As for grilling, you can't see it on the image but the way our land slopes allows us to have a partial walkout. So there will be a small concrete patio that is accessible from the door leading out from the mudroom. We will grill there and that is also where the kids can come in and out from outside. That is a really steep right to left slope you must have if you can be flat outside the mudroom and have a walk-out basement. Is the photo you posted of the back of the house what the back of this house would look like? And the mudroom is behind where the porch ends on the left side? Will your daughters play in the backyard? We have a walk-out basement with a covered deck, sort of like your back porch. Ours is only 8 feet deep, but from inside the family room the deck blocks most of the view of the backyard.

Thanks everyone! A few answers to question: Jaymielo: Yes, the addition will be two stories. There will be two bedrooms downstairs, and the master upstairs. There isn't direct access from the garage to the house right now. You exit the garage, turn, and walk two steps outside to get to our back door. The current back door is located where the new stairs start by the bathroom. is a scan of the original house floorplan before we did the kitchen bump-out. The resolution of this scan isn't good enough to see dimensions, but it will show the doors that allow garage access. Marthaelena: Good guess on a door location! That's where our back door is currently located. The bottom of the layout is the front of our house, and the main entry is where the indentation is between the kitchen and livingroom. My husband's grandparents designed and built this house in the 70's as their retirement home (hence the 2-bedroom house!), and it has ended up in DH's hands because he respects thier wishes that it stays in the family. So, resale isn't very important to us b/c we have no plans of ever leaving it. If life intervenes, property values here are such that we could sell for half it's value and still be able to buy a house outright anywhere but CA. We would LOVE to be able not to do a 3-level, but we would have to either give up a level, or sink it 18-24" because of the height restrictions here; we can't be more than 24' above our curb. Supposedly the layout shown is to scale according to DH's program there, but I'm not sure I'm buying that. I'm going to get a better layout for you guys including ALL dimensions. I know from doing my kitchen that the more info I can give you, the more you'll be able to brainstorm with me. Sweeby: I hear you on not liking that program! That's why DH has been the only one who's been working on the plans so far. Everytime he asks me to sit down with it, I just get that Ew feeling b/c that program is difficult to work with, and doesn't do a great job showing you what's going on. Graph paper plan or better program (like BHG) will follow later today. The stairs will have to be included in the 19x21 addition space, and it makes the most sense to us to put them by the garage there. The terrace will be 3 or 4 steps up from the bedroom. We may be able to gain a bit more width by raising the roof on the part of the current structure that's over the current bathroom and guest bedroom. However, we'll need to consider how that roofline will look from the outside because we don't want a funny looking house. I'm open to whatever ideas you come up with! That's why I'm posting here- we need a fresh and different look on this. Resale is unlikely, so we'd like to do what's best for us. Our house is currently at about the 60th percentile value wise for our neighborhood, even with it's current 2 bedrooms. This addition and the terrace with it's view, would probably move it up considerably. The house is pretty unique with it's atrium already. Here is a link that might be useful:

The island is large enough to have a good zone of safety around the cooking zone, but not large enough to serve as the prep zone. Your prep zone in this layout will be the corner between your fridge and DW. And that would be fine for many people. If you want to prep and socialize with visitors at the same time, then this isn't a layout that will work for that and you'd need to move the cooking zone off of the island and put a sink there so that you'd prep facing out into the room. Whatever you decide, I'd make the entry to the pantry in the hall adjacent so that you could extend the cabinets down all the way to that hall and move the fridge down further to make access easier from the great room. That will also give you a good place for a MW next to the fridge. I'd personally also prefer a peninsula for some separation between the kitchen and dining room while still remaining open for the connection. I'd also prefer the cooking zone to be off of the island so that it would b easier and cheaper (and more effectively) vented to the exterior straight through the wall. Flank it with some windows to make it a focal point from the great room.

I came to this forum from kitchens where I spent a large partt of my life for a while. My kitchen planning got stopped cold by an injury and then restarted with some different ideas. I tested them and reworked and retested until I was pretty comfortable I had the best possible for my situation and limitations. I held my breath and posted my plan. I asked for thoughts on one specific part but got a lot of challenges in general. I could get upset or defensive, but I realized I had an answer for why each of those things was in the plan as it was and I didn't want to change it. I got reassurance on my one question, and then I knew I was ready to move forward. You have to test your ideas. That is the least expensive and most important part of the process whether you are building or remodeling. Changes only get more expensive and when you cant change, regrets may be forever. Those hard feelings are likely to be much greater than any you may get over a "this is the biggest investment we will ever make and where we plan to live forever - we get once chance to make it great, so I'm sure you can appreciate that we want a double check from someone who hasn't been too close to this." Consider that the family member may feel the same away about giving you feedback, criticism or questioning the things you say you want. Guarding each other's feelings is the best recipe for unhappiness for both of you. Ask any first year law student about the number of family matters in their case books. If you can't question a family member or get a second opinion now, it will only get worse once you start. If your family member is worth their salt, they will understand and will want you to get the best possible result. Ask the second architect to do a reality check for how this will live and spot problems, not do a redesign. Just make it a team approach moving toward a common goal, not adversarial. If you can't do that now, I'd scrap the project. Seriously -- this is a huge investment of time, money and self. Can you really afford, financially, emotionally and in terms of family relationships to not be happy when it is all done? Now is the time to test nerves, bang heads and check and recheck plans -- not once the work has started.