You might squeeze all that into 3000 sq ft but, if you really want the bedrooms to be a "decent size," I'm guessing you'll probably wind up closer to 3500 sq ft heated/cooled minimum. Here is a link to a 3600 sq ft plan from eplans that could be modified to meet MOST of your listed requirements. eg, you could put another nice sized bedroom in the bonus area upstairs, change the library at the front of the house into an office for your husband, then fit a sunroom and small mudroom into the space where the office was. The kitchen would also have to be modified to allow for that 8 ft island you want but that might be doable if you made the kitchen open to the great room with the island separating the two room, moved the pantry over toward the right and had wrapped cabinets in an L shape along the garage wall and dining room wall. (The storage pantry would have to be accessed from the butler's pantry.) Note that the garage on this plan is really too shallow for many modern vehicles (you need a minimum of about 22 ft if you want to be able to squeeze around the front of back of an SUV when the garage door is closed. 24' is better) so you would probably need to pull that side of the house out by about 2 to 3 feet but that would also give you more room for the mudroom and sunroom. The upstairs already shows a master plus 3 reasonably nice sized secondary bedrooms and an upstairs laundry. As I said, you could put another bedroom into the bonus space over the garage and perhaps enlarge the laundry as well. Obviously, this is not a perfect design but it might be a starting point and should give you a better idea of what size house you're probably looking at in order to fit all your must haves. A good architect could probably come up with a design that is a bit more compact than this but fitting everything into under 3000 sq ft would, I think, be a tight squeeze. Note that the house pictured was built left-right reversed from the floor plans so it is a bit confusing. Here is a link that might be useful: house plan

Sorry it took so long to respond. We had company over the weekend and then I had a tailbone injury which thankfully isn't broken. Sadly, though, I am selling my horses. It just isn't worth ANY injury when you have small children. Anyway, thank you all very much! I so appreciate your comments and suggestions. Those butler's pantries are charming. Igloochic, I love the idea of two doors in the pantry. I am also really intrigued by that floorplan you posted, Mahlgold. I saved it for my contractor. Holligator, I too would much rather have the natural light in the kitchen, but I figured that the almost 6-foot sink window would take care of that. I met with my contractor the other night and he felt I should put away the plans for a few weeks and spend the time trying to get the original blueprints for this home from the county. It's very oddly built and he feels we can save a lot of time and money by avoiding any exploratory demolition. Rob, I assume you are talking about a nice big range like a Wolf or Viking. Boy would I love that! Unfortunately, we are committed to sticking to our budget and that just won't fit into it. We can not eek out one more cent for the remodel. I'm hoping people will focus so much on the hood area, they won't notice my little cooktop, LOL! Here is my inspiration. It's pretty modest, but it's just something I'm drawn to.

I have a 22-year-old upright Amana freezer in the mudroom and a one-year-old no name locked freezer chest in the garage (no AC) in Central Texas. Both are freezer only. I have an icemaker in the kitchen, but no freezer. I do large quantity cooking and freezing, and, so far, no problems. I thought about one freezer drawer in the kitchen for ice cream and putting some things in the freezer while baking, but decided against the expense and use of space. The garage freezer location is somewhat less accessible than the mudroom location, and necessitates that I put on shoes, so I probably wouldn't love going out there once a day in the summer. Honestly, though, I don't think it would bother me too much. I will never, ever be without a good-size mudroom. We are on a ranch, and the mudroom really does help contain the wondrous things people track in from the pastures. I'm also a firm believer in a bathroom with shower positioned between garage and mudroom, but that is a topic for another day. If it's between a too small mudroom with a freezer and a commodious mudroom without, I vote commodious. However, your needs may vary.

This is just bad. Starting with having to walk through the work area of the kitchen to get to two of the bedrooms. From there it goes downhill. Sorry to be so blunt. Here's my list that hopefully helps you rethink what you have: The best houses orient the public rooms towards the south for the best passive solar heating and cooling The best houses are L, U, T, H, or I shaped. The best houses are only one to two rooms deep. And covered lanai, porches, garages, etc count as rooms in this case. The best houses make sure kitchens have natural light, meaning windows so one doesn't have to have lighting 24/7 to use the kitchen. (And no, dining areas with windows 10' or more from the kitchen will not allow for natural light.) The best houses make sure all public rooms and bedrooms have windows on at least two walls. The best houses do not if possible put mechanical rooms, pantries or closets on outside walls The best houses keep public and private spaces separate. The best houses do not have you walk through the work zone of the kitchen to bring laundry to the laundry room. The best houses do not have the mudroom go through any of the work zones of the kitchen. The best houses do not use the kitchen as a hallway to any other rooms. The best houses do not put toilets or toilet rooms up against bedroom walls or dining areas. The best houses do not have walk in closets too small to stand inside. The best houses have an organizing “spine” so it’s easy to determine how to get from room to room in the house and what makes sense. So how many of these best practices does your house have?