Thanks for the thoughtful responses! It was a mouthful to get out so I appreciate you sticking with it. dekeoboe-that is a good point! I think we can also strategically plant some trees if need be so we have the privacy we desire and a nice view. Any pictures floating around GW with your kitchen/DR set up? nini-that's the thing - I can't think of one person I know that has the dining room in the front or that you can see it from the front door. It's so hard to picture things without a frame of reference. We are building a smaller home and trying hard to not have wasted space or rooms that are used infrequently. And - achieve the level of openness/privacy at the same time. pps7-believe me I know. In our current home I actually had to cover the small window we have out front not to block the view of the neighbor but the neighbor peeking IN if we didn't come to the door right away when he knocked - he's been known to walk around the back of the house too looking for my hubby. Ack! I am ready to move on from subdivision living! It's hard to picture a completely different location when you are so used to what you have. I think front would be fine and maybe kind of nice to see out the front and the back. tiffany-that first pic with the brick - oh my that is gorgeous! Thanks for sharing your inspirations. I like how the third one has the dining room in the front but it's still kind of off to the side and secluded. DH and I have differing thoughts on just how open our main spaces should be. We have a similar layout now that you are describing. Peninsula overlooks the dining room with a slider to the back yard. Our garage entry is right off the kitchen so we have shoes and dumping ground issues too but it's the kitchen counter instead of the table. :( I hope a small mudroom will help nip that too! Hi Mrs. Pete-we are trying to decipher just that - where do we spend our time. I say kitchen living room but dh says he doesn't want to look out the front at the table. We are trying to really think through things and again - we will have quite a distance from our house to the neighbors across the street with some woods in between. jakabedy-I also mentioned that sort of layout. The concern there is how wide you'd need it to not feel like you are continually walking around the table to get to the living room from the kitchen (not necessarily my concern but we both need to be happy). I am still keeping that layout in mind. VC-I honestly haven't ever seen anything different in real life or in plans. I am still in discovery mode of what our new lot and desired life style is! After so many years in the same home it is challenging to think out of the box. At this point when we sit down with a designer I'm not sure I can say where I want that room. If it is in the front I'm not so opposed but it would have to be adjacent to the kitchen. I know I wouldn't want it too far displaced especially being the only true dining place. As for the lot - it's wooded with mainly Oaks and a few Pines. It is more wide than deep but no neighbors to the back. The house will sit more forward than I can easily picture because of the easement. I struggle with that sort of thing. A lot to ponder. Thanks again for sharing.

I declare my bias up front as a disliker of islands. Island lovers will tell you it's worth it to cram them in no matter what, if that's what you want. And we're both right. Unless we're both wrong. But seriously. It's your house. Your bias is the only one that counts. My thing about islands, particularly in small rooms is that they're a hazard to navigation. They're always THERE and you're always walking around them. So my suggestion is, if you must have an island (though I prefer a table, always) then go for a nice, solid MOVEABLE island. Either on lockable wheels, or just one big and heavy enough that it stays in place. Nobody wants a wimpy, tippy island. They come pre-made, or you could have one made custom, or there are pieces of furniture that would serve the purpose. That way, if you hate it, or even if you just have a party, or want to do something in the kitchen that requires a lot of open space, you can just move it off to the side for a buffet or bar station or whatever. You are also freer to make an island like this a little bigger, since you can move it out of the way if it bothers you where it is. It also leaves the "dining or island?" option open to the next owner, and doesn't make it for them. Which I think is even better for resale. Just something to consider.

One thing with a 10" overhang is that you're not saving aisle space because stool legs splay wider than the seats for stability. Your real usable aisle space is from the stool feet over, regardless of whether they're covered by counter or not. On the plus side, maybe you might as well create an overhang generous enough to tuck them all the way under? It'd not only be more comfortable but look a lot better and be safer. Of course, it also means you need to choose and measure stools before making your decision. These tradeoffs are all very personal decisions, but, knowing how much even shallow storage holds, mine would be to look to the cabinets for the extra inches needed to make this work. I purchased ready-made Ikea 12" drawers for the top row of a line of 12" deep bottoms, with shelves below, so I would imagine drawer and sliding shelf mechanisms are available in a number of depths. If needed, I'd also plan storage for the Christmas dishes and the 3-element slow cooker used maybe twice a year, or whatever as needed, somewhere else in the house. This post was edited by rosie on Wed, Jun 5, 13 at 8:13

Based on the responses, I've decided to forgo the expense of adding a storage loft in the garage. It sounds like it would not improve the resale value of my home. This means I cannot repurpose the storage room on the upper deck into a walk-in-closet. I sacrificed the walk-in-closet in the master bedroom to move the laundry room upstairs. I still have a closet in the bedroom, although the architect proposed that I take out the closet to create a sitting area with a TV. Instead, I will have some over-the-hood cabinets built in the garage. Not sure what I will put into the cabinets - most items won't fit, such as bicycles, hockey sticks, and ladders. It makes no sense to stack cabinets up to the 14'7" ceiling in the garage. At my age, I shouldn't be climbing up on a 10' ladder to take down a can of white paint or a box of tennis balls. Besides, this is "earthquake" country - where anything placed up high is at risk of falling down. Most of what is in the garage is either too useful to sell or not worth selling (Halloween decorations) or both (broom and dust pan). I will try to sell some of the leftover building materials that were stored into the garage this week, as the renovation is coming to a close. I have already donated to Habits for Humanity my 3-year old kitchen cabinets (remodeled kitchen 3 years ago, and remodeled it again this year).