Zeebee, having cleanup in the middle of food prep is my own horror, so I understand the problem. However, if you designated your cleanup essentially on the left wall/corner area, that would confine cleanup to the sink and area to its left. Prep would be from the sink on to its right. When I designed the kitchen in my new house, my two big priorities were plenty of work space and cleanup totally separated from it. Well, the kitchen isn't terribly large, but I have all that, prep on a spacious island and generous areas on both sides of the stove. It's great and I love it, but having had it I know I could be perfectly happy and do just as well with much less work space--just as long as it was well designed and I didn't have to push dirty dishes away to get at it. When I look at your current plan, I see an L counter that, properly set up, would work well for me. That 39" to the left of the stove is actually almost exactly the amount of space I work in daily here (the rest mostly just gets a drippy mixing bowl, busy spoon, or some such thing set on it so I have to wipe it down anyway). Regarding kitchen as hallway, I don't see it. What those doors do is create a view for the interior space, same as any large expanse of glass, plus provide the opportunity to open the house to the garden when you choose. I personally would want to be able to draw drapes or shutters, or whatever, when the weather's unappealing or you just want a cozily introverted space, and having learned from my mistakes would choose my window treatments as part of the design profess for my windows/doors. Your garden's going to be lovely. I'm a big gardener, but agree for sure, definitely no "cottage" garden for you. Been there, love it, but it is THE most challenging of all garden styles to keep really good looking all through the flowering season. I've spent years trying to get good enough to pull that trick off and had a lot of fun--but! At least I was in California. These days a temperate climate means 6 months of drear. Over the years, I've really come to love finely designed green gardens full of lovely foliage juxtaposed against handsome hardscape to provide structure and contrast. Occasional flowers throughout the seasons can provide variety but mainly just serve to set the main feature off. A garden like that can be gorgeous in all seasons, with and without floral accents, and when well designed also be the easiest to care for of all. The foliage also softens all the masonry and other construction around and adds privacy. It can also serve as a home for birds. We really enjoy watching the birds from our windows, and my gardens now will always be designed to attract them. In any case, beauty's a function of good design. It truly doesn't have to be heavy maintenance at all. In your case, I think you owe it to yourselves to create a beautiful view for your home so you can enjoy it both at the kitchen/dining level and from above. :)

unfortunately, we do not have a room that is near the dining area that could be used. We pretty much use this "breakfast nook" as our sole dining space. We have considered a banquette, but our concern was that it would take up more space than what is available. However, the dining set that I shared, in the description, the dimensions state that it is 48" x 36", which makes it narrower and rectangle, which is why we chose it for that space. I think, in that picture, it just looks square, but it is actually rectangle! It has a leaf built into it; here is a picture of it with the leaf added to it, bringing the length to 66" we were planning on putting the table against the wall like the current one is set up and putting the chairs on either end and along the side to leave adequate space when it is just the three of us (we are a small family) As for the china hutch, thank you klfische, I agree, that something shorter with artwork would be better suited to the space, which is why I wanted to invest in a buffet or server instead. I was actually considering the purchase of a base cabinet and adding decorative trim and knobs to match it to the new dining table, but my husband said we should reconfigure the current cabinet to be more suitable. I actually have a plan for the artwork to go over the top... Two framed New Orleans Jazz Fest Posters that create a pair that were created by artist Terrance Osborne. I actually created this plan to kinda see how the table would fit in relation to the space available. I actually used the measurements of the cabinets in my kitchen, etc. to figure out the wall openings, etc to get a more accurate idea of the space available! (the plan software only had a 6 chair table example available, we would actually move the table closer to the wall for the majority of the time. :) So no rug under the table or anything? I was wondering if a rug may brighten up the space, but maybe we will just do the table and repurpose the hutch and see where it goes? I will be back with pictures when all is done! ANy other suggestions are appreciated!!! :)

Rachel - we weren't able to keep the floors. The house has in-floor radiant heating throughout, not very a good combo with solid wood. The wood they'd installed looked pretty good in the pictures but in person it was very gappy and not in great shape. We left it in the bedrooms but replaced the floor in the living areas to be consistent throughout

If you can change both fan and dining light, then I would have them complement. No recessed lights in the living room? If you must have the fan, then something that hugs the ceiling with a flush mount light too but have primary lighting with an arched lamp and other lamps. Something with silver metal for dining light would complement the kitchen stainless steel/chrome. The type of lighting depends on your style. Same for window fabrics and coloring. You have a neutral background everywhere- what are your favorite colors? Is there a rug in LR with color?