I'm not sure the great room is a good size if it houses both dining/living. I think it might be a bit tight. Take a table standard width of 42" then min 4' on each side of that to move around (and that is tight when people sit). So add two more feet Then you have 28.5-13.5 ft left for a living area. I had a 15 ft x 18 ft in my old house for the living part of my great room and that 15' makes it really narrow and very limited for furniture arrangement. I'd do as others suggested play with graphpaper and furniture sizes to see that you have plenty of room. Since your Great room will be used as a walk through area to get between kitchen and bedrooms make sure you have 3-4' of walking space on both sides. One from the master side and one from the front door/other bedroom side with nothing interferring and still allowing you to have the pieces of furniture you want. Remember the FP as drawn will be sticking out into the room as well. I'd maybe consider putting it where one of the French doors are and have it stick out on the porch. This way you have more space and a wall where a TV could go and still be able to arrange furniture so the FP is also a focal point. Our current great room is set-up that way and I really like it. The FP provides warmth and coziness closer to where we sit flanked by french doors (one set stationary and one where both open) and the TV and book cases are on the other wall. My old house had an open great room with dining and living where the FP was placed in between the two. It was great for using the FP as it heated both areas and it was not in the way of furniture placement, however I didn't like that it was sort of not a focal point from one area to the other. Since you have the bonus room maybe you could set that up so you can have guests there. Otherwise you could just make that half of the porch screened in all the way to where you have it now. Not all will have a view, but you'll have a little private area in front of the casita too. You only need a little extra screen since there will be walls covering the other areas so the cost wouldn't be much more.

kleighj, here's another idea for the "island woes". You could put in silverware/placemat drawers at the left end of the island, directly across from the dishwasher (also reducing cabinet width there from 30" to 24"). Shortening the island by 6"would help reduce the chokepoint between the hearth room and dining room. I think that would be great for unloading the dishwasher. Imagine having the dishwasher open and the silverware drawer open at the same time and being able to move items from the dishwasher to the drawer with just a few steps. Plus it would be easy for kids or visitors to get silverware and placemats out of the drawers and set the table without impeding kitchen workflow. Its still close enough that the cook can access when needed. That would leave the microwave where you want it on the island and leave a full unit of 30" drawers next to the range for pots/pans. The 24" cutlery drawers labeled on your plan would stay and be used for knives and cooking utensils. You could even do two shallow drawers for knives plus utensils above one deep drawer if you don't think you need 4 shallow drawers here. I think having knives and silverware separated helps keep kids safe -- kids always need silverware and placemats but have no reason to be anywhere near the knife drawer. The only downside is that there is now some separation between the silverware and plates/glasses which I'm assuming would go in the uppers. On the right of the range I would switch the 15" drawers to 15" vertical of storage (e.g. cookie sheets). Finally not sure if you saw this before but if at all possible you should try to go with a 36/33 corner unit if your cabinet company offers that asymmetric configuration. You'll really appreciate that over the 33/33. I think you will have a great layout.

Also you would have to cross from the refrigerator to the sink and that is a long distance and could interfere with the somebody cooking at the stove. Perhaps you could put the refrigerator on the wall with the windows and move the sink over a little bit so that's closer to the stove. Alternatively you could leave everything as is but add a prep sink in the island. I encourage you to think through the entire kitchen process-including the pantry-before proceeding. Will you be on a post tension foundation? If so it's extremely important that you decide on your plumbing now because it will be too costly to change your mind later.

> What type of range do you want and what is your cooking style? > The over the range microwave is (at best) marginal for a standard range > but if you want a professional style range with high BTU burners it will not work. > Personally I would not want an over the range microwave/vent combo but > if you seldom cook (you live in NYC after all) it might be OK. We do cook a lot (both stove and oven) so I was trying to stay away from the microwave/hood. The original layout above actually gives us more counter space than we currently have which is why we considered it, although it sacrifices 30" to the wall oven + microwave, but also makes them more usable. > Any chance you could put the cabinets closer to the window? > Instead of the over the range microwave I'd try for a 24" microwave drawer > next to a 15" or 18" wide stack of drawers like you show in your rendering. I haven't looked into microwave drawers yet, that could be a good compromise, although not sure how usable they are at that height.