Wow! I really like what Marthelena did! The Masterbath now looks luxuriously spacious AND she managed to site the jacuzzi under a nice big window. Perfect. I envision a gorgeous stained glass window (made with opaque and semi-opaque glass only) in that window by the masterbath shower. It is perfectly positioned to be enjoyed by folks on the patio if you mounted interior lights to shine on it(with a switch on the outside). The additional windows in the morning room and double patio doors in the great room would definitely help brighten up the kitchen. I generally like having my kitchen sink under a window but agree that, for safety sake, it is better to get the stove off the island. With all the windows Marthaelena put into the nook area, I don't think I'd mind having my sink on the island at all tho. I also like that Marthaelena put in a powderroom that is accessible from the patio. That is a feature I promise, you are going to LOVE. One minor quibble with that powder room tho is that, if someone leaves the interior door open (and somebody ALWAYS does!), you will have pretty much a straight-shot view of the toilet from your kitchen island. I for one don't like looking at a toilet while cooking or dining. Silly I know but... I'm wondering if it might not be possible to slide that interior door over and rehinge it so that it opens against the wall of the other bathroom and is offset from the opening between dining nook and hallway? Then, put the toilet up against the wall where the interior door is now so that the toilet is hidden from view even when the bathroom door is open. Finally - and I'm sure this is just an oversight that crept in when Marthelena realized there was room for a powderroom in that corner - the bathroom for the second bedroom lacks a tub or a shower! At over 9' x 7.5', the room is plenty big enough to be a full sized bath although you'd only have room for a normal 28" to 36" vanity instead of a 6 ft long one! You just need to decide how you want to fit the fixtures in. Oh, one more thing. I still remain concerned about the turning radius getting into/out of that inner garage bay. You mentioned that the J&J bath upstairs was for kids so I assume you have some. An experienced driver driving a small car might be able to negotiate that curve but visualize a 16 year old with a brand new driver's license trying to do it! If your lot isn't big enough to angle the garage, (or you don't want to do so because of the effect on the front elevation) perhaps you could extend the garage another 3 to 5 feet and stick a "man door" between the inner garage bay door and the house? That would push the garage bay out far enough so that one would only have to curve slightly upon backing out in order to miss the bedroom wall instead of having to make an almost 90 degree turn. Most families need extra room for things like bicycles anyway - especially if you have kids - so the extra width would probably come in handy and wouldn't cost that much to build. Plus, it might be nice to have a man-door on that side for those occasions when you back out of the garage, close the garage door and only THEN remember that you left your briefcase inside. I'm looking forward to seeing the final version of the plans. And then seeing photos as you build.

Thanks so much again for the compliments, and I should have said this in my original post, but many thanks for all the help I have received from this board during the renovation as well. To Florantha's question: "Were you just incredibly lucky in your bargain shopping or did you make subsequent decisions based on what you found while bargain shopping?" - I am a huge bargain shopper and will sit all day at the computer until I find the best deal haha. With the Craigslist finds, I think some or maybe most of it was luck, but I usually had to "work" for it by constantly checking and waiting a long time for the items I wanted to appear. None of my appliances are high-end and only my dishwasher is new though. I didn't have exact requirements for the appliances, just stainless. Those items are competitive on Craigslist, at least where I live, so you had to respond within a few minutes of a posting or else you probably lost to someone else. Dishwashers seemed especially popular, and I could never get one that I wanted, so in the end we decided to purchase that new. With my range, I think the owners knew something was about to go wrong, because within a few months after we used it (before the reno), we had to replace the electrical cord. Thank goodness it was only $20 or so. To Florantha's question: "Do you roll the cart about or does it stay put?" - Since our kitchen is small, the cart works well for us. I use it when cooking, but we definitely move it around often, especially when carrying things in and out of the kitchen since it leads to the back porch. With the lighting, I also had to wait and check every single day for something to appear on the CSN lighting clearance site. For those that don't know, these are return items to the CSN store that they sell at a heavy discount, usually 50% off or more. I had a dream light that I saw at a local store, but just couldn't shell out full price for it, so I waited for any sort of inspiration on the CSN site, and that ultimately lead me to the fixtures I purchased. The nicer things don't stick around very long on that site though, I remember having something in my cart once and it disappeared before I got to checkout. The website is: http://www.csnlighting.com/asp/public/static/customerservice/return_sales_items.asp?clid=177 With our cabinets, we purchased them when HD had the 20% off all stock cabinets, plus we were able to use the Lowes 10% movers coupon on top of that (varies by cashier). This coupon is available in the mover's packet at the post office, or you could sign up for it online (and print it multiple times to use at HD since they accept competitor's coupons). I think if I had extra money to spare, I would definitely have upgraded the cabinets.. as most people were saying to do. With everything else we purchased from Lowes or HD, we planned out our purchases ahead of time so we could use the 10% coupon. To flwrs n co's question: Did you make your message board or was it that size when you bought it? For the message board, we cut a piece of sheet metal to size, and glued it to the end of the cabinet. Then we purchased a self-stick roll of dry erase sheet, cut it to size, and stuck it on top of the sheet metal. And finally, to the comments about my old kitchen, the picture probably doesn't make it seem that bad, but it really was! The cabinets were very much peeling and they had an old smell to them. I also don't think they could have been removed and refinished without damaging them because they were so old.. I do think they are more solid than my HD stock cabinets, but at the end of the day, they weren't laid out in the size that we needed, especially since we installed a dishwasher. Which brings us to the dishwasher, which you could see in the "before" picture sitting in the front left. We were originally going to install one when moving into the house because we had inherited it from my in-laws, but decided to wait until we did a full reno. We attached a piece of plywood to the top of it, of which I put contact paper on to look better and it just sat there as storage space for a couple of years - the black plastic covered side exposed and everything. The flooring was one giant piece of laminate that was peeling on the edges, the laminate countertop had green and blue swirls on it. There were pieces of backsplash missing on the walls and large holes drilled into them from the previous owners. The list goes on.. LOL. We did raise the ceiling a few inches and got rid of the popcorn ceiling. And, we did raise the soffit, as someone mentioned and knocked out the soffit on the one side. We couldn't get rid of it on the sink wall, though, unless we did some major structural change. I just blabbed on and on... haha.. Hopefully some of the above will help someone out. I would be happy to answer any other questions!

Thanks, Lee and Erin! The doorknob is from Rejuvenation. You can find vintage ones on Ebay, but I took the easy way out and bought new. Once we got in on, I also had to buy the matching adorable starburst doorbell. How could I resist?! We replaced the door and it was really funny when I was getting quotes. Salespeople kept showing me the fancy doors with leaded glass and sidelights, carvings, etc., and I kept having to explain that no, all I want is a plain, flat door. Nothing fancy, nothing interesting. And no upgraded glass on the sidelights - just plain, flat panes of glass. I got some weird looks! Here is a link that might be useful: Titan Door Set from Rejuvenation

My gut reaction is that unless you have one whole heck of a lot of experience building homes you're being, to use the expression, penny wise and pound foolish. Doubly so if you're planning on doing a lot of the work yourself. One thing a good GC brings to the table is a relationship with his subs. A good GC wants to keep his subs happy and a good sub wants to keep his GC happy. The former gets a better product and the latter gets another job. I've also seen a lot of well meaning homeowners who thought they could do a lot of the work themselves. In many cases inexperience actually ended up costing them more than if they had just hired a professional from the get go. I recall one guy who had started finishing his basement. He got a lot of the framing done until he ran into something he couldn't figure out. Then started on the electrical until in ran into problems, then started on the plumbing... There were so many mistakes it was mind boggling, from framing that left no place to secure drywall to doorways that were the wrong size (framed to the finished, not rough opening). No electrician who wanted to keep his license would have touched the homeowner's work without ripping out everything and starting from scratch. In the end I walked away.