I don't understand the reason for the slanted wall on the fridge wall. Your original floor plan does not have a slanted wall, so why would you take down the dining room wall and then build it on an angle? Its seems like a pantry could be incorporated in this plan without having to have a slanted wall. "***Instead of a range, we plan on a 36" rangetop and microwave/combo wall ovens to the right of the rangetop." This is going to change the look of the range wall and I am not sure how it will look with a wall ovens / mw stacked between hood and window. IF I were you, I would mock this up in your renderings to see how it looks. "If you look at my main floor plan, we are removing the foyer closet and opening up that space for a foyer table of some kind (possible built ins)." As someone who has no closet in the foyer, I dislike this idea. When you have guests, it is nice to have a place to hang coats, etc. (assuming you use mudrm closet for daily use). Unless you live in a warm climate, consider this decision carefully. IMHO, I think your plan to squeeze in a small coat closet that is walled into the kitchen space but opens to the foyer is less than ideal as well. Do you really want a quirky little closet instead of your nice tucked away closet that exists now? If you take out your existing closet will you have the banister for stairway showing? That is the only possible reason I can think that this change could be beneficial. But again, just my opinion. Your layout is somewhat similiar to mine. Where your fridge wall is, my DH wanted to slant the wall as well for optimum tv viewing. I am so glad I won that battle. Good luck. I think you are going to love the openness you your new kitchen.

The first thing that I would do is ask your architect if he uses any particular lighting showroom when doing projects. Many showrooms do not charge for designing the lighting as long as you purchase it from them. Living in New York, you have the best of everything and should be able to find exactly what you want. Also, if you want some idea of what is out there today, visit some websites and look at what is being offered. If you want to do recessed lighting you can look at Nora, WAC Lighting, Lightolier and Juno. Nora and WAC are less expensive. If you want to do track lighting along the sides of the beams you can look at the same sites. There is so much out there that it needs to be narrowed down as to exactly what you want. Hunting around may be the best bet you have at this point. The manufacturers above also do pendant lighting. I know that track lighting is distasteful to many people. However, it is also inexpensive to start with. What you would do is make certain that you have all the necessary track and track parts to start. Heads with track lighting can be added as you go along. They don't have to be purchased all at once. Many times we have done this for people who are on a tight budget. The other point that I would like to make is that you look at your kitchen at night. Forget about the daytime. Most people tell those of us in lighting about all the sun the room gets. However, that only gets you light during the day. Narrow down what you think you would like to do and take it from there.

I Love all the windows! It doesn't look like you have a lot of room for upper cabinets, so will you also have dish storage under the island, in dish drawers or something? I'm imagining making sandwiches, snacks, breakfast. The dishes are probably near the dishwasher, but most of what you need (meat,cheese,milk, lettuce) is way on the other side of the island. Then when your clear the table, you are walking around the probably-open dishwasher to get to the disposal in the sink. So the DW should probably go on the other side of the sink, with dish drawers in the island across from the range. You're on a farm, right? You might want a utility sink in the laundry or mud room. ( I miss my old double concrete sink!)

Okay, now we're cooking. So, this is the layout of our little house. We don't live there yet, we are gutting it for a total redo. This is what the floor plan will be when we are done. We can't add to the footprint r/t our proximity to the river and we don't really want to anyway. It's about 1100 sq ft. total. We are retiring here (someday:) and this is our last remodel so we are committed to doing it the right way, no cobbling or short-changing quality/desires. The living room will be knotty pine walls and ceiling in a honey pine finish from Buffalo Lumber in New York. My DH has his heart set on it and it's okay with me. Seems to suit the setting. Of course, the kitchen and living room need to work together. The entry will be the honey pine ceiling with whitewashed K.P. on the walls. Now, they offer a darker stain called fruitwood that I'm also considering for the ceilings. I've seen it on Houzz and LOVE the look. As in this: [[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/by-hardrock-construction-traditional-laundry-room-toronto-phvw-vp~37184) [traditional laundry room design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-laundry-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_753~s_2107) by toronto general contractor HARDROCK CONSTRUCTION The doorway to the entry will stay where it is drawn..just enough to end the cabs and allow for door trim. The doorway to the porch can move E or W just a bit and the south cabs can shrink a little. The opening to the living room is wide open to possibilities. I would like some type of peninsula set-up there for daily meals and putzing on the laptop, etc. On special occasions, we'll be setting up a table on the 'river porch' as we call it. I cook from scratch a lot. We grow gardens so fridge space is necessary. (I like the idea of a counter-depth fridge) I make big shopping trips mostly and also buy in bulk for lots of items. I will have basement storage for that kind of thing. An 18" DW will be fine for the 2 of us... don't mind doing dishes by hand and kinda want a Dishmaster faucet. We do recycle and compost, so some kind of plan for that space would be good. Let's see: The only appliances I'd like out are my kitchenaid stand mixer, my food processor, my coffee pot, toaster and coffee grinder...wouldn't be opposed to an appliance garage for the last three. Oh, and the knife block or some other easy access solution for knives. Love open shelves for my bowls and whatnot... have them now and find them very useful. We have a 39" wide green Chambers stove: that is more mint green than the pic shows (at least on my computer)and will be on the south wall. The only window is over the sink on the west wall... the river porch will be solid windows facing south but the kitchen proper just has the one. If I could keep the window centered it would look good from outside, but the further to the right the sink goes, the better my view. (or the wider the window gets, but 4' wide is about it... possibly a little wider) I'm trying to cover all the things you guys always ask people so I'm not wasting your time. And I hope I'm not being presumptuous in thinking you all will help me... :) The flooring for the whole house other than bath and master is leaning heavily towards marmoleum ploughed acre with some thoughts of a small diamond inset design in the kitchen just for a little fun. Our budget is... well, I'd love to get this done for less than 20,000. Anything more than that makes me feel itchy and nervous. Not a huge fan of granite but having said that, we are repurposing some granite and quartz stones from a wall in the kitchen for the fireplace surround in the LR. There is a lot of red granite in there. The prev. owner worked at a local quarry in the 70's, so there is granite galore on the exterior. As far as appliances, we'll be purchasing a fridge/freezer or an all fridge/freezer drawers or something. An 18" dw, range hood and sink. Don't use microwaves. What else can I tell you? My mission statement is: I want my kitchen to function efficiently, be easy to keep clean and organized, feel like it belongs to the house and will inspire and energize me. I hope someone can help. Should I upload a closer view of just the kitchen?d Thank you!