Thank you all for your feedback! Chisue--We plan to eat most meals informally at the island, as that's the way things seem to run in our current home. In nice weather, we'll hope to take advantage of the covered porch. Thank you for looking at both the interior and exterior. We actually don't plan to use the stonework shown on the drawing and I've made a mental note to carefully pick the garage door style to tie in more with the rest of the exterior. We would definitely want steps down from the covered porch; they are missing from the current plans. Andi--I would gladly post so you could see dimensions easily, but must admit I have no idea how to do that. I have drawings in PDF and jpeg--would I need them in a different format? Ignorance is not always bliss... Joyce--I so appreciate your photos and feedback about the MBR windows. Your windows are gorgeous and so are your bed and nightstands! How sad to need to cover them...a problem with moonlight hadn't even entered my mind. Betaiota--How interesting that you suggested a nook off the kitchen! The plan we started with had a nook and DH wanted to swap it out for the covered porch (we're still not in total agreement). Adding a deck off the covered porch is definitely a possibility, but may lose out to more patio space on the lower level. I appreciate your perspective on having too much light in the bedroom. It ties in closely with Joyce's comments wondering about the point of having so many windows if you have to keep them covered all the time. So much food for thought!

It would be very nice to have a door from the master bedroom leading to the screened-in porch, since it would be a lovely place to sit out early in the a.m. Although your original dining room is a nice size, it's going to seem cramped and claustrophobic. My in-laws added on to their old house, and they had the same arrangement. It was dark and uninviting, and every time you wanted to get somewhere, you had to walk around the table. You may have to enter the laundry room from the new dining room, but as long as that door is shut when dining, it shouldn't matter so much. You just have to make the most of the hand you've already been dealt. :) It's just a fact that if you are remodelling a 100 year old house that things might not be where they would be if you had built a house from the ground up. But you do have all that old charm in the house. Lucky you! OR - Another option for stairs - looking at the second version above, move the stairs to the right "into" the foyer, and then make them "L-shaped." (Safer anyway with a nice landing in the middle.) Perhaps move back that "dining" room wall two feet to enlarge the foyer. You are left with a much bigger bedroom area (approx 22 X 19). You can use the dining room for your laundry and hall bath, and reconfigure the bedroom area for your master bedroom and closet space. You can still probably take a bit of the dining room for the master bedroom or bath. Good luck!

@lolauren My initial plan here does have support legs for that island, but I see your point re how they will affect the stools. Food for thought - thanks. @kirkhall We are now thinking of just keeping the door in view (close to the powder room), having it match the other interior doors, and changing the swing direction. Of course, this introduces the problem of the door swinging toward those who are moving from the locker area to the garage, but I have a feeling we will flip flop back and forth among different ideas for that door right up until it is installed. We spoke to the builder again and in an attempt to save costs we are making a few changes. - Extending the master closet out to the side and eliminating that portion of the porch - porch will still wrap around the reading nook. This enables us to add another side entrance in the basement underneath so we can leave some space under the kitchen unexcavated and save $$ there. - Since the master closet is now getting bigger we're robbing a foot from it in favor of the reading nook (which now becomes 9' wide). - Removing a foot from each of the master suite spaces and the reading nook. Basically draw a straight line from the reading nook's front window and take it straight through to the back of the house - take a foot alongside that line. The master bedroom, bath, closet & reading nook all become 1 foot smaller left to right - the only room where I think we'll notice this is in the master bath, but we're willing to take the hit there. The additional foot we're already giving the reading nook from the master closet should alleviate the change there. - Take another 1 foot slice (front to back) from the foyer & living room. Just a sq ft cost savings there. - Leaving several hundred sq ft in the basement unexcavated around the garage. This not only saves concrete cost and sq footage in the basement but apparently those walls are the ones with the highest sideload and it makes the basement cheaper to engineer. I hate this compromise phase but we are trying to hit a particular price goal before we go much further because we are expecting overages in a couple of other areas once we begin. Some things that did not get cut during this phase but were discussed - double staircases, breakfast nook bumpout, screened porch FP, porch sizes. We are also considering going with a 9' main floor wall and basement wall instead of 10' for each of those. Upstairs has always been planned at 8'.

Thanks for all the feedback everyone! We are taking it to heart, but are now more confused. We really like the idea of an island with seating area that's facing the stove so that friends/family can sit and chat with us while we cook. But it does seem like it throws off the rest of the kitchen. So there are two things we should mention. First, we already have a separate formal dining room (behind the top interior wall), so this space is just intended to be a casual eat in kitchen and entertaining space. We don't need a large table or tons of seating here; I drew the kitchen table at 42" wide, but we could easily bring it down to 36" or 30" if it's too cramped. And there's no need for anyone to sit on the end; I agree that it would be too cramped between the fridge and the end of the table for anyone to be there. Another thing I didn't mention initially is that there's an exposed ceiling beam running from the brick pillar down to the exterior wall, and it forms a natural partition in the room. You can see it in the photos I posted above. It would be weird to place a table underneath that, both because it infringes on the walkway on the left and...it just wouldn't feel right.