Here are the plans for the upstairs and exterior if anyone is interested.

If you are an entertainer, I would just square off that corner of the house that contained your great room and dining area. Load bearing issues can be addressed with beautiful square colums that accent the space. Our previous columns were trimmed out on all four sides. Bumping that space out might give you the opportunity for a terrace upstairs off that bedroom-

I love our big living area. Nobody has to squeeze by anything... no regrets. Even when I have twenty people over here.

I like it. I like the separation in the back...don't square it up. You could use that area as a screened in porch - perfect for entertaining. I think it all looks in good proportions and that back laundry area is awesome!

off topic, but if you added a small shower to powder room, the office would be great as an extra bedroom for visitors with knee/hip issues (no stair climbing)

Consider your sight lines from the front door. Will you see the sides of your FR furniture? Would that bother you? Try laying out your furniture to scale on your drawing and see how it fits. It looks like you'd see the back half of a couch from the front hall, unless your furniture is all placed to the right of the yellow line below. It might not be bad to see some chairs or whatever from the front hall, it's just something to be aware of.

You would benefit a great deal by moving the fridge to the other side of the range...and adding a prep sink. Hope this helps :)

jn3344, thanks for your comment, the chart is very helpful!

collfoster, we like it too, just wanted to make sure we are on the right track, since this is our first time building/planning a house :)

collfoster, thought about the shower idea, and had it in one version, but not sure if we would use it enough to justify the cost/space. Great suggestion though.

chicagoans, great point about the sight line, I think we will have to make do since we really cant expand the sqft too much :(

lavender_lass definitely adding the prep sink, great idea! Not sure if I can convince my wife about moving the fridge, but I would like to see it moved on the other side of the range as well. Where do you think we should put our wall oven/microwave?

Does your wife prefer the fridge closer to the main sink?

What if you move the basement stairs to the hallway...maybe with a pocket door? I've always thought a French door to the basement would be nice, so you could see who's there before you open the door :)

Then the fridge could go on the other side of the main sink run...with bookcase next to it, facing the great room. Then the oven/microwave could be over by the cooktop. The fridge and oven could be reversed, too....whatever works best for you :)

You didn't all this but Id have the entry to the master closet off of the master bath instead of the bedroom. It's annoying to someone that is sleeping later to have an early riser trudging back and forth from bath to closet. If one of you gets up at 6 and the other at 640 for work that entire 40 minutes for the sleeper is noisy and annoying. Consider early flight frequency as well.

Mama Rachael, I'm the opposite - it would bug me to have to trudge through the bathroom to get to the closet. And in this case, moving the door would eliminate a lot of hanging space.

We don't have a master bath, and our closets and chest of drawers are in the bedroom. I have no problem sleeping through my DH getting dressed in the morning. If one of us has to get up extra early, we put our clothes in the bathroom the night before, so the other isn't disturbed.

In the OP's case, with a door on the closet, I think it would be pretty easy to go in, close the door, turn on the light, find your clothes, and carry them into the bathroom to get dressed, with minimal disturbance to all but the lightest sleepers.

The laundry seems larger than the kitchen. Since the kitchen connects to all major living spaces and has no windows it will need a lot of careful attention in order to meet all of the demands you have placed on it. The sink shouldn't be jammed against a refrigerator even in a small apartment.

This is what usually happens when a garage is carved out of a corner of a plan. It will be interesting to see how that difficult problem is solved. Right now it looks like the kitchen elements are what was left over after all the circulation paths were cut through it. I would concentrate on the kitchen and make it a special place with a stronger identity and more continuous counters and then see what is left for the rest.

lavender_lass, I am still thinking to put the Fridge near the rangetop and then put the oven/microwave on the wall with the sink. But still not sure if that works...

Mama Rachel, definitely moving the door for the closet in the bathroom, I want a little bit of continuous wall in the MB on that side :)

renovator8, you hit the nail on the head. I am struggling with the kitchen layout, and it is one of the most important space for me, personally. We do want to make the laundry small by extending the Pantry. We want a large pantry, so will probably extend it out all the way to the back and that would cut the laundry in half. Still, the overall layout of the kitchen has me stumped. We used the following picture as inspiration, but may be we dont have the proportions right :(. Any ideas are welcome there. Definitely could use some help.

Breezy Brentwood · More Info

Think about how you both use the kitchen space. The current placement of the fridge feel very tight, to me. But I think it would work well in either of the other spaces.

Do you bake a lot? Do you want the oven near the cooktop? Is that a range or a cooktop?

Many people on the kitchen forum prefer fridge near range with prep sink on island (across from them). This works very well....but some people would rather have the ovens by the cooktop.

Do you have a preference on fridge being closer to great room or dining room? Again, on the kitchen forum, many people with children prefer the fridge being closer to the dining room, so they can give the kids milk, juice etc. (or they can get their own) without walking through prep area.

If I were rating by popularity, I would say this plan, with either red box being the oven/microwave location...depending on whether you want to relocate basement door. But remember, you have to find what functions best in your space :)

I think you could improve flow if you are willing to direct mud room traffic through the laundry area and around -- rather than through -- the kitchen. You could still have a pass-through to the pantry. If you do this, the range would be on the bottom wall, protected from traffic, while the refrigerator and clean-up sink (and dishes) can go on the left wall and island, closer to diners. But then you have to look at them.

The original kitchen layout seems to be dictated by form over function (the view from the great room). Refrigerators tend not to make good focal points. If you were willing to separate the kitchen a bit more, you'd have more options for better function while still obscuring the view of the fridge.

Good luck!

lavender_lass, I like your idea of moving the oven/mw combo in the place where the drop center is and then move the fridge by the cook top, but close to the oven/mw. I am not thrilled with having the fridge on the wall with the cooktop, but I think that will have to do. Thanks for coming with such great ideas, really appreciate it!

Oaktown, I wish I could direct traffic somewhere else, but that is not an option for various reason :(. you are right about form over function, and I think I have to live with the sub-optimal flow. At least moving the fridge to the wall with the cooktop and then the oven/mw where the drop center is. I will continue to play with the space, but that seems like the way to go at this point.