I agree that it's a large house for two people. Specific things I'd consider cutting: - This is a laundry room sized for a family. I know that my grandmother had significant trouble carrying baskets back and forth to her bedroom; I'd rather have a small area adjacent to the closet so the clothes could go straight to their storage spots. - The kitchen is large. Given that you have a large pantry, you probably don't need all this cabinet space (and pantry shelves are so much cheaper than cabinets). - Note that when your pantry door is open, it covers some of your shelves. To access those items, you'd have to enter the closet and shut the door. Since I personally would leave that door open most of the time, I'd consider a pocket door. - I like the garage entrance. I assume you'll have as few steps as possible. Do you have space for a ramp there? - Why a four car garage? It seems like serious overkill, and it hurts the appearance of the front of the house. At the very least, I'd make the most forward garage a side-entrance so you could have one driveway serving both garages. - Once you have a table in the breakfast nook, I don't see how you'll access that back door. I'd replace it with a bank of windows and go with a door in the great room. - I agree with the poster who says it'd be nice if you could access either the master bedroom or bathroom from the little vestibule. If your mobility is affected one day, you'll be glad to bypass the few steps through the bedroom. - Think twice about those double-doors. If you're ever using a walker or a wheelchair, one door is tough enough -- why force yourself to use two? And where does the light switch always end up in this scenario? Behind the door. So you'll have to enter the room, close the door, and feel around for the switch. No thanks. - If you flip-flop the entryway and the staircase, you could extend your master closet underneath those large stairs . . . it might be half-height storage, but it'd be great for holiday items or things you don't access often . . . OR, if you leave the stairs "as is", you could extend the pantry under the stairs and have extra storage there. I absolutely would not waste that space, but I suppose the question is, Where do you need the extra storage most? - You're having trouble with the bathroom. I wonder if it'd help to flip the bedroom to the front of the house and the bathroom to the back. This would take away the "everybody look at me" aspect of having your bathroom on the front wall of the house. I'd also consider a barrier-free shower. I would absolutely not go with the toilet-in-a-closet. I saw my grandmother struggle with her walker to get into public bathroom stalls, and I can only imagine how much worse it would've been, if she'd been in a wheelchair. Allow yourself plenty of space around the toilet. Also build in strong boards behind the walls NOW so you can later add handicapped grab-bars, if necessary; it'll save you ripping out your expensive tile later. I've been investigating aging-in-place concepts, and I've read that the ability to bathe oneself is the first thing many people lose, so I'm choosing to put lots of effort into the bathroom.

I think a more accurate term for the island would be bowed. I just went and measured it, and it only comes out 2 inches at the center and that's stretched across a 3 foot width. It just softens it a little and adds a little interest without being too obvious or taking up much room. The fridge wall is all 24" deep. We have a utility cabinet (step stool, dog leashes, dustpan broom and hand vac) with a divided cabinet above for trays and cutting boards. The second cabinet is a 24" pantry with rollouts and a shelf in the upper portion. The one on the right is a 12" pantry pullout tower with wire baskets. I really love this pantry arrangement. There are 2 27"high storage cabinets above the pantry/utility (one cab with doors made off center to match the cab below) and the fridge. You can see the bookshelf turned sideways over the end pantry. We didn't think anything that narrow and deep that high up would be very useful, so I have a row of cookbooks on the bottom shelf (I can just reach them, so these are not the most used books) and display above. We have about 44" between the fridge and the island. I think we barely had enough to push a fridge in before (can't remember if we had to take off the door), so it feels like a huge space to us now. I wasn't sure exactly what you were asking about the cabinets, so I hope that covered more than you needed to know. ;-)

My current kitchen is very similar to your current one, even down to the measurements and doorways. We are debating between keeping the peninsula or using an island (my husband thinks that would be a mistake). So I'll be posting my layout on here shortly. However, luclin999, what cabinets are you putting in your corner? I see the drawer stack, but what's in the blind corner? Helene

I would be reluctant to buy Wolf at this point. The M series has been redesigned to deal with the blue chipping but the E series has not. The M series seems to have regressed in features in that you no longer have the "convection bake", which to me was the most usable convection mode with a slow fan speed. You are left with high speed fan which is more prone to hot spots. There are some posts on the M. I would look at Gaggenau and Miele on the high end but you will also have a big learning curve with all of the different modes. Look at Bosch if you want to save a few dollars. There are threads here about all of them. I have been very happy with Electrolux in the way it bakes, which is about as well as my Wolf range oven but they have redesigned it with dual fans and there have not any reviews here yet on a new one. It used to be a favorite here. There have been some issues with the blue enamel but we haven't heard as much about it like Wolf.