I'm in the process of designing a floor plan as well, so I know what you are going through. My husband and I are the type of people that want a very open floor plan with a great deal of windows and natural light. Think log cabin open and airytypes. After several months of brainstorming, I think we may be getting close. One thing I can say for certainty is that you will absolutely hate any rooms that do not have windows to let in natural light. I feel preparing food and eating in an area without sufficient windows would feel like being in a dungeon. I have had two different homes where there were bathrooms without a window in them. I hated them. I cannot imagine enjoying a meal without a window in the room. Take your time and think things through until you get every room exactly the way you want it. It always takes longer than one would like, but is a necessary process in order to get a home you will love to spend time in. As far as builders go, they aren't the ones who are paying for and living in the house. They do, however, want your money. Keep this in mind before you take their opinions over your gut feelings.

HS -- Again. Thank you. Do you have a better idea for the space? No live in help. Occasionally cater dinners. I am envisioning that much of the time, the triangle will be the range, island sink, island trash, island 1 drawer dish drawer. Cooking tools, knives, etc will be near the range. Yes, plates, glasses will have to travel a bit as it looks like those will end up in drawers near the window sink and a cabinet on the wall left of the bank of windows. When we entertain, guests can bring dishes, glasses, etc to the window sink and that dishwasher. The "scullery" is the pantry. Sorry. It will house a freezer, shelves for dry goods, a wall for pots and skillets, food processor, larger gadgets (blender for example), and extra occasional dishes, glasses, and platters. We both work a lot -- so every 3-4 weekends, we make a lot of prep work and whole meals and freeze, so we can get home and have healthy dinners in 20 minutes. For example, tonight we had mushroom risotto. We made 6 batches of the mushroom portion and froze awhile ago, so all we had to do was make the rice and then add the mushroom portion. We discussed leaving the window side just floor to ceiling windows, but figured having the extra sink and dishwasher would be nice and were concerned it would be too big a space to not fill with something.... We have explored U shapes, but just didn't find anything that looked better. The marble top of the kitchen table will be for baking -- triangle will be frig, marble island, range oven, and probably island cooking sink for clean up unless someone is cooking. I hope a mixer lift will fit on one side and a microwave on the other side of the island portion and baking tools will fit in the island drawers. This post was edited by nightowlrn on Wed, Feb 5, 14 at 21:53

I agree with Michigranrachel...when you have small children, you may want their bedrooms closer to you so you can get to them in the middle of the night if you need to. Also, when they get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom (and not old enough to do it completely on their own and still yell out for you in the middle of the night!!!!) you don't want to have to walk all around the house to get to them, or there maybe some accidents. I think the best situation would be to have the bedrooms closer to you, but maybe not right next to each other (when one gets up in the middle of the night and is yelling, it wouldn't automatically wake the other one up). Just some suggestions from someone who has two small children (4 and 6) who often wake up in the middle of the night, but that is a whole different category - can GW help me with that one LOL!!!!!

OK. Other than Norfolk, I went to Boston Kitchens (they carry Wellborn, Ultracraft and a few others) - locations are Middleton, Wilmington (and some others that don't come to mind). Price wise they were 2nd cheapest. I went to Jackson Lumber in Lawrence (they carry Wood-Mode & Brookhaven). Finally, I checked out Mede Kitchen & Bath - they are in Danvers now (formerly in North Reading) - they carried the Omega lines (Dynasty/Embassy & Custom). Of the places, Mede was the most expensive. I have heard nice things about Moynihan lumber (several locations) but didn't go there personally. If you have a complete kitchen design that you like that will probably save you some time as they'll be able to quote more quickly using your existing layout.