Dimensions?
I could scale it down using the entry door but there is a possibility of it not being accurate. A couple of inches makes a difference between being up to code or not.

On the other hand, you are working with an architect and he can not figure this one out?
The first thing that bothers me is the "back" hall door swinging like that.

In general, the plan looks nice.

Have you tried moving the powder room so it has it's door in the foyer, about where the first coat closet door is now? The powder room could gain a window (where you want one) and the pantry would lose one (where it's not ideal to have one.) It also moves the pantry door closer to the kitchen.

The built-in in the dining room is really too far away from the table to work as a buffet. Would you consider building something out from the wall between the door to the screened porch? You could still have windows above it.
If you swap the pantry and powder room, keeping the buffet in the exact same spot might not be possible.

If you want the powder room farther away from the foyer instead of closer, how about building it off the mudroom? Only the toilet needs to be enclosed, and having a sink easily accessible in your mudroom might be useful to wash off dirt from gardening, etc.

I don't think your bar is deep enough to work as a bar. You need at least a small counter to set the glasses down for pouring and maybe room for an ice bucket. Allowing enough depth for a wine rack would also make it the most flexible space possible.

I love the sliding doors, and the private guest suite is really a great and thoughtful feature.

Another buffet thought -- is the plan to close off the kitchen when entertaining? If so, the buffet could go behind the sliding doors.

I like the dining built-in where it is (maybe it is that I do not like to get rid of something that the OP specifically stated he likes or want to keep).
A possibility is to place it "floating" closer to the table. It will also give privacy to the powder room door. In this case the pantry will be centered between mud and powder room (closer to the kitchen).

My first choice is to move the powder room near to the foyer. Create a small hall to conceal the door and place the closet doors off the small hall. I do not like to place many doors off the foyer. You enter the home and all you see is doors. You want to have some wall for art or a console.

I'll try to show a sketch later.

I see what you are saying, marthaelena. I guess it depends a lot on whether this buffet is there for practical use during meals, or if it's a great place to showcase grandmother's china.

marthaelena and alabamanicole,

Thank you for your responses. Hopefully my wife and I will be able to discuss them tonight.

Marthaelena, I don't have a copy of the current plan with dimensions, but the front entry door should be 3' unless it was changed accidentally. The longest width for the floor plan from exterior edge to exterior edge is 53'. The mudroom should still be 8' wide (interior wall to interior wall), and 7' long. Please let me know if it would be helpful for me to provide more dimensions.

We'll definitely look at the dining built-in placement. Part of the reason for not putting it on the screened porch wall is I'm still holding out hope that our budget will allow us to use a kind of Nana wall there. (It doesn't look too likely at this point!)

I think we would prefer moving the powder room closer to the foyer, and it would be great if we could do so while maintaining privacy there.

We'll also take another look at the bar depth.

If you are going to use your island for both a cooktop and sitting/eating, I think it needs to be wider. YOu may want to consider raising the part of the island that will be used for sitting/eating to put a little more distance between the people sitting at the island and the cooktop. Also, the raised area will block the view of the mess on the cooktop (at least in my house, the cooktop is a messy area when it is begin used) from the dining room so your guests won't see it when they are seated at the dining room table.

I would consider changing the kitchen door location by the back entrance, moving it down next to the storage cabinet. That would give you a nice corner of cabinetry and would give you an alternate location for the range. Personally, I'm not a fan of ranges or cooktops in islands that small. Can be dangerous, too. I'm a messy cook to begin with, and having the range or the sink in direct view of the formal dining/living area is not a good idea for me. By moving this door, it would also give you a solid wall for the back door to swing against.

It's a very elegant plan especially the offset entrance and a stair with some style.

I would get the cooktop off the island because there is plenty of counter space for it against the outside wall where it will not block any windows (by the way why are there no windows?) and the exhaust will be better and cheaper and more importantly no one should want to sit in front of cooking food and get covered with grease or whatever (did it once, won't do it again).

Make the sink counter deeper just because you can.

Dare I ask why such a large pantry would be located so far from the kitchen and dining areas or why there are such large unassigned/unfurnished spaces?Do yo have a hobby that requires space like Yoga or motorcycle maintenance?

Thanks again for all of your responses. A lot of the issues raised about the kitchen -- especially the island seating -- will be addressed soon. We have an island cook top now and like it, but the island will likely end up being wider and the seating will not be across from the cook top. We will have several windows on the exterior kitchen wall -- not sure why they haven't made it into the plan yet.

macv, good point about the open space in the living area. The motorcycle maintenance comment made us laugh! My wife and I are actually lion tamers. In all seriousness, though, that open space does bother us some. In other incarnations of the plan there was a short wall dividing the living room/dining room/hall. We need to think about that some more.

how about something like this?

I think Bevangel has designed a great solution to your powder room/pantry dilemma. If you were to move the sink a foot or two closer to the refrigerator, with a window behind it, you could then accommodate a range, with microwave above it, on the same wall as the sink, down near the stand up desk.

I saw no designated space on the kitchen plan for a microwave, or oven, both of which you would need if you were having a cooktop in the island. A range/oven combination, with microwave above, is one option. This would leave the island free for food prep and counter space for stools, yet I would suggest a smaller sink on the island for food prep purposes since you certainly have the room for it.

The refrigerator and desk belong where they were originally and the stove should be on the other side of the sink. Let the island be a work surface and seating area and keep the functions of the kitchen work stations separate (the first rule of kitchen design IMHO). Where people sit should be shared with the prep area, not the cooking area. I've talked many owners into a clean island and even some into making it face grain maple. I don't like sitting at granite or imitative solid surfaces, an eating surface should be real wood.

I like bevangel's plan. I would put the fridge near the pantry but having it near the breakfast nook is convenient, too. I am guessing the desk is meant as a message center, but it's taking up valuable real estate in the kitchen. Would a small message center in the sotrage cabinets there work, with the full desk where the fridge is now?

Lining the stove, sink and fridge up along one wall isn't a good solution. As someone metioned, cooktops on an island are a safety hazard and you still need something overhead to vent. You could swap the stove and sink. Or, if the desk goes next to the nook and the fridge goes by the hall door, you could put the range where the sink is and put in a corner sink.

It can very limiting to attempt to design a house on a computer. I've been using one for 20 years and I still find it hinders the natural processing of ideas and problem solving. When moving pre-drawn elements around on a screen it is natural to not modify them to fit their new locations and this obscures many interesting possibilities. When sketching by hand these possibilities seem to jump off the sheet or you draw them by accident. And other people often see something in the sketch that you didn't. I know some really designers who won't touch a computer. I try to only use them for renovation existing conditions and construction documents.

I was actually focused on solving the pantry/powderroom question OP originally asked by using some of the unassigned ("motorcycle maintenance" space. I wasn't really trying to revise the kitchen b/c OP didn't ask about that. I did notice the apparent lack of any oven and microwave space but since the dishwasher also wasn't shown, I figured OP hadn't finalized the kitchen details yet and would work on that once he got other issues solved.

I moved the "stand up desk" merely to show one method of solving the problem of having the door to the garage swing open across either the kitchen doorway or the mudroom doorway. Since there is no way to move the mudroom door, I think OP really needs to move the opening to the kitchen enough to provide a blank wall for that door to open up against. How that will constrain his final kitchen plan, I don't know.

As for "keeping the functions of the kitchen work stations separate," I'm all for that but I also I like having my fridge close to the eating area instead of clear across the kitchen. Keeps kids from having to go clear thru the kitchen - past stoves/ovens when they want to get a glass of milk. It also makes clean-up easier since leftovers go from table to fridge. But, that is just me.

There are folks on the kitchen forum who are great at designing kitchens spaces and I'd strongly recommend OP post his plan there for advice on finalizing the kitchen layout.

Well, it was just an idea meant to encourage the OP to put some life into a house that is as stiff as a board and getting stiffer. But thanks for the crit.; I didn't mean to intrude.

"The banquette in the kitchen won't actually be a banquette. It will just be a sitting area with a couple of chairs."

Many talented members in this forum!

Macv, I love your free hand "expression".

Bevangel,
I like your idea! I think I am not posting my sketch now lol
What I like is that it offers many possibilities:
The powder room could be placed where you placed the closet and then, the door could be off the hallway. This will give the great room a little wall (they have none). The only thing, the PR will not get a window.
The pantry could be extended if they want a smaller closet.
Good job!

I really appreciate everyone's feedback, especially bevangel and macv for taking the time to sketch out some ideas. I continue to be impressed by this forum -- there are so many thoughtful people willing to take time to offer their insights.

We've had company in this weekend and haven't had a chance to sit down to discuss all of the ideas here. Hopefully we'll get to do so in the next day or two.

bevangel, I've seen the door-swing issue come up a couple of times now. Would you mind specifying what the issue is there? Now that I think about it, I don't recall seeing any doors swing into another space like on the original drawing, but I'm not sure why it would be a bad thing. We do like having the desk closer to the side entrance and hall since we'll likely be dropping keys and cell phones there, sorting mail, etc.

macv, on your drawing the corner by the side door looks like it is labeled "MV". Is that for mechanical systems, or is it something else?

I should have mentioned in my original post that the structure outside of the side entrance will be a porte-cochere, and the side entrance will be the one we use most. We'll have a detached garage in the back.

We have been holding off some in finalizing the kitchen layout until we're settled on the floor plan, but ideas are always welcome. I've enjoyed the work of a lot of posters in the kitchen forum and will probably seek their advice before too long.

macv, please disregard that last question. It just now clicked that it's the microwave.

That's the MicroVave, the latest thing in electromagnetic cooking. I like to recess them above the counter because I can't tolerate them on the counter.

In my too long career working with too many architectural firms, I eventually learned the cardinal rules of design and group problem solving:

1. Structure the "game" so everyone can "win". (The "team leader" must avoid saying, "we've already thought of that" or "it violates a program restriction we didn't tell you about". This comes from a hideously expensive seminar for an entire firm.)

2. Design with all the parts rather than one part at a time. Nothing is sacred or finished until everything is complete. Design in phases rather than in parts. (My boss called it "designing in a vacuum" and you didn't want to hear it in a sentence with your name but it took me years to understand it.)

3. The design elements should not just be compatible, or fit together, they should reinforce each other in every way possible. (this from working with people who could get a lot out of a little)

"I don't recall seeing any doors swing into another space like on the original drawing, but I'm not sure why it would be a bad thing."

It impedes the flow of through the house. Let's say you come in from the side door and want to take off your coat and wet shoes. You have to make a little circle to close the door behind you and then get into the mudroom. If you flip the swing of the door, then when you want to come in and just throw mail on the desk you have the same issue.

Additionally, what if you open that door vigorously just as someone is coming out of the kitchen? Ow.

In bevangel's and macv's plans, the door wouldn't be in the way no matter which way you wanted to go when you entered the house.

How do you feel about having the side door enter directly into a larger mudroom, and having the desk/mail sorting area in there? If you are normally neat folks, this could still be a nice area to greet you when you enter. (And if you aren't normally neat folks, a wide-open floor plan may not be the best choice.)

Thanks -- that makes sense. Now I can just picture us hauling in groceries and trying to herd our two kids around the door into the mudroom!

We'll have to think about enlarging the mudroom and including the desk there.

Macv,
I was curious how you could place the sink and window there.
It appears that your sketch is either not to scale or you moved several walls. Maybe you did both.
The porte cochere wall looks shifted almost 6 feet and the kitchen is 2' wider.
The OP stated that the house can not be wider and the dining is already narrow to make it 2' narrower.
In addition, you are allowing less that 3' for traffic and the island stool.

I love sketching provided that I am using a scale, even if in general I have the scale in my eye (still, I verify)

You have nice ideas and I still love your free hand drafting. Reminds me of the time I was studing architecture. We were not allowed to use cad or use copier at all.

Here is the sketch.

IMarthaelena
I didn't make the kitchen wider but I did pull that mystery wall over 3'-6". I figured if it wasn't important enough to put a label on it I wouldn't worry about what it was.

The space between the counters is 3'-6" which works out fine when there is no stove. The island can be narrower if necessary. But I can't worry about an inch or two until I know I have the right idea.

I would have taken on the dining/entry space but I would need to know the owners better in order to avoid spinning my wheels. I don't even know what the house looks like or where it is or who will live there. I know what I would do if it were my house but that is rarely appropriate for someone else.

Macv,
Of course you did make the kitchen 2' wider and moved many walls.
It is obvious (and I scaled it)
It is very simple to verify that:
The original drawing shows a regular counter top aligned with the breakfast room wall.
Your drawing shows the same, with a much wider cabinet.
Also you placed a desk that is obviously wider in the same spot where a narrow cabinet used to be.

This does not mean that your ideas are not great.
And I hope you do not take this personal. We both are trying to help.

I don't really know what you are talking about. I traced a 1/4" scale version of the plan, used my own dimensions for counters, moved the port cochere wall back 42" and narrowed the sitting bay a bit. It was just an idea not a complete design; that's why it's a sketch.

Perhaps you are trying to scale a drawing on the screen which will work in one orthogonal direction but not in the other. Maybe my printer is not accurate in both directions. Unless the OP gives us a fully dimensioned drawing or a CAD file no one can be sure what the real constraints are.

Thanks, Marthaelena. Those are two very nice options!