We've had a trash compacter for 25 years; we're on our second. We don't fill it the way we used to now that we're empty nesters, but it's still nice not having to dump it until the weekly rubbish day. I buy the wax-paper-lined brown paper compacter bags from either Sears or our local Ace Hardware. We do recycle newspapers and other clean paper, and I'm trying to get better about recycling glass and plastic, but we still really like the compacter. Because of pipes under the sink there's no place to put a decent size garbage can in our kitchen, and pre-compacter it was always out in the open and in the way. There would be family arguments about whose turn it was to dump it. We don't find it smells because most food scraps go in the garbage disposal or compost bin. The really stinky stuff that I don't want to put down the disposal, like shellfish shells or poultry frame, gets taken out right away, but that's not an everyday occurrence. If I was remodeling the kitchen it would be a tough call whether to keep a compacter or build in a garbage bin, but I'm guessing DH would want to keep the compacter. The other point for us is that our town is considering implementing Pay As You Throw (PAYT), and if that goes through we'll have to use town-issued trash bags and I don't know if they'd work with a compacter.

Thank you for showing the overhead shot, "one picture is worth a thousand words" so it answers a lot of the questions. So, you are on a hillside, and the house behind you is higher, the house across the street is lower, and even the street is lower, right? So the big windows in the master bedroom and bathroom are less of an issue, but still, you'll never have the window covering by the tub open. And the "covered entry" is in fact the front door; that wasn't clear in the first plan. It also answers my unasked question of why so few windows on the south side, but there's probably not as much light anyway because of the hill and houses, and you don't want the uphill neighbors gazing down into your public spaces anyway. What kind of sight-line separator do you have from the house behind you? We live in a flat area but with enough of a slope that from our upstairs window we can look right into our neighbor's new pool kitty-corner behind us. They have an 8' stockade fence and will be planting trees, and I sure hope they are 18' cedars so we can't see the pool. How will you use the space between the garage and house? Seems like a great spot for a courtyard patio, but it's kind of inaccessible from all but the closets. You could have a personal hot-tub there, though :) Views: my favorite views work like this: When I am in a room, I'm usually doing something. Dressing, working, reading, cooking, cleaning, whatever. When I am moving between rooms, that's when I appreciate views. I love a glass passageway, with some kind of view. Or I love a dining or desk area with a view. Bedroom, not so much, I'm hardly in there with my eyes open lol. Speaking of desk area, do you need a home office? And are the two storerooms enough storage for gear?

@Flo Mangan, thanks for the suggestion, I appreciate it so much! Yeah, we thought over the mudroom/laundry room situation quite a bit and moved it all around. We've had to go through the mudroom to get to the laundry in a previous situation and it drove me a bit crazy. With four kiddos, I clean it up each night, but it's only clean overnight, lol. Seems I would always drop a piece of clean laundry while doing through the mud that had just been tracked in. With this layout, hopefully most of the dirt will be dropped before they hit the dyer area. :) We don't often dry at night, and in our current house the dryer is even a bit closer to the master and with no insulation, so hopefully this time with insulation it will be seem like an upgrade. And thank you, we are so excited to see it come to life!

Mama goose, I like many of the ideas for the upper cabinets. Thank you. I have gone back and forth on one island or two, but having the eat in bar separate from the work-island is a huge plus for how involved the kids are with cooking and prep. Not a huge fan of having the dining table out in the middle. I don’t think the distance from dining area to clean up station will be a problem. As for bedrooms, the plan doesn’t reflect all details. We do plan for the secondary bedrooms to be shared for two kids each. We have future expansion in mind with the stairs to upstairs for additional two bedrooms. Currently, the kids are younger and prefer for them to be downstairs. Thx everyone for feedback and ideas. Enjoy the holiday weekend.