GWers are great at this sort of thing and will offer up many viable ideas and options for you. Do you have at least a rough sketch with dimensions (inlcuding placements of doorways and windows) of your space that includes all areas that need modification? A whole house plan would be best of all.

Things I have done to improve natural light in my home: 1. front door now is mostly glass 2. removed full height pantry that was in the kitchen/entrance - there is a small load bearing wall there that will be replaced by columns (attached to kitchen island) 3. painted all walls off white 4. chose light coloured finishes in general 5. removed upper cabinets from around kitchen window 6. ensure that window coverings for privacy allow lots of light in Things I am considering doing 1. adding ODL tubular skylights to light windowless areas (from Home Depot) 2. replacing some interior doors that are usually closed with windowed ones to bring natural light into windowless hallway (doors can have curtains or blinds if necessary) 3. adding windows to bathrooms

Per your request, here's my 1.5 story houseplan. If you'd like to see the "original" online, here's the link: http://www.familyhomeplans.com/plan_details.cfm?PlanNumber=41000. Our floorplans have many similarities: Same basic rooms, though yours is a more open floor plan and all your rooms are larger. I absolutely love yours -- especially that porch area, which is beyond perfect -- but I'm still sold on mine. My my square footage is smaller (1694 sf + 192 for the two rooms we're adding = 1886 sf). You'll note that my rooms are smaller than yours overall. Taking away one bathroom upstairs cuts out some square footage. Also, I don't have the large entryway and the spacious garage-entry hallway space. All this adds up to less square footage. I'd also point out that mine will be less expensive to build because my roofline is much simpler. And my overall shape is simpler. I have kicked around the idea of adding 2-4 foot width to the kitchen/dining room; look at the roofline and you'll see that for this house it'd be easy to add width, but adding depth would change the upstairs and the roof, which would get expensive. To give some specific details about my plan: We are building a retirement house, so our focus isn't the same as yours. Our oldest is already out of the house, and our youngest will be gone in a few years. So this is a "the two of us" and occasional guests house. We are definitely building with an eye towards "aging in place". I drew an arrow to show that we're flip-flopping the kitchen and dining room. I am certain of this choice for several reasons: - When walking in the front door, I want the sight-line to be across the dining room table and towards windows or glass doors. I do not want people at the front door to have a view into my kitchen /my sinkful of dishes. - I imagine my sofa and love seat forming an "L" in the living room, and I want the wall space to place a big-screen TV in the living room -- right in the space that is now the door to the dining room. - Garage - Pantry - Kitchen is a sensible flow for our "everyday entrance". Walking through the dining room isn't quite as natural, in my opinion. - I like the idea of the pantry and the kitchen being side-by-side. I suppose we could walk through the dining room to get to the pantry, but why am I building my own house if not to have things just as I want them? - On the negative side, this means our plumbing has to run a little farther, and that means a little more cost. - Also on the negative side, by moving the kitchen to the corner space, I am losing those wonderful windows that're all over the downstairs. We're adding on an 8x12 pantry, which will also serve as a pass-through between the garage and the kitchen. The kitchen is small, and my cookware collection is large. I also can my own vegetables, so I need the storage space. Pantry shelves are much less expensive than kitchen cabinets. We'll also have a 4' workspace in the middle of the pantry. This'll be for setting down groceries to be sorted, for measuring our a cup of flour, for setting a crock pot out of the way of the kitchen, for setting dessert out of the way during a dinner party. And we're adding on an 8x12 office (with a large bay window in which a small round table will sit -- this'll give us a space to leave a craft project out overnight, without interferring with the dining room table). This will have built-in shelves for books, crafts, collections of various sorts. And we'll have a built-in computer desk. I didn't draw in doors on my floorplan, but we'll have a door between the kitchen and the living room on the faaar left, and the office door'll be right there. These doors could change. Note that we have no attic space. Thus, we're doing a 3-car garage. 2 car spots, plus space for tools, floor-to-ceiling shelves for holiday decorations, camping gear, etc. Though I am the exact opposite of a packrat. This area will also house a couple exercise machines. Note that I added an exterior door to the laundry room. We are going to eliminate the wall (currently marked pantry) between the laundry and the half-bath. Living in the South, we're building a pool and a large covered outdoor dining area, so this door will be very functional. People can come straight into a room where it's okay to be "drippy", and we'll have hooks on the wall for towels. And this'll allow guests to come straight in to a rest room without walking through any other rooms. I am not entirely settled on this long, narrow laundry-and-bath combination, but I haven't figured out anything better. If I flip-flop the bathroom /laundry room, guests don't have access to the half-bath from inside the house. I do not like the layout of the master bath, but I don't seem to be able to do any better. I want a large shower (with seat), a tub, a five-foot vanity with single sink and a toilet. I want a door into the laundry room. I want nice sight-lines as I enter the bathroom. I am a little concerned about too many doors in the master bath /closet area. I'm thinking we want just an open space from the bedroom to the closet area . . . then bi-fold doors (with mirrors would be practical) on the closet . . . and a real door leading in to the bathroom. I'm concerned about getting too many doors in one spot. Oh, and we are going to replace the smaller closet with drawers /put a mirror above. This will replace the dresser. We will have NO clothing storage in the bedroom. I love that the closet acts as something of a light/noise barrier between the bedroom and bathroom. Upstairs, I am making some changes in the right-hand bedroom. As I said, we are concerned about aging-in-place, and I want the upstairs to be appropriate for one of my adult children /grandchildren (or a paid caregiver) for the future. I'm thinking of eliminating the existing closet (to allow a door straight into the bathroom) and making the "bonus space" (which is too small for any other use) into a large closet for that bedroom. I also want to double the windows in both upstairs bedrooms. Since your boys are still young, I'm sure that my upstairs plans do not mirror yours in the least. So, that's my house plan. I am very open to anyone's thoughts on my 1.5 story house. Thanks so much.

If that door wasn't in the kitchen there would be more room for the cooktop & sink on the back wall. So, how long is that wall? It would be nice if we could see all the dimensions of the space as well as your KD's design (doors/walls/windows & distances b/w each). The window doesn't look 5' in your current kitchen, so I'm assuming you're going to make it bigger...can it be moved as well? If it can, then you could move it and the sink to the right to make room for the cooktop & hood. As I'm sure you've noticed, corner ranges take up a lot of room...at least 4' on each wall. So, right now you have a refrigerator & range crammed into that one wall with very little room b/w them b/c of the angled range. Then, as others have said, put the oven cabinet next to the refrigerator. Idea 2: Move the door to the other side of the short wall, leave the range & sink where they are, and put the oven cabinet there. Idea 3: Move the door to the other side of the short wall and leave the range & sink where they are. Next, put the oven cabinet where the refrigerator is now & move the refrigerator to where the door is now. On the left wall, you gain about 6" of space and if you also take that wall down, you gain another 4-1/2" for a total of 10" or so gained. That means you'll have 10" + whatever you have now (12"?) b/w the range & the ovens. It will open that space up a bit. You will lose about 5" - 6" on the sink wall w/the refrigerator there... .....36" ref + two 3/4" end panels to frame it = 37-1/2" = 3'1-1/2"; then .....3'1-1/2" - 2'8" = 5-1/2" needed from the sink run.) I think I like #3 best b/c it doesn't disrupt the nice setup for the sink, opens up the left wall somewhat, and leaves the corner range. While corner ranges do take up a lot of room, I do like the look if it's done well (see SharB's kitchen in the Finished Kitchens Blog (FKB) for an example of one done well.)