Oh what a cutie! I agree that you have a good reason to not have a lot of time. I've been reminding of that time in my life the last two years that I've been babysitting our grandson. Who cares about decorating when you have a precious little one to love. And I can understand more about why hubby doesn't like changing things or doing more than "has" to be done. He's more worried about being a good daddy and supporting his family than having a "pretty" updated home. Our home was rather sparse with mostly hand me down or used furniture when our first born was a baby. Heck it wasn't much difference by the time our second baby was born. Not saying it wasn't warm and welcoming. It was, but not everything was perfect. I've learned with age, that it's not so important. Perfection, that is. I went through a period where things had to be just so. Maybe it's more living in a unfinished home with a hubby that works a full time job year round and umpires most of the rest evenings and weekends to keep in shape and it pays nice too. We'll be in good shape for retirement and that's a good thing. I'm glad you like the corner door shelf. It's really easy to do. The hardest part was cutting the door in half. It's heavy so it took three of us to do. But if you used two doors you wouldn't have to worry about that. I bought the door through Craigslist since I was going to distress it, it didn't have to be perfect to start with. Habitat Restores are a good source for used doors too. As for the lighting in the entry I was wondering if you'd be able to use a decorative type track lighting in there. They have some really nice looking ones that the "track" curves and all you need is the one box for the fixture.

Thanks -- I have never thought out or planned what went under a sink so much as in this remodel. Never had any choice other than making the best of what came with the house. It's easy to use and to keep when you plan a spot for what you need and have an extra couple of spots for overflow (that extra bottle of Dawn that seems will be there forever and some extra sponges under the disposal as well as some on the right). Having everything that needs to go into the cabinet and telling the plumber where he can put the pipes rather than letting them run all over the place makes a big difference. They'll eat up the whole thing if no one tells them otherwise because it's easier to work out front -- even with that rear drain. My sink drain is center rear. We found that nearly everything that large other than the Shaw's Original fireclay farmhouse sink had center or center rear drains. The side drains was one vote for the Shaw's, but we weren't convinced we wanted a farmhouse for the long haul. As it turned out, it works well, both in the sink and below. In the sink, I can put a half sheet pan laying flat front to back on either side and still have the center open for the drain. Having it to the rear does give me more height for cleaning supplies toward the front. My corner pantry didn't work in large part because of the shelving -- it wasn't right for the space or our needs. It wasted anything above 5 or 6 feet and we had 10 feet ceilings. The shelves were also on 2 sides only They were deep on one side, and that meant you had deep, dark corners that were near impossible to use, even with turntables, for half the space. The third wall was wasted (could have had shallow shelving -- great for cans -- if it had been better planned)and the fourth was the door and the depth of the narrower shelves. The only good thing was the spice rack DH built and installed on the back of that door, but I like my spice drawer better. I think that we could have possibly redone all the shelving and made the pantry work much better. We started toying with the notion of taking the pantry out altogether when I was questioning whether the ovens I wanted would fit in the cabinet we had right next to the pantry. Sliding the ovens over gave me a more workable space for baking, and creating a wall of tall storage evolved from that -- fridge is flanked by pantry rollouts and pantry tower as well as as 12" utility and 24" cabinets above all of that. My small appliances go in 13" deep cabinets on the back of the island and are very handy -- but I don't have any island seating. Either system can work, but you need to be able to make it work for all your needs. You should have some flexibility in your system too (I'd want adjustable shelving rather than fixed). I'd be careful about having deep shelves. What you have planned isn't wrong and many people would love to have something just like it. Mine didn't work -- in large part because the fixed shelves were thrown in (on 2 sides only) by the builder who didn't care how it functioned and so much was lost to deep corners. It was a big space so it should be good, right? Wrong. Plan it an make sure you get what you want and that anything you are uncertain about has flexibility so you have options. I do like having my corner more open and the space feeling larger. I also paid more for my cabinets to get it. Lots of things to think about.

Our backsplash is the same as the counters -- Neolith. We will have one low, horizontal wall outlet on the other wall where the coffee maker/toaster will be plugged in. The wall where we are considering the plug mold has the range, fridge and a short run of counters. There won't be any appliances plugged in here permanently so no risk of hanging cords.

This: "It may not be the most attractive pantry out there, but it’s functional. It doesn’t need to look like a magazine photo." So smart! People get hung up on the Pinterest-worthy "organization" pictures, but more of those aren't -really- organized; they're pretty-fied. I'm so glad fo ryou, that you're able to focus on the functionality. Lazy_gardens highlighted one of my own main themes: too much space between shelves. Brilliant solution, your shoe shelves! And this: "We became empty-nesters and I had not kept pace with the decreasing demand. My daughter was a late-night impulse baker and I’d kept things on hand for her." I think this happens to us all. That we have one paradigm, and then when life changes for us, we are slow to update. You've gotten a big head start on redefining your storage. I'm in admiration of this: "The only place where I retained the stacking bins was on the shallow wall-mounted shelves. They were already working for what I used them for" Good for you, for recognizing something that's working, and not tossing it out just because.