I also tend to overlight rather than underlight. I think that it is the biggest change you can make to a room's ambience without hauling out a paintbrush. For general ambient lighting I like old-style 110 volt halogen or incandescent floodlights in recessed pots. You can get them for about @$20.00 each - it's really not worth buying the pricier ones because you don't seen them at all. 4/5/6" doesn't really make a huge difference, base the light size on the size of your room. I usually figure on 1 light covering a 6 or 7 foot radius. The focused pins and spotlights are great aesthetically but don't provide much usable light. That said, I use them all the time. You can find affordable 2 or 3" Xenon pucklights for about $20.00 each. Task lighting is eextremely important. Don't go without it. Looking quickly at your plan I would do 9 recessed lights in your family room - 3 rows of 3. I would also do a couple of pin spots - one on either side of your entertainment center. These should be directional. I would do a square of four in your dining room and a nice pendant fixture/chandelier in the center of it. In the kitchen I'd do 2 each in the breakfast area and the desk area, a row of 4 down the center of the room, 3 directional spots over the island and 4 directional spots over the counters. You will be kicking yourself if you spend a bunch of money on your reno and then find that you've made a room that is too dark to use comfortably. Put everything on dimmers, and on as many separate circuits as you can.

I'd want both ends to be the same--square corners on both ends. Go for the max. length that you can get out of the slab & have square corners since island seating isn't important to you. (The 12'' overhang orig planned for wasn't enough room for seating anyway plus the hassle of having stools to stub toes on & complicating sweeping & cleaning up.)

Good point Lavender. Now that you point that out, as a guest, I'd feel more encouraged to help myself to the closet if it wasn't full of personal belongings. To you, which one is the bigger bathroom ?? I think they are all aprox the same size and just configured differently. I remember when you were working on your big working pantry years ago. I'd love to see what your house wound up looking like. I assume it's been posted, if so, can you share your link? Red, you just gave me an in between idea. I could take up less room and have a closet with less depth that has pegs in it and space for some other items guest may want (a wrap to sit outside, or some slippers if their shoes happen to be muddy ---hey, I can hope for no drought, right?) Awww, thanks for the compliment on my plans. Scottie, thanks! I will definitely post the after pictures. They are breaking ground tomorrow morning so it will be a while. Soon we will be tackling my kitchen storage, so stay tuned for more postings :) If we do a bench, I think I like your idea of the trunk so we could store some more things So far we have one vote for the second to the last photo ...

Thank you Celerygirl for all of the mock ups....they are so appreciated! I['m still unsure at this point but what are your thoughts on shutters? Also, what is the closest Sherwin Williams color to your suggested Benjamin Moore Timber Wolf? I tried to google it with no success. I'm still so torn, Granite Peak was always my top but maybe a Gray is what I should go with? I literally can't sleep with this hanging over my head but I'm going to try, and probably like in the past, I'll dream of color and paint yet again! jck910 & katinparadise - I so appreciate your feedback too. Do you know what Sherwin Williams paint color is closest to BM Storm by chance? When you mentioned the blues weren't resonating with you, can you be more specific on the paint samples I have on my house? I wasn't sure if you were looking solely at the mock ups or those as well? (And I know have some dark blues in there) as well as some lights, the one on the left up top (Poolhouse) is my fiance's favorite but it's been a NO for me almost immediately. LOL Thank you all again, and please respond if/when you can, I greatly appreciate it. I don't know if I have to give the painter the answer tomorrow morning though I'm hoping I have until late afternoon....fingers crossed! Until tomorrow, good night!