Do you usually enter the house through the front entrance? Or where do you come in with groceries and drop your purse and kick off your shoes, etc.?

And do you have a deck or something out back where it'd be nice to take food from the kitchen (maybe to grill or to eat outside)? If so, where is that?

Since you already have an office on the floor it may be worth considering to use that space as kitchen. If you go that route can you close the entry to the hall bath? If that bath hall entry stays I think you'll use that hall more than the DR entry to reach the DR and you may not enjoy that. I'd also consider a door, not a doorway to master bed hall.

Jillius. We enter through the lower level and up the stairs since garage is at that level. It's a good workout when I have lots of groceries :) We do have a deck off the back door where we grill and another deck off the 2 sliders .

Sena01. Good points. We can close off the hall and adding a door on the hall would work too.

Jillius! Thank you! Definitely more dramatic than what we had in mind but I like it. It makes sense. And... all of the walls in that part of the house can be removed / reconfigured because they are not supporting anything.

We have a mud room downstairs where we enter so we could use this space for something else. Maybe even a pantry.

While we do have another 3 piece bath downstairs, it only has a shower. DH and I will have to mull this one over since the upstairs bath is the only one with a tub. Any thoughts on how we may be able to keep the bath in it's current location?

Tried to keep the bath dimensions the same.

An L kitchen and an island could be better, but that would probably give you a narrow LR.

Thank you sena01! You and Jillius have definitely given us great ideas to think about.

No brilliant ideas here, but I do think that fixing the weird walk-thru-a-bedroom-to-get-to-the bedroom situation should for sure be part of the plan.

Here is another way of getting that hallway to make sense. It doesn't keep the bath in precisely the same place, but there is a fair amount of overlap (shown in the second image with a yellow outline on top of the current layout). That should make it easier (read: cheaper) to rearrange the pipes, since they won't have to move far. The bath in this one is also larger so the tub will still fit. The only part I don't like is how the bathroom still doesn't have a window. With half baths, a windowless room is not so bad, but with showers/tubs, it's really nice to be able to let the moisture out.

Here's another. Bath stays where it is now, but changed the door.

I like the first one Jillius did. I would expand that bath to include a bath tub. I would move the office wall farther down the staircase to increase the size. Then make back entry into a mud room/walk in pantry.

This way living area make more sense. The approach to the master suite is nicer. And, the kitchen layout is more efficient with a generous pantry. Win, win.

I truly want to thank you all for your comments, feedback and time! I've been struggling with this for months and after 2 days of posting you all have provided me with many great options to think about.

Jillius - I REALLY like your 1st layout. I loved the placement of the kitchen, having the open area to walk into from the back door & stairs, and the new hall to pull it all together and make it flow. I immediately got my measuring tape out and became frustrated. We just don't have the room to put the 1/2 bath there because we'd have to put a wall right in the middle of the window. I thought maybe we could make the bath bigger to encompass the whole window but then the office would be windowless. We live in a log cabin so moving doors and windows is pretty much out. Your 2nd plan would probably be the easiest (cheaper ;) and definitely fix the flow. Any suggestions on the kitchen. Do you envision it staying pretty much in it's original location with a small gain on space?

sena01 - I never thought of putting a wall like that to create a buffer like that. Interesting. Although, I'm not sure we could put the bathroom entrance in that location because that's where the "throne" is. We'll have to see if that would be an option.

With my second layout, yes, I was envisioning the kitchen's staying basically in the same place. Generally people prefer the kitchen to not be the room that immediately greets you when you walk in the front door, so its current location is best in that situation.

Follow-up questions:

1) Do you actually want/use the office? I have been trying to maintain all the rooms that currently exist, but I just want to make sure that is really necessary.

2) In a log cabin, can windows be added? I can see why moving them would be difficult (because of patching the hole, I assume), but is adding an option?

3) Are skylights an option? It sounds as if this is the top floor. In my first suggestion, the kitchen could really benefit from skylights. In my second suggestion, the bathroom could really benefit from a skylight.

4) Could you please post the measurements for this whole floor? I'd have an easier time coming up with a viable solution if I am working with real numbers.

5) What other options are there besides having a tub in this bathroom? Could the bathroom downstairs have a tub/shower installed? Or how necessary is a tub really? If the tub is needed only for incidental kid bathing or dog washing or whatever, does the master bath have a tub that could be pressed into service for that?

-----

Another suggestion:

I am on my phone right now, so I can't draw this for you, but you could also:

a) Put the office as I have it in my second suggestion. That connects the master bath hall to the main living areas, creates a normal-shaped hall, and creates a normal-shaped office with the existing window centered on the wall. It all looks nice and deliberate.

b) Put a 6' x 9' (roughly) bath where I had the mud room in my first suggestion with a skylight above it. That will fit a tub. It does make the back hallway there pretty narrow, so if the tub isn't truly necessary, a half bath would be better here.

c) Put the kitchen as I had it in my first suggestion, plus skylights above it.

OR

If the office is not really necessary:

a) Put the bathroom where I have the office in my second suggestion. Again, that connects the master bath hall to the main living areas, creates a normal-shaped hall, and creates a normal-shaped room with the existing window centered on the wall. It all looks nice and deliberate. This would be quite a roomy bathroom.

b) Put a pantry where I had the mud room in my first suggestion.

c) Put the kitchen as I had it in my first suggestion, plus skylights above it.

Jillius - I agree with the location of the kitchen. With regards to your questions:

1) I do use the office. I'm in it right now :). I'm trying to keep it because if we ever sell (it's not in our plans but life has a funny way of changing our plans) it would be the only other place to call a bedroom.

2) Windows can be added. Cutting through the logs isn't the easiest thing, but I suppose if we fell in love with a layout it could be an option. We have some pretty great views off the south (sliding door side) and west side (where the stairs down are) of the house. All of the windows are 65" wide except for the one in the kitchen that's over the sink. That one is even larger.

3) This is the top floor we're working with. I guess you'd call it a raised ranch. The bottom floor is where the garage is and we also have a private area for guests. I suppose skylights would be an option. We have them in the master bedroom. We love bringing the outside in as much as possible.

4) I've attached a floor plan for the main part of the house. I hope it comes through clearly. The measurements in my original post are real numbers for the current kitchen and old bedroom. Let me know if there's anything missing.

Thank you!

That floor plan is very helpful. Thanks! Just FYI, I was editing my last post a bit when you replied just now. I am not sure what you saw and replied to just now was the final version.

Here is a blank graph paper template of the space for anybody else tinkering with this to use:

http://i.imgur.com/pM9OUex.jpg

1 big square = 1 sq. ft.

1 small square = 2 sq. inches

Ok, here is a new suggestion. If the office is supposed to be bedroom technically, then it needs a closet, and it needs to be handy to a full bathroom.

http://i.imgur.com/dBOGnO5.jpg

1) What I have given you is not a particularly big room (fits a twin or a full bed if you squeeze), but you are using it as office, so that is okay.

2) I am proposing that you make the current laundry room a full bathroom. It is 5' x 9', right? That is the perfect size and location for a full bath adjacent to the office bedroom. I moved the laundry to the 8' x 6' space next to the stairs.

3) I found closet space above the stairs.

So there is your office that can be a bedroom. What that buys is you is the humongous open floor plan you liked:

a) Huge kitchen island prep area with views of all the living areas, the TV, the fireplace, and out the big sliders.

b) Dining room centered prettily on the sliders that seats 8 normally (10 if you add leaves).

c) Giant living room area with a natural place for a TV flanked prettily by matching windows.

Despite all the changes, no windows or doors need to be moved. I enlarged the current kitchen window and added a second window next it to mirror the double sliders on the other end of that long wall. You'll be able to see these two new/modified windows from almost everywhere in the whole open room, so your nice view will really be a feature.

I would also suggest adding a skylight in the new laundry room at the very least, but I think two (ish?) skylights over the kitchen would be nice too.

Jillius! I did go back and re-read your earlier post. Funny... our postings did cross paths and I missed a lot the 1st time around. And thank you for sharing the graph paper. But most of all, thank you for sharing your insight. This new layout addresses pretty much everything on my wish list. And, it definitely hits the mark for the WOW! factor. I couldn't wait to get home and share it with DH.

So now I have to hone my negotiating skills and see which of your layouts I can get buy in on. With your 2nd layout we would be able to do most of the work ourselves and it would address reconciling the funny hall. But this last layout would really make our home spectacular. We'll probably start working on this reno by end of summer. I'll keep you posted on where we end up.

I've been looking at these plans for months trying to reconcile the transition of rooms and just couldn't envision how to do it. I really can't thank you enough for taking the time to share your wonderful ideas!

No problem! I am glad it was helpful!

Great ideas!

I think my favorite use of the overall space...and leaving the largest dining/living areas...is Sena's last plan.

The only change I would recommend is to leave the bathroom door 'as is' and move the pantry to the back closet (by laundry) and frame in the fridge.

I added the dining table...just to show relation to the rest of the space. This leaves the office and bathroom intact...while giving you a wonderful kitchen! Nice job, Sena :)

Thank you for taking a look and adding to all of the great ideas lavender_lass!

I like sena01's plan too. Adding the wall in front of the hall to the MB suite offers a nice buffer and a great place to tuck away a pantry. I was concerned about moving the bathroom entrance but your idea pretty much addresses that. And I could just keep the existing wall/hall running along the fridge and in front of the bathroom door so you wouldn't see it when sitting at the DR table.

I have to tell you, my DH thinks I'm nuts. Every time he turns around I have a tape measure and roll of blue tape in my hands as I'm trying to get a feel for how the different layouts will work. I think I may need to pick up a different color tape ;)

I filled out my second suggestion a bit:

http://i.imgur.com/vrbHZye.jpg

The living room and dining are the same as in my other suggestion. The office bedroom is very slightly bigger. You should put skylights in the bathroom.

The kitchen in my other suggestion was a bigger and faced all the living areas and had lots of island seating -- it was a great kitchen for entertaining and interaction. The kitchen in this plan is a bit smaller, and it's all about the views. The island doesn't have seating (you don't have room), but it faces two huge windows with your best views. And the clean-up sink faces the big window above the stairs where you also have the best views. I have the clean-up sink against a half wall, so you'll be able to look out that window above the stairs more or less like this:

Except I'd make the half wall a bit shorter, more like this: