Thanks for the ideas so far. The window wall in the kitchen faces south and looks directly at a neighbor's bedroom but we do want more natural light. We are definitely including solatubes in the plan and there is the slider plus the windows in the family room to help. blfenton - the raised bar is angled since that opening into the kitchen is line-of-sight from the front door. We experimented with the iso view with it straight and it looked disconnected from the rest of the kitchen, almost "floating" between the kitchen and family room. We're still working to figure out what will be best there. I will try to get a pic of the overall floorplan. MG - we aren't fans of speedcooking ovens (have one in the RV and don't like the result) so we do want a set of double ovens and a separate microwave. That's what I've had for the past 20 years (in 2 different homes) We were also thinking more windows. I hadn't considered a sink in the corner; that might make for a convenient place for the espresso machine. I tend not to like to have my back to the family room which is one of the reasons the rangetop was placed on the side and the small prep sink somewhere in the island. I like the idea of the fridge closer to the family room. (fun face you drew on the island ;-) - those eye circles are supposed to be pendant lights) lharpie - the rectangular island is 4' by 4' 9" plus counter overhang so it's pretty good-sized. The prep sink we'd planned would be maybe 16" or 18". We had a similar arrangement 2 houses ago so that's where this comes from. bpathome - yes, most glassware will be in the uppers above the wine fridge. Special occasion glassware will be in the flex/entertaining area. Dishes would be in drawers in the island as you suspected :-) We'd mostly eat at the counter and family room. The flex space will have a table in it and will have a slider that goes to the (large-ish) covered front porch. Folks in the community tend to gather on each others' front porches to socialize and the flex space is there to give us some inside options. Thanks, Michelle

Thanks Virgil. Some good points alright. We've been planning this build for 3 years now so have thought through everything you have mentioned (and then again!) and foundations have just been laid this week :) Anyway, we've a family with 2 young kids and the house only has 3 bedrooms. The playroom will double up as a kids den/music room/homework room as the years go by, and is also big enough to have a double bed in case we ever need a guest room or 4th bedroom. The sitting room at the front indeed is the adult/evening room. The lounge is just somewhere to sit and have coffee and get together with family and friends. I know this is the US site where you all are a lot more used to massive houses, I'm in Ireland and that house is pretty much average, or larger than average for a city home! I don't mind a small kitchen once I have a large enough worktop and once it's well laid out ...I just want to ensure I'm making the most of the space, and it's so hard to know when the rooms haven't been built yet! Thanks again all, your comments really are appreciated.

First congrats on a nicely laid out house. It's going to be light and bright with windows on two sides in almost every room I think the kitchen layout is fine as it is! You go from getting food out of the fridge, to bringing it to the sink to wash, to prepping between cooktop and sink. It works! In fact my first house had this exact layout and it was absolutely the best setup I ever had for cooking. So much so, that I'm repeating it in my new build. One question to you. You said foundation is set. Are windows set? I ask because if it were me in your master bedroom I'd switch the two sets of windows so you could put the bed on the wall at top. I say that so one person is not walking around the side of the bed in the middle of the night. Also one other suggestion if it's not built on a slab? I'm looking at your laundry room and I think it would be better if you could rearrange the room so the door to the laundry room opened into the hallway and not the foyers. I'm wondering if you moved the washer/dryer under the windows and the dog washing area where the washer is now, if it might be doable? Not sure.

I was so focused on the kitchen I didn't notice how the garage was attached. I assume that is still in the planning stage, too. I rearranged the laundry and moved the wall up to ease the corner, and to provide an entry from the smaller garage (easily omitted if not necessary)--but that puts a small, money-slurping jog by the other garage entry. It looks as if the laundry keeps getting smaller, and storage is disappearing from the entry, so the shallow cabinets on the kitchen wall to the right of the hall (as one enters) could be dedicated to entry storage. I also pulled the double closet toward the hall, to provide a little more space at the top of the basement stairs.