Jillius, I made the Saturday afternoon "deadline" he wanted. I didn't think I would. But, thanks to you and everyone's incredibly generous help, WE did it! I'm thrilled with the plan! I read through the thread again just now. It is completely blowing my mind to see how the design evolved and changed over the course of a week into what we have now. Everyone played an important part with all their input. I will be forever grateful to all of you. It might take a few years to have it all up and running, but I will keep you all posted on the progress. I will start a new thread whenever he gets the walls and roof on. Laughable, I'm am dead serious, just last night my husband said, "You are going to have to start calling me 'Mr. Rebunky' on your GW." Hysterical you said that. Imgch, thanks. I love your reveal! I'm going to go look at all your eye candy again right now. Aloha!

Bummer about the tree but perhaps it's a good thing in the long run. I'm a silver lining kinda gal. =) I'm not a huge fan of seeing so much of the kitchen from the front door. I'd rather see the dining room so I came up with this proposal for you: I moved the patio door closer to the front of the house. Is this where you come in from the car, carrying groceries to the kitchen? If so, I figured you'd want to keep it. But if you can eliminate it, using the front or slider you're proposing to install, let us know. Given your small kitchen, I think you should get front load, stacking washer and dryer and have them face into the kitchen. They would fit with a little room to spare against the closet wall. Machines are 27" wide and need an inch of clearance between machine and wall. I removed the door and bit of wall between kitchen and pantry closet, opting for either open pantry shelving or shallow cabs. One less door in the area is a good thing, IMO. Open shelving can be industrial or attractive like this (left side): If you opt for open shelving but don't want to see what's on the shelves, you can partition the space with drapes like this: You could even add a rod and drapes between machine side and pantry area. You'll want to keep the drapes open when you're doing laundry, especially when you're using the dryer to help dissipate any heat build-up. Adding a vent fan above the W/D would also help with that. I added a window where the door was to bring more light into the kitchen. You'll need to do some siding repair to the exterior. Hopefully that's doable. A good contractor should be able to remove siding, move the door and weave the siding back together so that the change isn't noticeable. Moving the door down gives a nice long stretch of wall for a 36" w, CD (counter depth) fridge, 30" range and plenty of storage. I added a MW drawer in this run but you could also do a MW on a shelf below the counter like this: Store cutting boards, cookies sheets, etc above the fridge like this: I eliminated the short wall where the fridge currently is to allow room for a long peninsula with enough room for sink, DW and drawer storage. I recommend a single bowl sink with an offset drain so that you have room below the sink for pull-out trash. Here's my trash pull-out under my sink (love it!): There is NO peninsula seating. You just don't have enough room for back to back seating (60" aisle recommended). Instead I added shallow storage to the backside, perfect depth for cans and many boxed food items. It also gives you a little deeper peninsula/splash zone behind the sink. To make the best use of the DR area, I created a banquette with additional storage at each end of the bench and under the bench like this: And this: If you need room for the DR light switch, you can add the switch to the cab side like this (left side of photo): Oops, one thing I meant to add but forgot to draw in was a drop zone for keys, mail, etc in the stud space in the LR wall by the patio door, something like this (but shallower): HTH!

we are going to tear down that ugly retaining wall and dig out so entire front of house will be exposed... want to add stone entry steps with porch or ? portico. Want to have large mossy and beautiful boulders to look natural and act as retaining wall. How do we get to front door with new plan? I wish we had never bought this place. It's so discouraging. The inside is ok and remodeled but the outside. it does sit on 40 acres but it's just such a hideous exterior.

I have a mediterranean house with a fairly modern interior. My house was built in the late 1920s and has much simpler lines than what you are showing us. I bought the house from the owners who engage the architect to do the overhaul, so I am not well versed in what it took to achieve the look. Here are a few pictures from the real estate listing (not my furniture- and I have made some tweaks to the interior- nothing much). With your proposed house, I would stick with the plan and finish things traditionally- but with a light touch. The doors really do have to match the exterior, for example- and you should echo some of the curves. The kitchen need not be some faux mediterranean/Tuscan brown mass, but I don't think two toned, wood grain slab, plus quartz waterfall works well with what is there. IDK what I would do with the kitchen. I have no idea if your kitchen is a part of your living room- probably is- in which case I would think hard about how I wanted the kitchen cabinets to integrate with my regular furniture. I like white kitchens myself. They are not always the best choice in an open concept house. My guess is that a lighter, rift sawn oak cabinet with slab doors with simple hardware would be a good place to start looking. Think about a furniture plan, not just finishes. I would be sure to use a few substantial pieces of brown furniture with clean modern lines- think of pieces like a Florence Knoll credenza, a walnut Parsons dining table, or an Eames lounge chair. Then sparsely lay on color, furniture and textiles. PS And find out where to get the door that is shown on the drawing or one substantively like it. The entrance to a house matters. That door is elegant. PPS Congratulations on the new house. It looks lovely. There are so many things to consider at this stage. I know it can be overwhelming. Do not rush- do not allow yourself to be rushed. Explore tons of mediterranean houses online and see how people manage to blend the old with the new. Slowly you will start to see how you want to manage this mix with your new house.