thescreenasavers,
Thanks for the confidence booster
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Moose,
I guess I'll start with budget. We have enough money to move/add windows and doors. I'm somewhat expecting this to be a necessity. I don't want to spend money in redesigning the deck. Other than framing and drywall, my father in law and I will be doing most of the grunt work. Even my wife is getting in on the act with demolition We've done this before, so don't worry to much.
Bottom line is that this kitchen has to be perfect. If it costs $5,000 extra to take it from very good to EXCELENT, the money will be spent. We can spend a total of $65K on this house and pretty much break even. Since we are doing all the work on our own, we'll be keeping those costs very low and spread over the next 3-4 years.
We'll be leaving the deck's staircase as is. It's all been redone by the previous owner and looks great. I don't want to start patching it up. Just another cost that can probably be avoided.
>> That bathroom is fine why spend the money building a new one?
I truely can't stand it where it is and I have to live there for 4+ years. It should also help out on resale. I'm sure I'm not het only one that found it odd. Not to mention that 8x12 area in the bottom right is almost unusable space. I've done a half bath before and the raw material cost was in the $800 neighborhood. Not that bad. This time we will need some framing/drywall done on top of that budget. Shouldn't be to costly though.
>> The cabinet in the lower left doesn't fit and blocks the flow to the dining room.
There is currently a pantry there. It seems to work well.
>> BTW, I really don't see the need for that little table and chairs, but then again I don't know your family or what your reason for having it it is.
Well, my wife does collection work from home. Not much, but she needs a table and the little one will be playing in the great room most often. Oh, we have an 18 month old boy. Anyways, we need it as a work space more than anything. We have a 3 seat breakfast bar right now and it truely just isn't big enough for her.
I don't know why I didn't post this yet.
a blank drawing:
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=167316913&size=o
It assumes the closets in the upper right of the kitchen get gutted.
I drew up an idea at work today that I want ot bang out, then I'll do your (Moose's) idea from scratch. The blank drawing is great, I have a bunch at work incase an idea pops in my head.