Honestly, I'd work on your layout first so you'll know the ideal placement for your window, especially since it appears centering your sink under the window is important to you. For example, how do you know your sink will be best centered where the window currently is? Maybe it would be best shifted to the left (or right) and you would probably want to shift the window the same to keep it centered. Although, you don't have to center the sink under the window...that's a design hold over from before there were DWs and people spent a significant amount of time in front of the window washing & drying dishes. Today, the vast majority of time spent in the kitchen is spent prepping (70%). Followed by a very distant second of cleaning up (20%). Finally, cooking (10%). I'm only suggesting you wait b/c often a kitchen layout drives the windows and, sometimes, interior walls. It's very frustrating to us when someone asks for layout help and then they tell us "but you can't move the sink" or "nothing can change". The less flexible you are, the more difficult it can be to get a good, functional layout (unless you're lucky and everything "falls into place"...it does happen occasionally, but not always.)

holly - thanks very much for your advice including the details. I understand about combining the windows with one large header. And that was my original idea. But the way it is drawn in the picture I uploaded was done by the Ikea designer that visited me a few days ago. Ikea doesn't do windows so she just put a placeholder... but I kind of like how she put the three with more separation than I was thinking. Do you think it makes the kitchen have more of a "living room" feel to it? That is how I'm seeing it and I like it, I think. The kitchen will be Ikea modern but the house built in 1935 still seems to maintain a "vintage feel". I'm wondering if keeping the separation between the windows for 8 or 10 inches will keep a slight vintage feel that is not always a bad thing. I don't seem to know what I want here. Guess I need to sleep on it a few more nights. The left side where there is an obvious break in cabinets is the back door, something that has been a bit of a nemesis. I was thinking of putting a small to medium size art print on that wall, maybe even with a "wall washer" light. I'm coming to grips with the backdoor because it makes a great recycle prep area - there is a small outdoor porch there. The city authorities seem to be changing our recycle process here and soon will be adding back in glass (they took it away about a year ago). There is room enough to put a large can there and stacks of newspapers and containers of cans. And with easy access to the kitchen, allows me not to feel the need to provide recycle space inside the kitchen. Considering that Bloomberg is promoting composting in New York for city pickup, I'm thinking it will be here eventually and I'm thinking that porch would be a good place for temporary storage. Times are a changing and with my porch that has a roof and that has steps to driveway (which we rarely use) and is not enclosed except on the door side between porch and house, I think I'm ready.

Earlier I showed my wife this thread and she like to thank everyone for the help. She couldn't believe you folks actually spent the time perusing the floorplan and provided us with valuable feedback. Ok back to business.. So she ruled out moving the fridge beside the DW. In fact, she was very much against it. I do have to admit it will solve all our concerns. Also she wasn't keen on moving the pantry/laundry room wall, she like to keep her walk in pantry and not stack the washer/dryer. Thinking about it some more, we are leaning towards the idea idea of shrinking the patio door from 6' to 4' double French door(not sure if builder offers it). This will allow us to add an additional 24" cabinet and counter space beside the DW. Based on all your feedbacks, it appear fridge and island are the bigger concerns. FRIDGE: For easier fridge access, we are thinking of shrinking the space between stove and fridge. Currently that space is roughly 24". If we do decide to shorten it, what will be a small enough counter width to still be useful? I like to create enough space between fridge and wall to install a pull out pantry as some of you suggested. If it gets too tight, another option we considered is move the stove "up" by 12" towards the sink. However I am not sure whether it will be too close to the sink or not, thoughts? ISLAND: Wife wants an island, so it's here to stay. The good thing is it's floating and not fixed. I still don't have a good idea of what to do with it, might just push it further out for now so it won't impede traffic. At the same time I don't want to push it so far out that we can't fit a table in the breakfast area. Also I don't want to pay builder more to make it bigger. *sigh* so much options, so limited $.

I love your idea photos! Your list looks a lot like mine did, minus the basement and the 4-season porch, which sounds lovely. I looked everywhere for floor plans, and I couldn't find anything in that square footage with 4 bedrooms upstairs and the kind of downstairs you are talking about (den/office nook, mudroom, walk in pantry,etc.). We can't do basements easily here, so that wasn't an option, but even breaking up the square footage between 2 floors, vs. 3 - all the plans I found were much larger than you are hoping to back into. It was so frustrating. I'm fine giving up space in certain spaces to allocate it where I want it, but things like a walk in pantry & mud room take up as much or more room than a bedroom can... so in essence you'll have a 5+ bedroom house, with an office nook and a large island kitchen (our house designer explained that the island alone was like adding another bedroom because of the aisle space required :)). So...You will be hard pressed to find that in a standard plan around 4000 sf. without a basement. We have 3 children as well, and all our family is out of town & will be staying in our home for holidays... so your basement I'm sure will be well used even for daily visits! Maybe you can have a smaller basement and add some square footage to the main floors since you use that more often? Maybe there is some plan out there, but I haven't seen it. Ron Brenner homes are super cute though. Going with a 1 1/2 story will give you a more cottagey look to your exterior. A pure 2 story plan stacked perfectly will look like a box or a rectangle ( found this out the hard way). It limits light and just isn't as appealing visually imo. But the problem with a 1 1/2 story and your list is that you want 4 bedrooms upstairs with bathrooms/closets & that will be tricky to get in 800-1200 sf. If you hire an architect though, and are willing to give up space elsewhere kitchen, living rooms, fewer bathrooms, small closets, small bedrooms, few hallways... it might be doable. Allison Ramsey has some really great plans though that utilize space better than any pre-designed plans I've seen before. I wish I'd found her site before we had our house designed! You might be able to glean some space-saving ideas from your upstairs areas especially. http://www.allisonramseyarchitect.com We are almost done with our build and it has been 2.5 years in the making. Maybe it's not too early to start planning? The pantry & mudroom areas are some of my favorite spots! Also the big island in the kitchen. Be prepared to have everyone try and talk you our of that island. But it functions as another table/workspace for so many things without eating in to my perimeter.counter space. And the porch. Don't give up on the porch. :)