Yes i do! I actually have some design sense and wanted to be an interior designer. I installed new Espresso color thick carpet in my whole condo, i loved the color, sheen and the way it hid the stains. Lol im bad i know, but i had light color carpet before and it was a mess to keep clean, to the eye. Only problem was when i installed the Espresso color carpet was that my walls were bright white and i didnt like the contrast, the dark brown per say and the white walls, just looked odd to me and bugged me, Finally i gave in and put color on the walls! Reason i say all that is, if the walls are not white, go for it. Maybe re think the color of the walls as to me, the silver of the washer and silver of the walls might clash with one another, if just not the perfect, complementing shades. You could do a creamy rich, off white, like vanilla. What i did in picking the colors for my living room and bedrooms was, i went to home depot, i picked out all the colors that immediately caught my eye. Then i took home two or three of the same paint swatches home, taped them together, then taped them on the wall to be painted, in different areas, to see which color i like better. It was better for me than using one swatch of color and trying to decide on a big blank white wall. So i used three and taped them together and made the swatch 50 % bigger! Its up to you in the end and what you like. But i do think the espresso will work very well with the silver, or graphite appliances, just a little weary on silver walls. I used the Berh paint and primer in one, used less coats and the color came out very nice! The green is, chinese jade and the yellow is, pyramid gold. I had to put into mind all the colors i already had, the carpet, my couch, coffee tables, dining table. This is also what i did, i fine tuned into what colors i wanted for the walls, then i took other swatches, for instance, i have white baseboards, so i got a white swatch, i have a orange couch, so i got an orange swatch, i have espresso carpet, so i got an espresso colored swatch, then i put them all next to the color of the wall swatch, to see how well they all mixed together! And to me, the colors couldnt have fallen into place any better. Also made my condo feel more like a house, more like me, more personlized! Imagine the walls in the photos before, white! What a big different a little color can do!

I have ordered one of these and was very happy. The quality is very good and the price point makes for an excellent value. It assembles very easily too! Here is a link that might be useful: RTA Cabinet Store

Thanks, justgotabme! I ran it by hubby and while he finally sees the merits of having the powder room close to the garage, he doesn't like that configuration. I'm wondering if we could take part of the pantry away (and half the closet--making it more of a broom storage) and put the powder room door where the current garage door is. The garage door would move to the side between the "mudroom" bench and bathroom door. Is that enough space to put in a more traditionally-styled powder room? While I'm drooling over the master closet space in your renovation, I think I'd still want an "entrance" of some sorts to the master--mostly to keep from coming down the stairs, straight into a wall. If we moved the powder room, I guess half the old one would go to master closet, half to hall closet. The other little coat closet could remain as the central place where the electronics stuff would go, OR, as a tiny nook of shelves in the closet between hanging clothes. You know, I never did think of a service door to the garage that came off the front porch! Thanks for the idea. I'll run it by the person who'd be using it most :-) But, I wonder how attractive that would look. And, if it has a window in it, visitors would see how messy it was....and going by our last garage, that's something to hide! I don't know what measurements are necessary in the laundry room--I just need it wide enough for the washer/dryer on one side, the door in the middle, and a regular-depth counter on the other side. Is there any "extra" room that you see in what the current one is? My copy isn't to a scale that's easily measured. A beginning copy from my builder was easy to read since 1/4" on the plan equaled 2' of floor space, but the one my printer prints out isn't. Thanks for all you've done, but please don't spend too much of your time on this....after all, we supposedly have someone hired (the builder's guy) to do this :-) It's just that he's been a little slow, and he hasn't been helpful with suggestions. And when the laundry room was oriented differently (rotated 90 degrees), it jutted into the breakfast room space significantly but he didn't seem to think it mattered. But, I guess he doesn't know how big a table we have. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving. Ours was okay but different. We've moved even further away from family in this relocation, so we were invited to the home of one of hubby's co-workers, who'd also recently relocated here. They built a house, too, and have only been in a couple of months. It was nice to get a feeling of what it's going to be like (they have a sort-of similar plan and similar decor tastes). Better than sitting in a cramped apartment, eating off TV trays! Anyway, lots to be thankful for--especially internet forums and helpful people. I can't imagine building a house and choosing stuff without being able to research online. Tracey

I agree it's hard to give a fair answer without knowing the layout/seeing photos and understanding the reasons why DH and others suggest combining. With that said, the big negative, for me, would be the noise. Our laundry is in an adjacent room to the kitchen/living room and it's hard to hear the TV/each other with the laundry running. Being able to close a door on that sound is a big help. If you can manage to only do laundry at off times, I guess that wouldn't matter. The second negative depends on how you do laundry. Do you have dirty clothes sitting around in the laundry space? If so, I would opt to isolate that mess/dirt/smell in another space. We are childless so we don't collect laundry in our laundry room.... so, that wouldn't be an issue for us/everyone but it's something to consider. The positives, potentially, are a larger feel to your kitchen..... and more countertop space. What are the positives your DH sees?