things I'd do: place coat closet and entry to study on wall that says 'feature wall'... reduce size of study and grow the family room....perhaps have dual entry to study from family room and off foyer. With expanded family room and coat closet removed, the hallway will be shortened- a vast imrpovement over this 13 foot hall. The kitchen can become easily an L style with island without crowding the family room now. You can easily butt a table up to the end of an island also giving you sit down eating space for some casual family meals.Open up the passage between dining room and kitchen by reducing pantry size a bit. Keep the bar spot,but the widened area is needed because you will be using that while spending time in family room...snacks/drinks/etc. Also, if you create an island, you'll use it for laying out food so the back and forth between kitchen/dining room will be an enhanced feature and you also get a nice sight line to "island" with detail[range will be relocated]. The office is just too large as is..it's a bedroom size.... Boys will be of the age in notime where they'll appreciate the larger family room or else want the space downstairs with friends[is there a bath there?]..The family room and living room are a bit segregated from each other which is a good thing for accomodating separate groups of people.....enhance that with expanding family room footprint and a more pint sized study. I wouldn't do any remodel until you've lived in the home for 6 mo minimum, but since you are embarking anyway,these are my tweaks,having lived 18 years in a split level.Best wishes for your family in the new home.

Herbflavor has some great suggestions, as always. S/he's good at this, definitely draw them out to see.

I can't visualize like that. I do think the hall seems long and restrictive given how open the rest of the rooms look. I'd also try to get the cooktop or range on an exterior wall to vent easier. You could probably put in wall ovens in an L shape, depends on how it's set up. Do you need a 48 inch fridge? Those 12 inches could be important when trying to fit everything in if you reconfigure.

Thanks for your detailed feedback @herbflavor. I really like the ideal of moving the coat closet and making the family room larger. One thing that may not be obvious is the feature wall is what you see as soon as you enter. Would it be weird to have a closet be the first thing you see? Also, what size do you think is appropriate for a study?

@willaimsem: I may need to consider a 36 inch fridge. i was just thinking of extra storage since we tend to keep extra food and don't have a space for a second refrigerator in the garage.

I know what you mean by "feature wall"....our home had 3 landings, being a split level,and it does make it nicer to stylize some of those pause and turn spots. However, a feature wall shouldn't command your planning. Gaining the enlarged space at family room area would be wise. You won't believe how much you will love that end of the home if you are going to do this. [ours was a great room built into the split level design in 1960-ahead of it's time and it still is current..it wasn't a mcmansion by any means-just really liveable].a few options: on "featurewall"-is a return down at the right by the UP staircase...perhaps use the right half of the wall therefore for building the closet ....keep the left half for the "feature"....then,the entrance to study [justone] could be moved to hallway area. If the depth of the return on the right can't work then perhaps cripple the studs and build closet going deeper back into sq footage of study....that gives you interesting options-like 2 hinged closets with solid wood carved doors vs bifold door for one closet. Doors can be quite the feature these days.for the size of study..allow for basics and not much extra.. can really be a counter these days....some storage....room for a 2nd chair and ESPECIALLY, an in/out that does not mix in much with the living part of home. If someone wants to tutor/home school/have a sewing business/see any type of customer, the NON mxing of the entry with main areas of home will be valuable. back to the closet thing: at the other entry points of home are there drop zones/closets? this is why waiting on the project really benefits because the finer points/needs emerge after you live there. I'd try shaving 3 feet off the 13 foot length of study for starters.tinker some with this part of the plan-you'll get the kitchen you want so work on the hall/study for a bit....you have wasted space currently.

I've never had anything but a regular size fridge/freezer as an adult, but we also have no kids. You have a bar area with fridge, which I assume would hold beverages? That sounds like a good start!

I have seen other options discussed here, though again, haven't lived with them. Do you need a ton of freezer space? You could try an all-fridge in the kitchen with freezer drawers maybe in the island (for some) or small upright freezer or chest (for lots) in the pantry.

Or add a fridge drawer in the prep area for veggies. Or in a breakfast/snack area for milk/oj/fruit/snacks.

People here have found all sorts of creative ways to store food that I had never thought about. The trick is you have to really think about how you use things, what you use where, and what you really need before you can figure out how to make it work best and what fits in your budget. I haven't priced them out, but for example you may be able to get a standard size fridge plus drawer for what a 48 inch one would cost, or other unexpected combination.

Thank you both for your valuable feedback. We are in the process of reconfiguring based on some of the feedback.
@herbflavor: great point about not making a feature wall the determining factor in design. We're also working thru some of your other suggestions.

@williamsem: I am definitely looking for other ideas now on refrigeration. We will be able to keep drinks in the bar fridge. And may we can incorporate a fridge drawer in the prep area. Our current fridge is 36 in and we do struggle with space but that is also due to the fact that we don't have enough shelves. I definitely need to double check my thinking on the size of the fridge. It would also save us a lot of $$$ if we went with a smaller fridge. :-)

Hi - We have tweaked the layout some. It is definitely more "open" and we lose some of the wasted hall space. If you have any more feedback, would love to hear it.
1) Made the hallway shorter by moving the closet as suggested
2) Made the study smaller to enlarge the family room
3) Moved the bar so that it is in the center.
4) Made the kitchen an L shape. We lose some countertop and cabinet space. The fridge is still open for debate in terms of size
5) We lost the message center/computer desk. We are trying to see if that can be added somewhere.

Thanks!

I hope some of the experts weigh in on but in the interest of bumping this up, just a couple of thoughts:

--What are you planning to do for ventilation? Much easier to do so on an exterior wall. Possible to move the cooktop? Also, with cooktop in your island, where are you now planning for your microwave?

--You mentioned in first post you could possibly loose the door; if you did so, you could give yourself some more options--move the fridge down, or put the cooktop along this wall, or add a wall oven and your microwave, and/or add more cabinet storage.