Wow, how fun to plan from scratch, but it is daunting!

One question I have is whether you can switch the stove and sink. Then you would have the work areas closer together in order of use, ie, from fridge to sink/prep to stove/cooking to island/table/serving area. But it usually is easier to have the stove on the outside wall if you want to vent it. Just my initial thought, but the plan looks great to me overall.

TK, regarding having no windows to the north, when you turned from the darker north side to face the south, the bright light would be too brilliant for your expanded eye lenses, requiring some moments of discomfort while they they adjusted. Comfortable rooms have light coming in from at least two directions to avoid this problem. If you don't want windows at a typical height on each side of the stove, how about some clerestory types higher up on the wall?

Overall, it seems like a nice plan. The dining area by the kitchen is the typical problem child of a compact plan, getting crammed into a traffic area, chairs competing with feet, etc., but I'm guessing you won't need to seat 8 that often?

Will you use the north yard that often, do you think? I don't know what climate you're in, but patios directly on the north sides of homes in temperate climates tend to go largely unused because they're shaded by the house (obviously!). I mention that, because if there was very little traffic out the French doors, if they mainly just provided a pretty view for the diners, that would help make the dining area live larger. The furniture could even be placed a foot closer to the outside wall, in favor of heavily-used interior traffic lanes. Of course, if you need that door to get to outdoor living...

Regarding your whole house plan, I think I'd place the guest bedroom on the other side of the house so it could have a designated bath and flip the office closer to the bedroom. It seems more private if that's what you need/want from an office. I'd also move the tool storage (if that's what it says...old eyes) over toward the garage. All that would change the kitchen some.

I really like how you enter the master bathroom from the closet and from the hallway. The Hall Closet ... what will go in here? I notice you have a mudroom off the garage as well as a coat closet by the south side entrance.

One thing to consider is having a family entrance/exit (as opposed to guests) that whether you are coming in from the front, from the back and from the garage you are dumped into the mudroom. This way, you always know where your coats and shoes are or if it is muddy outside the kids aren't coming in the back door by the dining room table and tracking all through the house. In our last house, we had way too many entrances and exits (part and parcel of an old house that had lived many lives and had a steeply sloping grade) -- we had a big mudroom and put it the only place it could go - it was by the front door, but because we would sometimes park in the garage under the house and come up the stairs into the back hallway, we'd then have to walk through the house to get to the mudroom. More often than not, coats and shoes would pile up in that back hallway. THEN, there was the back door out to the yard and we CONSTANTLY had the issue of muddy and wet footprints coming in and out of here. If I were designing a house from scratch I would focus on streamlining the exit/entry situation. Just my two cents.

RE: the kitchen - I am very partial to having my range and sink near enough to one another that I can prep at the sink and move down the counter to the range. I think it would be inconvenient to prep at the island sink and then carry everything over to the range. Certainly this is done all the time and perhaps this will be better for you, but if I were designing from scratch I would want these two items along the same run or around the corner from each other. I would get the sink, range and fridge placed where they would work optimally and then worry about the pantry. Don't let the pantry drive the bus, as the appliance placement is what will really make a difference in having this be a place you enjoy cooking.

I might make some sort of small walls to enclose the living room just a little bit so that you aren't seeing the side of the TV while in the dining room. I like the openness of the floorplan, but it might be nice to have some sort of visual seperation.

The angles and narrowing in the entry way will make moving in/or/out certain kinds of things pretty difficult - like a boxspring or a range. The culprits are the little wall beside the extra ref/frzr and the ref/frzr. Is there any way to recess those into the garage wall instead.

The dining chairs under the stairs is pretty tight and your head clearance is going to be pretty small. Steps are about 12" deep but only go up 6-7". You need at least 6 feet of head clearance (somewhere between 10-13 steps, count the landing as a step, depending on the height of your riser and how you intend to finish the under side of the staircase) but you might be required to have more by code or have taller family members.

Ditch the "L" shaped island, try one a big longer, but with a lot less aisle between the island and the outside wall, then place the table perpendicular to the island, extending towards the tv area. Move the office area to where the table space was - around the stairway, storage under the stairs. Put the pantry in the office. No stools.

Most other things I could think of involved a bump out where the back door is shown. Hopefully someone else will have another idea.

Oh my gosh - it's so exciting to actually be the person getting all this great feedback! :) All stuff I hadn't even considered...especially the tight corners for moving stuff in and out of the house - I love the idea of recessing the old fridge and freezer into the garage. I thought I could live without a window to the north, but I understand what you're saying, Rosie, and that would drive me nuts. I'm going to have to try to figure out where to add windows - my sink will stay in the island since I feel like I am there 50% of the day and am sick of having my back to everybody while they are out in the living areas having fun :) I like the idea of the a few small walls to separate the space a little more. I am thinking the door to the north would be seldom used. It's more for another exit on the house and maybe grill use, since we had the same problem as mama with too many entrances and exits. The front door and garage door both enter into the mudroom. We're running around the house looking for coats and shoes at the different doors and I'm yelling at the kids to stop coming in the front door :) Thanks for all of the ideas, I have to stop myself from responding to them all...it's back to the drawing board!

For the kitchen - it looks like you have 7 1/2' between the sink and range - that's a long way to be carrying pots of water (especially hot pasta water), or cut-up dripping vegetables etc. I would just square off your island so that it is rectangular in shape. You gain more counter space and cut off some of that traveling distance. Can you put in a bifold door or a non-standard smaller door into your pantry? That way it won't take up space in the aisle-way. Which way is your fridge opening - you have it drawn so that it opens away from the kitchen and it should open into the kitchen(the opposite way from where you have it)

Would you consider having an island all one height inside of doing part of it bar height? It makes a better use of space if it can be one height.

Thanks for the point about the fridge opening...in our current house it opens to the dining room, so I actually wasn't sure about which way it should open :) I think that is what is so difficult about planning this...I have learned to live with so many "wrong" things, that I can't actually plan for what works best! I like your thought about the pantry door too as that was a limiting factor in moving the island closer to the wall. Mamadada had mentioned not letting the pantry drive the bus which I thought was hilarious since I have no storage space or pantry in my current house and basically the whole kitchen WAS planned around it :) I know she's right though about appliance placement, so I have been considering that as well.