7 hours in the kitchen might be a little light, but we don't have an eat-in kitchen, and the only significant meal we prepare is dinner. Breakfast is pretty light (but healthy) and lunch is brown bagged. Since I usually eat left-overs for lunch, it literally takes me about 5 minutes to put lunch together. About 80% of our meals are on paper plates. Right now, we watch TV, and do much of our eating in a small bedroom we use as a den. Although it sounds bad, what difference does it make if I eat breakfast on the couch, or in a breakfast nook? In the interest of full disclosure, I have to add that I grill out every weekend, rain or shine, and we sometimes grill on a gas grille during the week. I guess I would have to add those hours to 'kitchen time', although it will probably be about the same in our new house. All that being said, we are both good cooks, and the kitchen will be large in relation to the rest of the house. Our current kitchen is a whopping 80 sq/ft; our new one will be nearly double that. One thing I'm putting in my plans is a dressing room, for want of a better term. Basically, it is a huge walk-in master closet, with room for the ironing board and maybe a dresser or two. I'm giving up some master bedroom size for it, but I think the net space in the BR will be greater by getting rid of the clutter. The dressing room will be app. 10X10, and feature a window, and good lighting. We're also committed to having 2 bathrooms, because we don't want to have to keep the master bath spotless at all times in case an unexpected guest needs to use it. Also, it lends more privacy when having overnight guests. Our property is way out in the country, so anyone who 'pops in' will probably stay a while. As for resale, well, a 1200 sq/ft house plunked in the middle of 7 acres is almost comically small by today's standards, anyway. We are on a very tight budget, and I plan to do much of the work on the house myself, possibly taking a year off to build the whole thing ( a life-long dream). So building a much larger house simply isn't an option. I'm sure we will be able to get our investment back out if we have to move unexpectedly (we could already make a nice profit on the land alone). It's great to have this discussion, and hear everyone's ideas and experiences!

Thanks all. I guess I should have added in background info on our situation. We are recently retired, empty nesters who live in a 100 year old house, and, as we all know, there is never enough closet space in older houses. That is why I initially wanted to try to open up this inaccessible closet space. Then, we had the window dilemma, and using the double door type opening we want there will still be some dead space on each end of the closet. (I do think I've figured out a way to make it usable and accessible in a reach-in closet though.) I worked at home a lot, so our smallest bedroom is an office, and I still use that space a lot. My husband typically works with his laptop at a desk/table in the living room. He is the one who is asking for a desk nook so he'll have room to spread out paperwork (and not have it visible all of the time if he wants to walk away from it). The desk nook would be in a guest bedroom that we don't use at all because we hardly ever have overnight guests. All of your comments have been immensely helpful, and I now am starting to wonder whether he would actually ever go up to that second floor space and shut himself away when we have a large, open first floor. I think maybe the solution I should suggest is that I give up my habit of stationing myself in the office and turn it over to him. I can sit at any table in the first floor with a laptop instead of upstairs in the office. Thanks for all the help. And, yes, we are not a completely paperless world and often have printed documents we want to reference while using the computer.

This thread has devolved into analysis paralysis. You have a wonderful plan and C is the obvious choice. Is it perfect? No, but no plan is. Does it meet your needs. Yes, and then some. I think the venting over the grill is no big deal. Yes, you might need to maintain the vent, keeping lint down to a minimum, but that's not a bad thing. Also, make sure the hallway is wide enough to pull out the washer/dryer for maintenance. You should have enough room to pull one of the machines out completely and room for a person to get to the back. That probably means you need a 4ft wide hallway. Also, make sure your hoses are long enough! We have front loaders with a countertop and had too short hoses. It was a major pain getting behind the machines. Ours pull out very easily. Oh, one more thing. We have emergency shut off valves for the water and the gas in an upper cabinet above the machines. We've never had to use them but you never know.

37' ..... thats just insane. It is going to be a dark and cavernous wasteland I can't imagine anything you can do to improve it other than just NOT doing it. You obviously have money to plan something this grand for a couple. I say spend it wisely by looking at comparable houses in this price range with different builders to get a feel of what you really want. I've never been in a hallway that long except in a hotel. Somehow I don't think that's what you are really wanting. I personally would not want a hallway that is longer than 10'. our hall from the garage is about that with no window. We leave our master door open during the day to take advantage of the light from those windows. We are planning on replacing the door to the garage with one that has a half window. Even our garage has better light. I hate that hall Even at only 10'. my biggest complaint is I don't like having to turn on a light during the day inside my own home. I love enough natural light from windows to function.