Putting in the blocking is a great way to plan for the future. The bars are a good idea at any age, but I understand not wanting to put all of them in till needed. One at the entry would probably suffice if you are not elderly or handicapped. I was very impressed with that You Tube Video on the Secure Mount. I went home yesterday to find they had already sprayed the bathroom walls. I'm not sure if the contractor's stud finder will be able to locate through the marble. If not, we'll just go with the Secure Mount. I returned the 9 inch curved bars, and am ordering the 24 and 18 inch bars after I see the marble install tonight. I wanted 36 inches for the long wall, but DH wants them shorter. My contractor said the marble has two corner shelves and one recessed soap/shampoo holder. I imagine that is rather long, so I'm hoping they didn't place that where it will interfere with the longer bar placed at an angle.

The MW gets more use in my house than the DW. The DW only gets run once a day, but coffee or tea is always being heated up in the MW. Or leftovers heated. Or ice cream thawed a bit. There's not a functional issue for handedness with the DW on either side. You can get used to either. But, if all other things were equal, right handed people are more efficient in their workflow with the DW on the left, and vice versa for lefties on the right. Righties use their right hand for the scraper and then can just load it with the left hand that is already grasping the dish. If you switch the dish to the right hand to load to the DW on the right, it's a more awkward motion. But, as I said, you can pretty much get used to anything that doesn't involve actual pain. Like barking your shins on the DW when trying to unload the dishes into the cabinet directly above. That's an error in planning that I see done all the time.

mtnrdredux your house is absolutely absolutely amazing! It makes me want to sell my new-built one and go and buy yours! That window seat with the arched stained glass window is a work of art! And your fireplaces and floors!! I also love your style and ALL of your furniture. You aren't too far from us, so if you have a moving sale, please really let me know and I'll come and buy some of your furniture. That's so cool you got married at the house too and what a beautiful setting to do it. My fiance and I are planning on getting married at our new house as well. I'm sure your new home must be magical for you to leave such a lovely home! Thanks for the book ideas- there are a bunch of really cool ones! I definitely have more books than shelves. We've got a quasi-two story library with a library ladder and books to the ceiling :) We've been buying those readers digest books at estate sales, the leather bound condensed books. And old law books. I kept a few of my old law books from law school but they are nowhere near as nice as your husband's collection! beckysharp it is the sun blinding effect that I'm afraid of with the windows that is making me think I'll want to do at least shutters on some of the windows. macybaby, the swag of the chandelier is definitely a good idea. Then I could do the ceiling medallion I want to do as well. fori, I agree 48" seems a bit big for a table. That's why I'm hoping I'll be OK w/ space. That was the size I saw on the first three tables I looked at to get an idea of dimensions when I was talking to my cabinet maker, so I'm not sure why they were all so large!

Rebunky - Thank you for that. Very kind of you to take the time. Your design is very good for where you placed everything. We tried variations of this design but could not fit a regular size fridge in that space. It covers the window, and a counter depth is not in the budget, unfortunately. Plus that jog is 48" wide and what do you do with the remaining space? There's too little to do much but too much to waste. The main thing that would bother me, however, is we would lose so much counter space by not not utilizing the north wall. One thing I've learned in living with a small kitchen is that counter space is the highest priority. It trumps everything. We will mitigate the closed in feeling you mentioned at the U end of the kitchen by use of shelves and wall hangers. This is why few of my plans include uppers. Both of us are non-traditional thinkers and will be fine with shelving replacing a lot of the uppers, and that will open up the kitchen a lot, although it is a trade-off with a more cluttered, or should I say "industrial" look? We have some shelving now and dust is not a problem (at least when I'm not remodeling :), plus we will have pretty good air filtering when the HVAC system is finished and no carpeting in the house (yet another reason to keep the kitchen closed off as it would be extremely noisy with no carpets). As bmorepanic said above, you have to pick your poison. I'm an amateur too. No need to apologize. This is the first kitchen I've ever designed with actual skin in the game. Plus, I'm a guy and that makes me extra ignorant when it comes to kitchens :) All the advice I get here is extremely helpful. I've learned so much by doing just what you did, jumping in and trying something.