I have posted to the other forum as well. I just recently found these forums and am so happy I did, I love all the input. The builder will be putting some sort of sound barrier to the master. The upper two bedrooms will be for my daughters, ages 8 and 14. We requested a bathroom not be in the middle of the rooms upstairs and that a jack and Jill style bathroom not be put there just so that if one girl Wales up to use the bathroom, it won't wake the other. As some have mentioned, I do think with two girls, the bathroom needs to have a bigger vanity area for sure. It's hard to see from these plans but there is a dotage area between the stairwell and the garage downstairs. I will utilize this area as our "school station" where we keep the book bags, extra school supplies, a tack board for school calendars, ect. There will also be a walk in storage built into the side of the stairwell. We originally were going to add a fairly large bonus area to the upstairs but recently decided to do away with that. We felt like if we did that the kids would tend to try to be up there all the time and we would not see them much. All the kids currently have their own tvs in their rooms but of course, they aren't allowed to watch tv for extended periods of time. The back patio will also be large. We will mount a tv out there also and we will spend a lot if time out there. It will function as an additional living area with deep seating our door furniture. I'm thinking that in about 4 years once my 14 year old is moving away to college, the 5 year old may want to move upstairs by then. Of course the downstairs bedroom would then be her room for when she comes home on weekends and holidays. The kitchen was my first primary concern as the concept in these plans is what I want but with a larger pantry. Then, once we felt like we would like to switch the kitchen and living room that became our next big concern. We did meet with two architects and builders before deciding to use the one we did. We have seen and been in multiple houses he has designed and built and we fell in love with them. We live in Louisiana so we told the builder that we didn't want a coat closet because we actually do not use the one we have now for that purpose. Ours is being used to store crafts which we plan to store elsewhere. The attic will be a walk in attic that can be accessed from the garage and from the second story.

It is hard to tell exactly what your working with because the scale has not been provided. I agree with you I would move the stove further to the left and pull the sink onto that wall and have some lovely large windows across as much of that wall as is reasonable. But that raises the issue with the dishwasher, you do want it to the right of the sink out of your main prep zone, but if you put the same onto the wall I'm not sure you would want the little peninsula. I'm also not sure why you would want both a peninsula and an island. Have you considered ditching the peninsula and enlarging the island? The part that I think is odd is the back porch/mudroom/office area, the mudroom has just that teeny little bit of shelving? on one wall backing onto the pantry. I think I would widen that area and put in seating with pullout drawers or open spaces underneath if there is truly mud in your area and hooks above to hang wet clothing and make a proper mudroom. Since you aren't using the wall space in that portion of the pantry that backs onto the mudroom I would put a door there so that you can walk straight into the pantry with your goods and not have to loop around through the kitchen. I am happy with your cabinets, but....this kitchen has not a lot of cabinets so I am presuming that you own not too many kitchen things and do not have multiple sets of dishes. Can the pantry be altered slightly to take advantage of some of the under the stairway storage space? Or are these open stairs?

I'm meeting with cabinet man this afternoon and wanted to check back for any additional ideas. These are the changes we plan on making from the original design plan: 1, drawers to the right of the sink 2. Easy reach corner upper 3. Move microwave drawer over to allow for wider drawers instead of 2 sets of narrower drawers. Should we keep it 3 drawers or do 4? 4 vertical storage over fridge 5. Spice drawer to right of range 6. Possibly add a foot to island for shelf and cookbook (this will depend on cost) 7. Deeper bottom drawers. I've read 100 posts and articles about depth but am still a bit confused. I think we're going with 11 inch. What do you all think?? 8. Check vent hood height and style of cabinet. 9. He is going to give me cost to take the cabinets higher. 10. Framers had to move the end wall back yesterday to accommodate refrigerator door opening. 11. Am looking into cost of built in cutting board tray. If anyone wants to have a last look??? Thank you!! Sunny

I kept my wood cabinets wood, and refreshed with new countertops, backsplash and Kohler Whitehaven "short apron" style farmhouse sink, which can be installed on a standard sink base. If this were my kitchen I would eventually replace the over the range microwave with a hood. I have a wood hood, but for a more modern feel you could do a pretty stainless one. I would think about replacing the center panel in some of the cabinets with glass or removing one cabinet and replacing with shelves - that would depend on your storage needs and your feelings about dusting shelves. I retrofitted a cabinet with a plate rail for my cottage style - a thought if that is your style too. I have no problem with painting these simpler, ordinary wood cabinets - just know it is a lot of work and if they are oak the grain texture will show through the paint - bothers some but not others. I would still consider one or two glass panels or you will just be changing out wall of wood to wall of white. I used a cream subway tile which I really like with the wood. You would want to remove the 4" splash first. You can change out the black - I know I personally have trouble visually working on a black surface, but be sure your cabinets are in decent shape before you change out and spend $$ on a nice granite or quartz. My kitchen is here - as I mentioned it is a more vintage / cottage style, but it does show the sink and the lighter countertop: https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/57579129/thumbs/my-pics-work-in-progress If you want to keep the dark counter, cream tile still works - or maybe white depending on the tone of your wood: An example of dark counters with cream backsplash: