The kitchen layout does NOT work. Green is right that you cannot stand at your sink and load the DW. If you are going to do an angled island like that, it needs to be MUCH larger to work well and to adequately separate the cleanup and prep zones. You need at least 12" cabinet between the corner angle and the DW to be able to stand at the sink and load the DW. And that cleanup zone needs to be opposite the prep zone side of the sink if you are only going to have a single sink. It would be a better layout to put the cleanup zone on the top run next to the refrigerator, and then straighten the island out and put a prep sink on it to have actual prep space on the island. Right now, it doesn't meet the minimum guidelines for 36" adjacent to a water source for prep. And the clearance between the wings and the walls is tight. This is a one person kitchen. If you envision any one helping in here, then it needs to be completely redesigned. I'd personally swap it with the dining room so that it could be lighter. I dislike a dark interior kitchen, whereas a dining room can be a dark interior room because it's mainly utilized in the evening when there is no natural light anyway. The addition of a closet to the office may make it a technical bedroom, but I'd want more room to be able to realistically have a bed in it. And get rid of the angled entrance. It's only hurting the furniture placement in the room. I'm not a fan of the bathroom that ate the house syndrome, but I'd at least want a double vanity in the master. And I'd want the other upstairs bath to be accessible from the hall rather than just the bedroom. If the office has to count as a bedroom, then it HAS to have access to a bathroom. The two baths should also be back to back, as that simplifies the plumbing, and it allows the bedroom to have the choice corner location with windows in two directions. Most locations do not allow a direct stair from a garage to a basement living area. The stair would need to be in a mudroom type area with a fire door between it and the garage. I would redesign the surplus garage space to create a mudroom and pantry space from it and to contain the stairs to the garage.

I love side porches! In many of the older neighborhoods with beautiful traditional homes in our area, a side porch must have been a requirement. It's unusual for them not to have one. The side porches are usually recessed a few feet from the front of the house and extend out for 15' or so. Originally the porches were screened to "catch the breeze." Now, with air conditioning, many of them are glassed in. Whether glassed or screened, the porches afford wonderful landscape views on three sides. We'll have a 10' wide screen porch on the side of our new home---just wide enough to accomodate the 5' porch swing my uncle made for me 25 years ago. If you have a screen porch, you must add a porch swing! lkplatow, I love your porch. It's a great size.

First, you are so luck to have such a wonderful getaway vacation home! It is on a beautiful lot. I agree with missymoo as well, and also what Olychick said. Something about that table smack dab in the middle of the room seems to block entry into the screened porch. I love the idea of a sofa against the wall, something like what robo posted with some comfy cushions and arms, and a chair for reading with a footstool that could also double as an extra seat. Add a small cocktail table you can also use for a tray of snack food. The bar cart is also a great idea. Encourages people to gravitate to where the food and drinks are. You could also string up some lighting along the perimeter and it would look very inviting. Do you get a lot of sun on the deck? It looks shady so I would think a new round table with chairs for seating would be fine and then move your grill & the pub table out there. You can get some pretty nice chairs that swivel and rock. I have also seen some benches that double as storage for the cushions so that might be an option if there is room. That would keep cushion maintenance down for you when you aren't there.

The 6 mil IRAC does retain a little more heat than 6 mil clear. But neither is a much better insulator than nothing. I've got two layers of the IR poly inflated and that's still very poor insulation. It probably cuts the heating bill in half compared to one layer of clear. But only delays temperature drop by about one hour at night. As the temperature falls in the evening the inside might be an hour later than outside at say reaching the freezing point. It still requires heat input to maintain anything above outside by morning. This is with a large greenhouse, 32x54x16ft. I also have a sunroom on the south side of the house. It provides a large amount of heat to the house by day. But at night it's the same as the greenhouse. So I move plants out at 9am and back inside at 5pm.