This looks lots better without the hutch! I think I feel the same way you do about doors. When I asked our designer who was taking my design and putting it into construction drawings what he would change, he said, "You have too many doors!" I told him I needed every one of them, kept them all, close most of them daily and the others weekly, and thank my lucky stars every day that I didn't listen to him! So it seems to me that you should keep these doors for all of the very good reasons you gave, ESPECIALLY because you can't multi-task in the kitchen with noise (I'm the same way), or you will probably regret it. I have a somewhat similar situation at the end of our lower level TV/WS room that sort of funnels down as you approach our stairs--a set of 48" wide double doors on the furnace room on a slanted wall on the right, a set of 48" double doors on a closet that juts out into the room on the left, and a set of 54" double doors to the workshop sort of straight ahead, just past the bottom of the stairs that go up to the right. I had planned every inch of our house, but the closet was an afterthought. When the 3 sets of doors were installed, I thought, "Wow, that looks cool!"--just like I HAD planned it! So, in spite of the irregular nature of the space, the thing that I think makes it work is the absolute sameness of the doors and trim, as well as the relative distance between them. But it's definitely not symmetrical. Our doors have no glass, and are stained 3-panel oak with with a simple 3-1/4" arts & crafts trim. We don't have all of the competing glass around that you have, since there are no windows in this area. Because you only see your 3 sets of doors from the family room, and with your seating arrangement really only facing the 2 sets of doors to the interior of the house, this will probably work out ok. I'd make the doors to the kitchen double doors, and have them open onto the family room walls, and have the lites, trim, height, and frame width match the doors to the dining room as much as possible--make it look like they were all put in at the same time. The sliding door to the deck will look different no matter what you do, but I'd try to get the other sets of doors to match it in trim and height, although I'm guessing that you won't be able to match the sliding door lites' design, since your pictures are showing different styles. Also, take into consideration the lites' style on the exterior windows of the family and dining rooms when you're finalizing your sets of doors. Not sure I'd put glass doors in the cabinets in the family room, since there's already so much glass in this room. In any case, can you try this out with a double door in the 6' space, see if you think it might work, and let us have a look? Anne

Monablair- Thank you :) Columbusguy- Actually, we made the master bath accessible, on purpose. It's usually my husband or myself that comes in through the mudroom, and I wanted a short cut into the bathroom, that doesn't involve walking over carpeting or rugs. We have horses (need I say more?)...so the shorter the trip through the house...the better :) Also, when we do have parties/get togethers, I wanted two bathrooms for company, without people walking through our bedroom. I really hate that at other people's houses and it seems to happen, all the time. This way people can access the bathroom during the day, but at night, it's our own, private space. Plus, I admit...I'm excited about showing off the claw foot tub! LOL And, letting someone use it, again, without going through our 'private' space.

First off, can I say your avatar is adorable?! Love it. : ) I was looking back at the previous posts, and I think the minor tweak that Mama Goose suggested has some potential. I still vote for a door directly from the kitchen to the pantry. Please here me out... if you move the freezer into the pantry, then you can put a landing counter next to the fridge. Above it, you can put a standard MW that sits on a shelf, which would be very convenient. Even though you'd be paying a little bit more now to move a few studs, I'm guessing it would still be less expensive to do that + standard MW than the price of a fancy drawer MW. Just a thought. I'm not sure what you're planning for pantry storage, but a landing counter might be nice in there for things going in and out of the freezer. I'd love a counter in my pantry for some of the items I don't like on my counters: crocks of sauerkraut, fermenting kombucha, fermenting kefir, etc. I agree that setting this kitchen up and pretending to work in it is a good idea. One of the issues I've run into when the workings are on one side of the island, and the cleanup is on the other is that I end up playing ring around the island to get things. The prep sink does help with this somewhat. Picture making apple pie. The apples need to be washed. Would you rather wash them at the prep sink right by the fridge where they came from, or to run them around the island to the cleanup sink? I remember scenes like this from our old kitchen: What do you do when you go to bake at the island on the fridge side and you are missing measuring spoons. Where are they? In the DW. Run around the island, retrieve them from the DW. Go back to where I was working. Now I need to melt butter. Pull a stick out of the fridge. What shall I melt it in. A bowl? They're being stored on the other side of the island. Around the island I go to get a bowl, trot back and melt the butter in the MW. Then a child comes in and wants a drink, round the island again to help them get a glass, add your own scenarios ad infitum. By this point, cooking is starting to lose its thrill! I think this is why folks are trying to have you consider having the working side of the island so that it's on the same side as the cleanup sink. It helps reduce the circling around the island. I do like the fridge, freezer and pantry all in the same general location, if possible. This helps you to be able to retrieve the food items all from pretty much the same spot.

> @joseph_corlett Depends upon what part of the country you're in also. Do you get hurricanes? West Coast -- no hurricanes. Just forest fires. > @User. You're going to need an engineered curtain wall assembly to do that justice. We probably won't do any curtains at all. Our backyard when it's finished will be totally private. > @lkbum_gw I'd aslo reccomend contacting a local glass company, one that does commercial installations. Google "commercial glass" for your area. Ooo. That is an idea. I will do that! > @palimpsest One way I am thinking of getting a more open look back is to reduce the number of divisions I am giving that some thought too. Ours isn't too bad from a divisions perspective, but even fewer would be even better. > @dan1888 Thank you so much for linking me to specific product lines. That is REALLY helpful. I will definitely thoroughly look through all of them this week. > @Shasta We considered replacing the sliding glass doors but were able to repair them by replacing the rollers and adjusting them so we just replaced the glass in them too. Who did the repair on your sliding glass doors? Was it the same people who replaced the glass, or are there companies who specialize in sliding door repair? If so, what is that specialty called? Because that would definitely be of GREAT interest. If someone could make these glide smoothly and quit leaking, that would solve everything.