Well, our first order of business is removing all the 3" baseboard (!!) that isn't even clear trim quality wood and restoring some "natural order" with a smaller opening to the dining room from the living room and creating an arched opening. That little "dinky wall"? I'm thinking of creating a Craftsman like "cabinet/column half wall" type of thing. Just to give the foyer (I'm from the South ;-) ) some space of its own. Also, every single interior door (3 - we're not talking big money here) is hollow core - and beyond that, they don't even match!! WTH??!!! The only interior door on the main floor is the powder room door - we already have a traditional five panel coming. And proper hardware. Yikes. When you start to think of it, it all really adds up! Marcolo, if the first floor offends your sensibilities, I'm afraid the second floor would make your head explode. It surely does mine! In the 90's reno, they removed all the Craftsman era details that were in the house and while not a true Craftsman, I think that restoring some of that feel to the house will be a better fit than Miami Vice. I'm just ignoring the vinyl windows for now ::faints:: We felt the house has good bones, is in a great neighborhood, and can clearly be nudged toward a modern lifestyle just not quite that modern. :-) The 90's reno made it so not a family home but we intend to change that with a plan that gives us 3 independent bedrooms and 2.5 functional bathrooms. That's to explain the choices in the kitchen that are more forward thinking/traditional rather than what would suit only my family (we could, for instance, have a 10 cu ft. fridge and an 18" dishwasher but I know those aren't good future choices for a hardworking family house). I'm getting my plans from the KD today. He really just drew up my initial impressions, so let the games begin!!

Ok so here is the lowdown on the insurance. We do not have any special policy, just regular homeowners insurance. Originally my husband called our insurance agent and he was told that insurance would cover replacing a similar cabinet to the one that fell off the wall, but would not replace all of them. He suggested doing a different cabinet finish as an accent cabinet. I did NOT want that at all and was bummed out for a few weeks! Then we decided to call our insurance company directly. They sent out an adjuster to see the damage. The guy was great-- he said that because the cabinets were discontinued we would have to replace all the cabinets. He mentioned that he had to submit the claim as a cabinet "collapse", not a brown/cracked cabinet. Not sure what the difference is in the insurance world, but he said it had to be written up as a collapse. He took lots of pictures and also wanted me to email him the pics I took the day it happened with the broken glass all over floor and the broken cabinet outside on our lawn. He also said formica would be replaced because there was a knick in it. I was trying to hold back my smile when he said that! Then i almost keeled over when he noticed 2 small gouges with exposed wood in the hardwood floor on the table side of the peninsula. He said if water got in there it could start to rot the wood. Because we have a continuous open floor plan they will pay for the kitchen, dining room, hallway and computer/study room to be refinished. Said we couldn't do just the kitchen area because there would be a noticeable change and would take away from value of our home. Now I get all new hardwoods too! YAY!! He said he was going to submit his proposal to the insurance company and we would hear back from him in a week or so. It took over 2 weeks so i didn't think that was a good sign. Then we got the call that it was approved!!!! I had to look over the figures and sign off on them before the check was issued. Basically, they gave us $15,500 for the initial check. Arbella Insurance does what they call a "depreciation holdback" to ensure that all the work is done. After all work is completed, I have to submit receipts to get a recoverable depreciation value, not to exceed $2,100.00 I also received a check for $625 for personal property damage- plates, bowls, serving platters, stoneware that were broken the day the cabinet collapsed. So grand total from insurance will be $18,225.00 after I submit the receipts to prove work was done to get the depreciation holdback check for $2,100. We did not do any of the work ourselves and still managed to only go $300 over the budget. :)

Hope the birds were safely rescued! Our siding person set off ours taking off the old stuff- oops. Police arrived and gave them a bit of a hard time til they reached us. Double oops! Then I was watching our robins getting ready to fledge and they fledged into the house. Found 2 easily but the third one was shy. I finally snagged the last one. I have a great video of the robins fledging.

Since no one has given you any feedback yet, I'll take a shot... So you have what people call a barrier island. That means for the normal kitchen workflow you would have to walk around your island. If you read this thread, you will see the main problem with your workflow: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg111625296905.html (Maybe this thread should be made sticky?) To fix your workflow, you could either move your fridge to the wall with your sink or add a prep sink on your island. Also, through what door do you bring in your groceries? The small door in the kitchen to the foyer seems like it will encourage a traffic pattern through your kitchen. Having more counters/pantry there may be better. Regarding the powder room... having the guests go through the mudroom to the power room seems awkward and inconvenient. Could you have it open on the other side into the living room (I think that is the living room)? Also, you only need 2 more feet for a full bath. It seems like you have plenty of room to add a full bath if that is something that would be of value to you (it does help resale). Hopefully some others will chime in and help you out with this one.