fridge/range wall out to meet the fridge box, and you have an instant built in fridge, with the added bonus of deeper counters--unless that puts the clean-up sink against the perpendicular counter. I can't tell where the windows are, exactly. As twosit mentioned, the dish hutch is in a good spot in the second plan. A helper can load or unload the DW, or gather dishes to set the table, while you are prepping or cooking without interfering in your tasks. You have a small secondary prep space between the clean-up sink and the range, if you have help prepping. Given the choice of a window over the sink, or a window in the pantry, I'd choose the sink--how much time do you plan to spend in the pantry?