Thank you Kirstysea. Lol, yes, keeping the roof up is a high priority ;) I guess I should have explained that we know the walls are not load bearing (according to two contractors who looked at it several months ago and then wanted to charge 800+ to do the work, just to remove the wood & re-drywall - not counting moving electrical, etc.). We also did our own research on load bearing walls just to confirm what they told us. Even so, my husband thinks the corner needs to be supported, and he is probably right but I'm dreaming of not having to look around a post while I work in the kitchen. There are no structural engineers within 200+ miles of us. All builders, contractors, etc. are extremely busy right now with much bigger jobs than ours, and getting inflated pay for those jobs - the best we could get right now is an unlicensed handy man... and we feel that is not an option as we are probably more experienced and knowledgeable than 90% of them, besides them being illegal to hire. I have lived with torn up drywall for too many months now; we'll just leave the corner if I can't find any guidance or information; it's been a nightmare attempting to get anyone to do the work. We can handle, and have done before, everything about this job except the corner issue. Does the fact that neither wall is load bearing mean that we can safely remove the corner?

weedyacres, thanks for all the advice! :) I don't know why everybody thinks I'm jumping into this tomorrow but this is something I don't plan on doing for another 3+ months, maybe not even for another year. Who knows. But by nature I'm very proactive and like to start planning so I can prepare. The kitchen is a different story because I am literally moving into a house with ZERO appliances - I don't want to live off take-out every night, and not even be able to take home leftovers! I appreciate everybody looking out for me in terms of budget and experience, I really do, but there's a lot of (personal) details I haven't added in my original posts. My mom updated her bathroom all by herself, and has done MANY other bathrooms for other people. This bathroom is much bigger than mine (the photo doesn't show it all). All new flooring, wall tile, mirror, faucet, shower fixtures, etc. She did this bathroom for $600, so I think my 2k tile budget is conservative. Oh and she is a house wife (no job), so she just spends all day doing this type of stuff. My budget outlined above was meant to include everything that is required (additional materials and tools if I don't have them already - I also haven't mentioned that I worked for SB&Decker for 3 years and have literally a closet FULL of Dewalt hand and power tools). I also have other friends who have just completely renovated their entire home by themselves (and were in my shoes less than a year ago). They had help from their plumber uncle but other than that they basically gutted and re-did their whole house themselves. We're all Engineers too, so we have a sense of structures. I might not understand house terms but I have a good sense of math and physics and have done a lot of research, calculations, and budgeting that I'm confident in. My GC is also a great guy, and has even offered to lend me his tools if I want to DIY things myself. I don't get into these details though in my original posts because I'm just looking for design guidance, not necessarily how-to's. You're right about my lack of knowledge with home DIY and construction, I'm a total newb! But I've been reading, researching, and watching a lot, so I'm learning every day. Houzz has just been another great outlet for me to learn, especially coming from people with firsthand experience! Fori is not pleased, I definitely plan to now. That's great advice. I'll look into what current code is and how my bathroom (now) meets it, and what would need to bring it up to code. My GC called out a few things during the initial walk-thru and he seems very familiar with the codes in the area, so he can help. I'll do all this before I start any renovating. When I say "new layout" I don't necessarily mean moving stuff around. Maybe I should re-phrase and ask how to design the bathroom. Mostly I just don't know what to do with the inset wall. Do I put cabinets all the way from the (current) sink to the door or do I leave empty space underneath and put a bench? What's practical? What would look nice? etc etc.

A 55" TV is only about 48" wide. I really think the sofa should go on the wall and the TV should go above the fireplace. Otherwise, you have to choose between awkward TV viewing or an awkward sofa location. eta: I just read that you never use the fireplace. You could put the TV on a console in front of the fireplace (gasp) I know. But I think you could make it work if none of the fireplace was visible.

Photos??