Our basement is walkout on the entire rear and right side. Every room other than storage you cna walk out to the yard. So there will be plenty of light. Not sure if it worth the extra expense to deepen it or not. It's about 6k to do it. While that is not alot of money by any means...it's still money. I am trying to reserve as much as possible for extras I may want as we build. Which I know I will want. But many of those things will be cosmetic...not structural. Moldings, light fixtures and such. I am also toying with making the house all brick again. That will cost about 20k. That is money that could be spent on that. What would give me higher resale? I guess it would be in the eye of the beholder.

Thanks, @ElleN - I do love the idea of storage being closed off, just don't want anything that feels super heavy there. It is SO hard to find the right length, size, visual weight, color, etc. From the kitchen you can also see the breakfast nook area, for which we recently ordered this Arana table from Wisteria - http://www.wisteria.com/Arana-Wood-Dining-Table/productinfo/T19331 and Milano gray dining chairs from Pier 1 https://www.pier1.com/milano-portobello-dining-chair/3507194.html#internal-search-product&autocplt=milano.  I've included pic from kitchen view so you can see how the space flows. I've also included pic from bottom of stairs facing kitchen - don't mind the toddler and mess. :) Hoping it'll all work together and the console I choose jives with it all.

A couple of things strike me right away that throw the room off. First is the rug: It needs to be much much larger, and it should never be narrower than the couch. Second is to get longer curtains and hang them about a foot higher than they currently are. The art arrangement over the piano doesn't work; we'll remedy that. I like your fireplace and built ins. The shelves just need to be better styled--there are some good articles on Houzz to help with that, but basic rule is 1/3 books. 1/3 objects. 1/3 empty space--and I'd remove everything now over the mantel and use art. I suspect you can buy new furniture for no more than what it would cost to upholster yours, but that's a decision for you to make. I'll return later with a rendering of your room.

cpartist give excellent suggestions for how to deal with 10 foot tall kitchens, keeping the ambiance Craftsman and attractive. I will note I find 9 foot tall ceilings plenty fine for me, but go with feels comfortable to you. Although I do have a cathedral ceiling in the public part of the house.... (No, my house is not Craftsman). As someone else noted, you'll have to change your door heights and other aspects of your home to go with the increase in ceiling height - and that's not going to be cheap. Even at six foot one, I don't feel cramped in homes that have 8 foot ceilings - I was just in one (probably built in the 60s or 70s) this past Sunday (after months of not being to get out and visit folk very often at all). It was fine. But 9 doesn't affect pricing as much as 10 feet would. Please don't do without upper cabinets. You'll hurt resale, as not everyone is going to want to stop everything and remodel as soon as they move in. Even though I mostly have drawers, the lowest one is always a pain to access anyway..