Update - so it's been a few months and a lot of work but some changes have been made. Two of the three trees down the left/driveway side have been moved to the rear. I opted to leave the third since the city-supplied Acer on the left is not doing well and will be removed shortly. The Nootka cypress near the front door has been replaced with a weeping "Viradis" Japanese maple. The bed around the front porch has been expanded to wrap around the porch and includes a purple fountain weeping beech, as well as more rhodos, hydrangeas, pennisetum, liatris and phlox sublata. I'm still working on filling in this space with more of the same. I took Yardvaark's suggestion and incorporated the Acer on the right into the bed close to it. I also added some festuca glauca and campanula carpatica to the bed. The Nootka cypresses in this bed are also stressed after a very hot summer (most of which was while the irrigation system was being put in) so I'm not sure if they will make it. Any replacement suggestions? I did get rid of one of the "mouse ears" by adding it to the corner bed. I still intend to change the other side but that may be next year's project since the landscaping budget is scraping the bottom of the barrel for now.

I like the blue, but a mossy green would be nice with the wood too. I say keep the countertops. We had laminate in our old house while our three kids were young, and it was very forgiving, especially with plates and glasses banged down a bit too hard. Not to mention cooking together, science experiments, holiday crafts, etc. Trying to find an indestructible perfect countertop is one of the holy grail searches in the Kitchen forum, and if you already have it in function if not entirely in form, don't tempt fate : ) . Not all laminate is the same quality, and if you have one that tolerates hot cookware and cutting right on the surface, I wouldn't be so quick to replace it unless you're 100 percent certain of the quality. I know it's hard to imagine right now, but those years when your kids are young go by so quickly. Keep saving money, and when they get older and your beast of a countertop doesn't owe you anything else, replace it.

Before I did anything, I'd think long and hard about how I want to use the space and how I want to live in the space. Do you like having lots of noise and seeing everyone and everything? Do you all listen to the same music all the time? Mind someone else's TV watching? Is media viewing central to your main activities in the house? Do you want to have a quiet space? A reading area? Do you have hobbies that should be accommodated? Work from home? Do you use a formal dining room? Do you entertain a lot? If so, is it casual or more formal? Do you have/will you have children and need to keep an eye on them? Need play space? Storage? To me, regardless of how a room may have originally been designed, it needs to fit *your* lifestyle. For example, if you don't dine formally, why have space for that? Once you've thought about how much time you spend doing which activities, then it's easier to figure out how much space you want to devote to which. I view a house as a "plant" that is designed to support the activities and functions that take place in the house. It's how you use it that will determine the layout. Once you figure that out, you'll know whether the fireplace is a help or a hindrance to your lifestyle. Open concept is visually impressive but very public and noisy to live with. A la Sarah Susanka, open concept is great provided you also have an "away" space where you can be private and cozy and away from the madding crowd. We have "open concept" with our Kit, FR, Brk Nook all open to each other. There are only the 2 of us and it seems to work. But we also have away spaces which we use often as well. We've found a balance of the 2 is best for us. That may be a consideration for you.

Usually I vote for a one level counter but with the two columns there, the space will never be truly open. The bookcase idea is interesting if you don't use the space for barstools. I like having a spot for visitors to sit and chat with the cook without being in the way of cooking.  If you do a bookcase, you could do half width and a stool in front of the air return or extend the air return to the front of the bookcase.