Well, our kitchen is exactly over our downstairs master bedroom suite. The house is completely insulated with fiberglass batting between joists and around plastic pipes. There is a 15 yr old plywood subfloor with 2 layers of quiet flooring (the first is sheet vinyl, the second is solid vinyl tile laid over the sheet vinyl with leveling compound). We did not take any of the soundproofing steps that floorman67 recommends, and can tell you that even though it is not unduly noisy, there is NO WAY that anyone can be in the kitchen without our being aware of it downstairs. We can hear footsteps, cabinet doors closing, dishes rattling, and let's not even talk about the dishwasher running! It's much more muted than it was before we did the remodeling and installed the insulation, probably 200% better. But my MIL moved in recently, and I had to tell her that under NO circumstances is she to unload the DW in the morning before we come upstairs, because the footsteps back and forth plus the dish and cab door clatter, was just loud enough to wake me up and keep me awake. It's not going to be easy to silence more than 70% of the usual kitchen noise (my estimate based on the remodeling results we had) unless you take the extra steps floorman67 recommends.

As a mostly lurker, one-time poster, I also have a question regarding this sound-proofing issue: Is it worth ripping up the poly sheet and incurring the displeasure of my contractor in order to wrap a pvc waste-stack drain that's located in an exterior wall in the breakfast area? The installation sub had said he would wrap the accessible waste drains, but when I visited the site after being informed that the insulation installation was complete, I saw that none of the pvc waste drains had been wrapped. While I can still get to the pvc pipes in the ceiling to wrap them with carpet padding (got the idea from a previous poster), the waste stack is already under stapled-down poly. The stack is located in the center of the stud cavity, with R-21 fiberglass butting up against each side of the drain, but the drain itself is bare. The drain services two 2nd-floor bathrooms. Are the sound-reducing benefits of wrapping this drain in inexpensive carpet padding worth it? Thank you.

When my remodel is done, my DW will be at the end of a run, next to the wall. It will probably add a minute, maybe two, to the unload time as all but the daily dishes/cutlery/glassware will be a tad farther of a walk to put away. But I don't care as the advantages will totally outweigh the disadvantages. I disagree with your KD. Strongly. I currently have my DW between my sink and range and it is the most hated thing in my kitchen. Everybody hates it, not just me. And when I say everybody, I mean my parents (who owned this house before me), my sister and her entire family, and my entire family. Plus all our kid's spouses. That's 14 people who have all voiced hatred for the DW placement. When my niece's husband, who was a chef before he became an engineer, heard we were remodeling the kitchen actually called me up to remind me to move that damn DW. And he's only cooked in it a few times. I remember he commented that it's poor placement from both a chef's and engineer's perspective (for whatever that's worth, lol). That is the only time he's actually ever called me. At the time, I didn't know where else to put it but the good folks here guided me to the new location. In fact, if the DW placement was good to begin with, I would probably have just redecorated my kitchen instead of remodeling. Of course, I'm getting other good things out of the remodel (like a prep sink) but I'm pretty frugal and would have probably saved the expense of it all if the DW placement hadn't been so annoying. If you use the sink on the window wall for prepping most often because you're facing the fabulous view (and who wouldn't?), the DW will NOT be able to be left open for immediate loading. You will need to keep the door closed most of the time and pop it open to load. If you're prepping and someone is loading/unloading or even just popping it open quickly to pop something in, it often coincides with the moment I need to get some water for my prepping. If you had a much longer counter between sink and cooktop, it might make some sense. But you don't. It will be crowded. And note that I have 54" between sink and range so I have more space to move over when that DW door is open. You have only 39". 36" is the MINIMUM recommended by the NKBA. You really can't afford to lose work space there if you want to use it for prepping. Of course, you will have the option of moving over to the other sink to do that but then that also adds extra unnecessary steps. And if you are prepping and have to move over for someone to do stuff with the DW, you might as well move all your prep work there because it also cuts into the available counter space unless you don't mind leaning instead of standing in front of what you're prepping. I don't understand the view argument. If you use your DW properly, as DW manufacturer's recommend, you'll be spending little time at the sink as you should scrape, not rinse, before loading. Washing fruit and veg doesn't take long. I wish I could remember the statistics exactly but studies have shown that prep time is something like 70% of the time spent in the kitchen with the remainder divided between cooking (like when you're standing at the stove, not counting unattended oven time) and cleaning up. So the majority of your time will be in the prep area, not in front of the sink or at the DW. For that short period of time, you won't miss the view. Ha! Can you tell I feel strongly about this? It's your kitchen. I would never do it in my kitchen. I hope you won't regret your decision.

noise depends on what you mean by open concept. our kitchen and living room are all one room, so I think of that as open concept, but our bedrooms are down a hall. therefore, we don't have noise issues with sound from the living room. when it comes to heating/cooling, it depends on the engineering. how high are the ceilings? how much insulation? how big are the windows and what way are they facing? all of our ceilings in the whole house are vaulted but not super tall (about 11'). we don't have much of an issue with heating in the winter, but the living room is really hot in the summer, mainly due to the fact that it's not in the shade and has big south facing windows (this is Seattle, where it rarely gets over 90 deg). we had 6" of rigid insulation installed under the roof, but it's not nearly as good as having an attic with blown in insulation. I love vaulted ceilings and would absolutely have them again, but just be sure your architect is considering the best when it comes to wall, ceiling and window insulation. finally, other noise factors to consider: we have a metal roof. so that plus no attic means we can hear everything that hits it. rain? very pleasant. pinecones hitting it in a windstorm? SO LOUD. the last time it happened, we barely got any sleep. of course if you have a shingled roof, it won't be as much of an issue.