I like No. 2 very much; I notice a lot of folks chose No. 4; it may suit the style of your windows, but No. 2 does more for the house. All I read says the doors should make a statement...not tone it down as someone said. We just got an estimate on two Classica 3000 for $4,500; they are 8 x 9 foot doors, but just the doors and not the openers...so your price sounds good. They are guaranteed for life we were told, all the mechanisms, etc. guaranteed...and sometimes garage door springs and parts can be very expensive plus the labor. How did you get these doors overlayed onto your house photo?

jsween - thanks for the encouragement. I was just telling somebody that I actually would rather eat a bug than deal with the backsplash. Oinch! ginabmg - as far as recessed lighting, we have five 4" cans in the ceiling, plus two 4" cans over the sink, and over the penninsula we are set up to have a pendant or some type of track lighting, depending on who wins that battle, me or DH. DH is set on a pendant, and I am dead set against it! If I get my way, we'll change that and make it two 4" recessed lights over the penninsula. But that's for another thread!! We have 75 watt halogens in our cans now, which is a perfect amount of light. HOWEVER - once we put the housings in the holes, which we haven't done yet, we will have to change the bulbs out to 50 watt max, which is NOT GOOD!!! I strongly urge you to put in 5" or 6" cans so that you can use 75 watt bulbs. And then you won't need so many holes in your ceiling. (although two 50 watt 4" cans over the sink is actually perfect.) That is one major mistake we made and that's what I would do differently if I could. Also, we do have undercabinet lighting, which is fabulous. Anyway, 16 sounds like an awful lot, unless your space is much larger than ours.

I think the location of the MW is fine...it's easily accessed via the kitchen as well as snackers...w/o those snackers getting in the way. I use my MW a lot, and I wouldn't have any problems with that location. As a matter of fact, most items that I MW come from the refrigerator...so if the MW were too far from the MW it would be an issue for me! Once you put in a permanent island with water, it will be perfect (I add water to some of the things I MW)! Something to keep in mind about the refrigerator...if you end up with a less-expensive counter-depth refrigerator, your refrigerator will most likely stick out another 6" or so b/c the doors + handles will need to extend out past the surrounding cabinets & counters. (Recessing it into the back wall won't help b/c you still have to have the doors stick out.) Overall, the layout is pretty good. But keep in mind that if you don't put in a corner cabinet of some sort, you will need significant filler in the corner to ensure the drawers on either side clear each others handles. You'll probably need at least 3" in each direction. It would be nice if you had more space b/w the range & sink, but it's probably workable. One thing, though, since the cleanup sink is currently the only water source in the kitchen, everything will be done in that corner...prepping, cooking, cleaning up...so be prepared for a bottleneck there. At least the DW isn't in the Prep Zone...that's a definite Plus! (The Prep Zone will be b/w the range & sink b/c of the sole sink.) The counter to the right of the DW probably won't be used much unless you make it into a coffee/tea center or similar. It won't work as a snack center b/c the MW & refrigerator are too far away. Once you put in an island w/a sink, your Prep Zone options will expand. I suspect the preferred location will still be b/w the range & sink primarily b/c it's just so convenient to the range, but you'll have the island as a secondary Prep Zone. My only concern w/the island as a Prep Zone is that (1) you don't have much space on the range end (it's the narrow end), (2) using the sink side causes the island to be a "barrier island" as well as puts anyone working there butt-to-butt with someone working at the cleanup sink, and (3) the refrigerator side appears to be a major thoroughfare through the kitchen...it looks like the path to/from your front door is right there...so you'll have major traffic there and that's not a great condition for a Prep Zone. I'm assuming there's no seating planned for either long side b/c there's not enough room for it. You could, though fit one or two stools on the opposite end from the range (the # will depend on how deep the island is). With 176" to work with plus a major thoroughfare through the kitchen on a working aisle... 176" wide kitchen - 25.5" sink side - 42" aisle b/w island & sink (need at least this b/c so much is going on in that space) - 48" aisle b/w island & refrigerator wall (need this b/c it's a major thoroughfare & a working aisle) - 25.5" refrigerator side ----------- 35" for the island. If you want a deeper island, you'll need to reduce aisle widths...but be careful, don't make the aisles so narrow they become congested b/c of everything that's happening in them!

Here is my existing floorplan. Master is at the left end of the house, then a hall to secondary bedroom and kitchen and the rest of the home is to the right of all of this with an open kitchen/DR/LR then two bedrooms and bath for our kids at the far right. What this house is missing is more garage space. There is only a 2 car garage and we want more garage and have a space we can turn into more garage labeled rec room here. This master and master bath were an addition by the prior owner. The second bedroom on this view is the old master. We want to turn the rec room into a side entry garage, entry from the left side. Above is the current floor plan. The current "rec room" is unusable due to not being heated and cooled. It is more of an enclosed patio than interior space. We have yard access to turn it to a garage. The existing rec room has a double door to the current master, a single door to the hall by the laundry room, and a current door to the "hobby room" which is a storage room with counters and shelved between the current garage and house. We enter the home through the garage then this "hobby room" that goes into the home via a butlers' pantry off the kitchen (labeled kitchen 2 on the plan) I did not design this home. If we make access from the new garage through the hobby room, it makes the same entry to the home from either garage. I am sure I want to make some type of new master closet using the double doors from the existing master. What I am not sure about is whether to make a long closet with two doors, the second opening to the hall by the laundry room. Or whether to make a new master closet, and then make a closet or walk way with from the garage to the laundry room hall. Or I could also do a closet only accessible from the laundry room. Comments on traffic flow etc with these options? Thanks for some fresh eyes and perspectives. Possible remodel floor plans: All work will be to code and we are aware of firewall requirements between home and garage. Thanks for any comments. lafdr