blondelle's plan has a lot of interesting ideas. Using it as the base plan, I'd suggest the following changes to it: Laundry/powder/office area-- Powder rm--fill in the wall where she has the door. Then stretch out the powder room so it's 7 to 7-1/2' long adjacent to her kitchen wall and 42" wide, with a pocket door on the right wall. Laundry--this will be outside the powder room, with the small window in it. There would be a door into the family room right next to where the powder room/family room wall ends. Opposite this door and wall would be an identical door and wall, with the office on the other side. Both laundry doors would be pocket doors. The laundry would measure about 7 to 7-1/2' x ~10 to 10-1/2'. Office--to the right of the door from the garage you could have a 4-6' wide coat closet with a 2+' wide cleaning closet next to it. Opposite it (on the back of the 42" powder room wall) you could have a bench with hooks/cubbies above it. The remainder of the room would be the office (about 9'x 10' with a chunk out of the corner due to the closets). Now for the kitchen: Keep the door from the original hall to the family room for easy access to the revised kitchen. Shorten the cabinets on her range wall from both ends from about 11' to about 8' in length. Put the range in the middle of the wall where the fridge was so it's out of the path of the kids. Facing blondelle's range wall, put the fridge on the right, the microwave to the left of it, and a bar sink to the left of it. May have to reverse the fridge and bar sink locations depending on the width of the kitchen. I'm not sure if the kitchen as reconfigured is wide enough for even a 2' wide island. On the back side of the end of the foyer closet and blondelle's fridge wall, put a hutch for dishes or floor to ceiling 12-15" deep cabinets to be used as a pantry. If there is room for the island, extend it so the end comes out as far as the hutch/pantry cabinets. Foyer: since this looks to be over 9'x9', and since the living room is so long, you might consider giving it a little bit of definition by putting an 18" square half wall coming out from each of the closet walls, with open shelves above. I remember some very pretty ones in Sarah Susanka's book The Not So Big House, I think on p. 100. (I liked that room so much that I memorized the page!) Family room: It might be a good idea to keep the wall between it and the dining room. With young kids it's sort of nice to be able to close the doors on the mess if they have their toys in there. Also, as they get older the wall will buffer some of the noise from them and their friends, and the TV if something is on and you don't want to watch it. With the bedrooms on the same floor, it also would keep things quieter when some people are still sleeping, especially when the TV is on. Many people find it very nice to have one of the "public" rooms on the first floor that can be closed off when needed. Also, if the wall remains, you could get a comfortable sofa bed for guests to sleep on. Sorry I can't draw this up for you, but maybe blondelle or someone else will be able to if there's merit to any of these suggestions. It would be very helpful to have the EXACT measurements of the kitchen and narrow hall combined. Can you measure it from the left kitchen wall through the doorway to the right hall wall? I can estimate it by using the scale, but it seems to be only 12-1/2' wide. That would be a little too tight for a built in island, with appliances in the cabinets on the walls opposite the island. However, a narrower long free-standing work table would work. Anne

Cabinet hardware, to a certain extent, is driven by the style of your cabinets & kitchen as well as the color family (silver/gold/copper/etc.) you're using for other components. There area a lot of different styles. Have you gone to a major home improvement store or several kitchen show places to see what's available? Look at styles first, then color family or other composition. In my experience, most styles can be found in various finishes & at various price points (often an indicator of composition & finish quality...but not always!) So... What style are your cabinets? Your kitchen in general? The rest of your home (particularly if your kitchen is open to the other rooms)? What color family are your appliances and other fixtures...faucet/soap dispenser/air switch, sink, hinges (if not hidden), lights, etc.? What color is your countertop (e.g.. if black, often silver-family items look better...but not always.) Cabinet color? Note: As with all decorating, these are guidelines to make it easier, but they are by no means "rules"! You certainly can mix color families, etc., but when you have no idea what to do sometimes this type of advice helps. In my case, I have a transitional kitchen. My color family is silver...pewter pendants, antique iron hardware, satin nickel faucets/soap dispensers/air switch. Black countertops. Cherry cabinets w/mandarin orange stain & coffee glaze. While my sink & appliances are all SS and certainly fit in the silver-family, I think they're neutral enough that they will also fit with most other color families as well. I put knobs on all doors & the 6" pullouts flanking my cooktop. I put drawer pulls on all drawers & the trash pullout. The knobs are spaced 1" in from the side and on the upper cabinets 3" up from the bottom edge, while on the base cabinets 3" down from the top edge. For the drawers, I put one pull on drawers = 30" wide. The pulls are centered vertically. Horizontally, when there's one pull, it's centered; where there are two knobs, they vary...the ones on the 36" drawers are 8" from the edge, on the 33" drawers they're 7-1/2" from the edge, on the 30" drawers they're 7" from the edge. "Birdcage" Knob: "Birdcage" Drawer Pull (4" on center): 36" drawer spacing: Knob spacing: Overviews (they're a little dark, but hopefully you can get a good idea of what they look like.)

Joan - Glass knobs on the hutch will look sweet. I have a build in desk that has glass knobs AND SN pulls so I think they look nice even on a single piece of furniture. Everyone carries them. I had purchased one from myknobs as a sample, but ended up buying them at RH because that is where i bought everything else. I suspect there are not many manufacturers of these things so I would not be surprised if they were sourced from one or two places. That said, if you have the time I would get a sample. You would hate to have them arrive and realize they are not nice. Most companies charge a restocking fee, watch for that. Good luck.

Find a local appliance parts distributor and take one of your knobs with you. They can match up a set of knobs that match your shaft configuration from the hundreds of knobs they keep in stock. You can also Google Universal Range knob and see some "Fits All Kits "