HI -- gross635 -- Your right to some degree but you can't move the main floor bath to the other side because then that interfers with the floor plan on the second floor. Would not work . I would have loved to turn the whole plan around but it won't work in this case. Added note to what I posted before is to get rid of anywalls you don't need and also not every room has to have a door. Like the one on the lounge and the one at the end of the hall. I would open the lounge up by not having the walls on the entrance hall . As for a closet , there is space in front of the set back powder room for some coat hooks etc. I also question the fact of , if the lounge is really needed. Everything could have been shifted to the front and the kitchen set back , then that would have made a larger dining/familyroom area . But that would have ruined the resale value . So I think moving the bathrooms was the lest and best for this plan. One question I have , is this an English plan ?, because the English love putting doors on every room ?And usually the doors swing the wrong way.

The undercounter or stacked machines behind cabinetry sounds great. With the machines under the counter you create a generous work surface above for folding clean laundry or for kitchen tasks. The advantage of a sunny exposure for laundry is that you can more easily see potential stains to be treated and little rips to be mended. My washer and dryer are in my kitchen area. The noise is not so noticeable in the kitchen as it is in the room that backs onto the laundry machines. Coordinating the timing of the wash and dry helps reduce the noise intrusion while that other room is being used.

Are tubular skylights an option? They work really well in our dark hallway in our previous house and in the bathroom and closet in current home.

Kitchen cabinets will look fantastic painted. The thing to consider when thinking about worktops is the work black granite creates - they show every little watermark, so need a lot of polishing. I discovered this when doing lots of experiments on granite samples! Other thing to bear in mind is granite is porous, so you have to be careful about staining the lighter coloured worktops and granite requires resealing after a few years. Because I'm quite lazy and didn't want any maintenance, plus we are a messy family, I went with Compac Quartz in white mirror, it's practically bomb proof and I haven't managed to stain it yet (3 years on). Comes in tons of colours.