Wow! Lots of questions! Haha! Let's see. We live in New Orleans and are a very casual, fun, energetic family. DH and I are in our mid 30's and have a 9 year old and a 6 year old. Both kids are active outside of school. TV is a big part of our lives because of sports, movies, kids, etc. But Mike's Den is where lots of the sports programming will take place. :) We are planning to offset the TV and put it to the side of the fireplace for two reasons....1) Now that the kitchen is further over, if someone is in there, it will be more centered to the room as a whole and 2) it can be a bit lower and more at eye-level if it's not above the fireplace. We can make the built-ins accommodate the TV at a level more comfortable for viewing. There will also be a playroom/media room upstairs for the kids. So the Living Room TV will be the group/family TV I suppose. We take turns cooking but both work. So we aren't gourmet cooks but we enjoy cooking meals. We enjoy conversations from the kitchen, thus wanting the open plan. I'd say that because of kids' evening activities, we probably cook 3-4 days a week maybe? Other nights we grill or get take out, pick something up or go out to eat on the way home. The porch. The house (again, in New Orleans...flooding) must be elevated a bit). This porch is elevated with the house. I know we will also have lower space for a table and chairs and the grill, that we haven't laid out yet. We actually did talk about widening the porch. How wide would you suggest? My dad suggested 1-3 feet wider. What do you think? The front door...you see the stairs to the right of the kitchen? And the open pass-through there under the stairs in the drawing? If you go through that pass through...actually straight from the back door, you'd pass the turned stairs above you and a guest room above, master below (in the drawing) and the front door is that way. It's a narrow, New Orleans lot...50x122, which has made things interesting to lay out! :) Thanks again guys! Your feedback is great! Oh, and again, the furniture placement and the kitchen appliances, etc. is just there in the drawings as a guide. It's not fixed or anything. It's just a visual thing for reference.

Three feet is generous; two and a half feet is enough... she is right about not catching the chairs on the rug when you pull them out to sit in them... BUT that's 2.5 feet on every side. So you have to double that, and add it to the dimensions of your table. SO... add 5 feet to 4 X 8, and you get 9 X 13...and if you fudge it a bit at the ends, which you can do, 9 X 12 is the right size. Some rugs are not exact, and if you find one that is 9 X 12.5, so much the better.

Change the swing of the powder room door, so that the person in the kitchen never has a view of the toilet. Do you have a peninsula with chairs in your kitchen? Your current traffic paths through your house are causing you problems. Here's how they look now. People crossing the middle of the family room/living room to pass through. The pathway from the door through the dining room effectively reduces its size too. I'd close that door off to help traffic through the dining room. Optionally, I'd also open the space by the basement steps to the living room, and move the doorway between the living and dining rooms.

Is that a powder room or pantry in the top right corner? You can probably fit this plan (m/l) without changing the entries, but I think it's an interesting option. At 11'7", the aisle between peninsula and fridge could be almost 48" (with a CD fridge). High chairs (if you still use those) could go on the short sides of the table, then kids could move to the bench as they grow. Open DW door would block access to upper cabs to the left, so dishes would be stored to the right of the sink. I guessed at some measurements, and the first drawing is not to scale: ETA, two entry option. Prep space is smaller, but again, not to scale: