I think the decision is pretty obvious. When a business strings you along like that, I say move on. It is not professional. If he was over-booked, he should have just said something in the first place. I am sure their are many other businesses you can go through. If he can' t even START the project, once he starts it is likely he wont finish.

Hi oberon! I hope that you realize that part of my exasperation at this point was that Guardian showed us what was possible, and now we are just trying to achieve that goal. But on to your questions... Guardian was the supplier to Benor well before we entered the process. When we went looking for windows and found Benor, and when our architect realized that the Guardian Architectural Division was willing to participate (there are some personal relationships involved here that made this happen), we started to get a tremendous amount of involvement by a couple of their engineers. The Guardian folks were very helpful in explaining to me and my wife ALL the sources which would degrade both the VT and CRI, and then discussed all that they could do to reduce their impacts. One of the larger impacts on VT that could be mitigated was the interlayer index of refraction mismatch by supercritical choice of the laminate interlayer (including the batch number). They spent hours showing us more than two dozen samples, taught me the laser trick, and then explained why we would want to use their ultra-white glass with Saflex rather than some of the other PVB products available, and why the PET interlayer while it delivered better impact performance was not the right one for us. That decision alone they explained would improve our VT dramatically. They then introduced us to the Munsen Color chart as a way to assess color neutrality, and a myriad of other details that would appeal to the artist in my wife. As we went through this process, they kept plugging the various lite selections into a program ("Windows 5.2") that predicted the performance of the whole glass assembly. Here is where I received the real education. What appeared to be relatively small changes in the components of the glass assembly (such as using the the ultra-white glass with Saflex) were responsible for increasing the VT by 5% (which I have come to find out is HUGE!) The spacer that they suggested was a specialty, "two polymer, warm-edge" system that separated a dual pane glass system. The gap was was about 0.267" and filled with krypton. No window glass on our house was wider than 32" (based on the advice of Guardian engineers). After Guardian designed the complete glass assembly, Benor used that data to estimate "whole window" performance (including frames) and based on these data Benor suggested that they use a "fully foam insulated" vinyl sash and frame for our windows. After this good experience, I had been very disappointed speaking with nearly all of the "established" window brands. Since then however, we have found a couple of specialty window makers that appear to be willing to work with us. The glass samples that they have sent us for inspection appear to be quite good and I am hoping that we end up with a positive outcome. If anything, I think I am the product of "raised expectations" that were the result of a specialty window manufacturer who had tremendous pride in his work and a glass supplier who (for whatever reason) decided to show us the "bleeding edge" "art of the possible" for our house.

Momx9, chill. :) You won't need months of rumination or hundreds of plans to pull this together. Given a limited budget and family of 11 always in flux, the typical "perfect plan" goal is not only not attainable but also specifically undesirable since the kind of "perfection" some people manage to achieve for themselves is for one person at one specific time of life. That has nothing to do with you guys! You just need to open up your kitchen and improve its function. You need flexibility. That's before even mentioning budget. I'm sure you guys have any number of worthy ways to allocate your money, so keeping budget at the top of your list of priorities will simplify your decision-making tremendously. Flexibility saves money because it means not building in everything possible everywhere you can find a place for something. So, 2 main goals here so far 1. Opening up the kitchen on both sides. 2. Improving function. Anything else? One thing that's not been properly explored is...what's WRONG with your current layout? What does not work for you guys? Given your budget, and ALL THE FEATURES YOU LIKE THAT YOU ALREADY HAVE AND WANT TO KEEP, if possible, by far the best course would be to tweak what you have, and the answers to the what's-wrong question will determine what can be kept and what has to be changed. Stove wall: To start, you can keep the stove and dishwasher where they are, keep the SS counters, keep the stove hood, AND open the kitchen to the family room safely IF you settle for opening that wall on the right and left sides of the stove and keeping the wall right behind the stove (and the hood) in place. The wall on each side could be opened right down to the counter and deepened toward the family room if you like. This compromise would accomplish probably 90% of what you want: Both areas would feel more spacious and open. People in the two rooms could see and communicate with each other. If you wanted stools on the family room side, you could place some safely enough at one or both of the open stretches of counter if you deepened them toward the family room. Those counters, with or without stools, would offer extra places for people to work, cooking or schoolwork, as needed. The wall behind the stove could be an attractive display area that multifunctioned by hiding some kitchen mess. If you deepened the counter beyond the depth of the wall the two ends count be connected across the wall as a display shelf. OR, you could open the whole wall, leaving it raised above the work counter to provide some protection from flying grease, boiling water, etc. This is not optimal but is doable, especially if you do not have seating there. You can display art projects on the raised ledge instead. :) Breakfast/mudroom side: If you can improve your kitchen nicely essentially in its current footprint (again, contingent on being able to solve dysfunctions), there will be no need to decide about developing a mudroom right now. Why do you NEED to remove the U counter on that side? Or do you? You want to open the kitchen to the breakfast area, but removing the counter on that end is not necessary to do that. Leaving it in place would allow you to deepen the counter on that side for stools, multifunctioning, etc., etc. So far I'm not seeing a good reason to go to an island in this case, i.e., nothing of real value gained because of your space limitations. What would you hope to gain from one? If the U isn't working well enough, would a wider U be the answer? Mudroom functions: You need a mudroom but need the breakfast space for other uses right now. Have you considered simply enclosing your covered porch as an entry vestibule, not heating it, just creating a sheltered spot with walls for bench/shelves/hooks/closets?

First, know your budget (or allowances, if you are doing a fixed price type build). Then, know your style. There are some beautiful kitchens on Houzz - @cpartist’s is one. Her quartzite really is a piece of art and her kitchen is amazing. But it is one I will admire from afar for many reasons: not my own personal style, not suitable for size of my kitchen, and not in my own chosen budget around here either. If your house is open concept, you really need to also pay attention to how you will see into the kitchen from other spaces, and out of it into other spaces! I am doing a modified production build so I first assessed the “builder standards”. I was very happy with the builders standard appliances for the amount and way I cook (different brands but all stainless steel). So that part was easy. After that were things I knew I wanted and things I did or, so that narrowed it down. There are so many great photos on Houzz you can browse through to determine what styles you are more drawn too. I knew wanted a more modern or contemporary kitchen with slab or shaker cabinets. No raised panels, applied molding, etc. I also knew I wanted white cabinets as it is only colour cabinet I have never tired of. I knew I wanted a polished white or warmer-gray quartz. I knew I wanted something neutral because in my small open space I wanted flexibility for my art and furniture choices. I knew that, contrary to most, I did not want cabinets to the ceiling. I knew I wanted brushed nickel hardware as I find it blends better. I wanted my smaller kitchen to be less of a star and more a comfortable neutral backdrop. But...keep in mind I don’t cook a whole lot or entertain a whole lot, and if I do, I am more likely serving drinks and catered food than cooking! So, I wanted a kitchen that was functional but not visually dominating in my small open space. My builder has a design centre so I was able to pick out everything at same time and see how the choices all fit together, but I chose the cabinets and counters (quartz) more or less together first in a sense and the rest flowed from there. You may be able to do similar by going to a kitchen design centre. Get samples and take them home to look in different lights, and to cart around to choose flooring etc. Most will recommend picking backsplash last once everything is in. I could not do that but it was still the last thing I picked out (and had to pick out again as very very last thing when my first option was backordered!). Only thing I did not pick from builder was lighting as their choices really kind of sucked! Re: hardwood in kitchen. I have had hardwood in kitchen in two houses - including current house - and it was fine. That said my new house will have laminate in kitchen and I expect it will also be fine. I don’t want hardwood at all anymore, not just about kitchen. But all depends on your kitchen use and such I suppose. I can’t say - other than time we had a leaky dishwasher - I have ever had much water on kitchen floor for hardwood to be an issue. We do currently have a powder room with hardwood - also not my choice - and the hardwood is all warped and needs replacing due to a toilet leak. It is also showing issues near doorways. And yes, choosing laminate in my kitchen there is a risk from another leaky dishwasher but will deal with it if it comes to that. My neighbours put LVP in their entire house - not an inexpensive house - because of their large slobbery dogs and are very happy with it. As is my friend who put it all on main floor of her new and not inexpensive new build.