laura, I think you need to make a big level decision before committing to a floor plan. It seems as if you are not sure how you want the southern light to affect the interior space of your house. I would commit to that decision before thinking about other issues. Do you want that for the kitchen or the family room? There is no right answer. You have to analyze your lifestyle and commit. Don't let others pursuade you to the perfect 'kitchen' design until you have committed to the light first. This seems like an exceptional house with an abudance of natural light. Natural light decision is the fundamentally the MOST important decision for your house, much more important than the kitchen decision, IMHO. The way the house interacts with natural light sets the tone for your mood and feeling immediately upon entering the house. Breakfast area is nice facing out east for obvious reasons... Another big level decision is the TV viewing and noise in general. Depending on how you will use the TV, there maybe way too much light for TV and media in the options B and C revised. My kids use the TV more for gaming than TV viewing and we have it in the basement. There are families that manage to raise their kids without any gaming consoles. My hat is truly off to them! We have made our TV room double as a guest room because we don't have guests often enough. I also don't want the noise to bleed into the rest of the house. You need to make a high level decision about the 'noise' associated with 'TV and media'. We have a completely open floor plan with a grand piano. There is no way TV and piano can compete for noise in the same open space. In my house, someone is at the piano quite often throughout the day (much like yours, it seems). Again, you have not addressed that issue. If you have multiple kids and one has a friend over playing a console game/watching a movie and the other wants to play the piano.... (Do you have a digital piano that the practice can be done with a headphone?) To me, the house has not solved the essential question of separation and togetherness; noise and quiet with many of your plans.... I am not good enough of a parent where I can limit TV/media viewing to only night time and only when it will not interfere with anything else in the house, hence the TV's banishment to the basement. I wish you the best. I have a 12 yo and a 9yo. I have TV/media room in the basement and piano on the second floor. Our LR/DR/K is on the top floor to maximize the light and view. Having said all of the above, I like the original plan the best. This is why. 1. The kitchen has the most amount of light. You will spend the mose of your time in the kitchen as a family. The breastfast island is facing East if you eat on the island. This is a nice way to eat breakfast. We see the sunrise nearly every morning with our breakfast. 2. If you will keep the TV where it is (NW interior corner), it is the most isolating of the noise. You have essentially relegated the least desirable area to the kids to watch TV and hang out. IMHO, this will create the adult zone in the formal LR/DR when you have company. When we go to people's houses and when we have families over, this is essential: separation of adults from kids. As your kids become more independent, they do not want adult interference. Basements work exceptionally well. You do not have that option.... In the absence of that, this is the best option for kid/adult separation. (can you make your guest room into the media/kid zone? That seems not to be an option for you) 3. With the original plan, I see your family using the DR regularly to eat and the banquet as the kids school work zone. You will use the DR more because it will be quite pleasant and easy to use due to the window placement and the proximity to the kitchen. IHMO, DRs are not necessarily formal rooms. It is just another room in your house. If you have it, you should use it. I only have 2 eating areas. The island and the DR which is open to the kitchen. Many families have 3 eating areas. The time that is handy is when you entertain. In your house, you put the kids meals (banquet) separate from the adults (DR). 4. The kids will sit at the island preferenctially because of the view out the garden (over the other plans where they look at the wall of cabinets.) If you were sitting, do you want to look at a wall of cabinets or out the window? In other plans the kids may prefer the banquet because of more light... Again, what you do want? Do you want the kids at the banquet or the island? Even children instinctively gravitate toward light. I like your house's abundance of natural light and easy access to the outdoors. I also like the open floor concept very much. I wish you the best.

You certainly do not have space that I see for a ton of people. I assume that is an outdoor rated TV I would need to see a floor plan to scale of the space and some idea of how many people you want to seat. I would remove the benches if you do not use them or move the TV so people can sit on the benches to watch it, I need a floor plan all the measurement marked clearly also how the space relates to the house and where the entry is to the deck from outside. We need more info. Also where is the BBQ

Updated plan work in progress. We added storage in the SE corner from the neighboring patio. We'll also put it lattice around the AC to disguise it. Still playing with layouts!

Ellen, I really appreciate the input! Good point about bumping into open shelves! Beth, thanks so much for these great pictures! I love the first nice pic you posted but imagine it might be hard to find a way to inset part of the vanity if it is only a 66-68 inch double vanity. I am trying to figure out what makes the photos without the shelves still look good in spite of the vanities obstructing the tubs. Any sense of the magic formula? :) I like your idea of flipping the shower and tub, but we can't do that due to plumbing issues on the exterior wall; we would lose 4 inches in the shower by padding for shower heads. It's too bad as that would be a much nicer-looking set-up. Thanks again for the great ideas!