Were I you, I'd put a hold on buying cabinets for now. Until you have a solid plan, you'll just be setting yourself up for returns or "making do". Kitchen renos are expensive. Make your mistakes on paper, not in reality. Things I'd be thinking about:

1. How do I use my kitchen?

• am I a reheat the take-out person or a 3 course meal from scratch person?
• is this kitchen about function first or looks first?

2. How many people will be cooking at the same time? This affects whether you focus on a traditional "work triangle" or whether you set up work stations.

3. How much stuff do I have and how often do I use it?

• does all of it need to be in the kitchen or can some of it go elsewhere?
• have I measured my storage requirements to determine
• do I want to require a step stool to get at things stored near the ceiling? or would I rather that the cabinets not go all the way to the ceiling? Btw, if you don't want to pay extra for storage you won't use, you don't have to settle for cabs that stop shy of the ceiling. You can have a soffit added above the cabinets so that they become part of the wall instead of just sticking out of it.

4. Ventilation! A microwave hood is sub-optimal. They often just filter and recirculate the air over the range. Invest in a proper hood that exhausts outside. And if you do, pay attention to its noise rating. A quiet hood gets used more.

A few observations about the mock-ups you've posted:

• there's nothing wrong with an off-centre range. You don't necessarily need symmetry-- you need balance.
• if you add a wall oven, put it outside your work triangle. So, to the right of the fridge rather than the left. It doesn't see much use and space inside your triangle is premium.
• make sure you have a landing zone on the counter next to the fridge for loading and unloading
• A useful mnemonic for kitchen flow is "ice, water, fire". This means the fridge, then the sink, then the stove. For your plan (assuming you are right handed) that would mean putting the fridge on the short wall. This also has the advantages of putting the fridge closer to where the groceries are arriving, and getting rid of your "problem" of the off-centre range since you can line things up perfectly on the long wall.

And lastly, to echo the other posters, do get rid of that ceiling lump. It's horrible and you will regret not taking care of it. For the vents, if you put in soffits above your cabinets, you could potentially re-route the venting there.

I should rephrase about the wall oven. It's not that it doesn't see much use, it's that it doesn't see as much use as fridge, sink and stove top. You may use the oven daily, but it still doesn't require prime real estate the way the fridge/sink/stove do.

If you do a wall oven then place the microwave above it. You want a true hood both for function and aesthetics if you’re spending the money on a full kitchen remodel.

You need a drawing/measure of the existing space, Not the ikea plans or AI. A very accurate sketch of ever wall, window, door opening to the exact inch.

You do not have room for an island and that is easy to see. I will bet you have no more than 36 inch clearances to the perimeter, and it isn't enough.

Show every angle of the current kitchen, and where ever opening leads.

You need to think about how you use the space before you start adding dividers.

The first and most important question is where do you walk? i.e. how does traffic flow? If you put barriers up in order to visually close off spaces, will you and your family be cursing every time you have to walk around something?

Second, which parts of the "openness" bother you the most? You need to narrow down your focus before you can come up with solutions. Do you dislike seeing the kitchen from your dining area? Does it bother you that you can see the back door from the front door? Do you wish the stairs to the basement were closed off?

And last, to get good help on Houzz, it is very useful to include a measured floor plan. Pictures are great but they don't really express how much space there is. We could say it looks like a wall could go there but be entirely wrong because the pic stretches the view. There are lots of free floorplan tools out there, or just sit down with some graph paper, a ruler and pencil. Map out the space and put accurate measurements.

I do. But they arent going to be completely accurate at this point. the kitchen was done after we moved in and several changes were made to cut costs. ill have to make some changes to the plans before uploading them here.

The open entry to basement is the place to start. If a door is difficult to put into place, I have read of acoustic dampening curtains which may be easier to install.

Why not just use the same fixture again but mount it vertically instead of horizontally? Repetition adds to the coherence of the look.

I had considered that, but I wasn’t sure if it would look funny having the same fixture mounted vertically and horizontally in different parts of the room. Maybe I will hold it up and see how it looks. Thanks again for the suggestion.

What a horrible experience! Unfortunately for you, it's very unlikely that Omega has any legal responsibility here. I totally agree that they would be wise, in the interests of guarding their brand, to do something to mitigate your situation-- but they may be taking the view that stepping in to fix a dealer's behaviour would open them to an unending stream of demands.

Talk to a lawyer. Have them review your contract and the terms of the agreement between your dealer and Omega. Then you'll know exactly where you stand.

Thank you : )

The room appearance would change if you painted or wallpapered.

Install speakers in the ceiling and play Janis Joplin music.

Your bathroom is much the same as mine was. Here's the before:

Long-awaited bathroom reno · Plus d'infos

We did a lot of planning. Over and above the cosmetic, function was key. It was important not just to think about what we wanted gone, but also how we wanted to use the space. Some of my favourite features include:

• wall-mounted toilet for ease of cleaning
• large format shower tile to reduce grout lines (again, ease of cleaning)
• no barrier shower entry
• Schluter cove moulding between shower walls and floor (cleaning!)
• shampoo shelf / grab bar combo
• shower controls near the entrance to the shower so you don't get wet when you turn them on
• grab bar mounted 9" from the floor in shower to make it easy to wash feet or shave legs
• hand-held bidet sprayer, plumbed in with warm water
• drawer specifically designed to store extra toilet paper with-in reach of the toilet

And here's my after:

Main Bathroom ideas · Plus d'infos

Main Bathroom ideas · Plus d'infos