recent thinking

I've enjoyed the feedback from the 2 Chris's and David. Seems like there's a couple of issues for further pondering, not only in this plan, but in general.

1st has to do with the degree of engagement from the kitchen to the living space. We all know that current practice is to thrust the one upon the other. 50 years ago, these were kept separate. Open planning has been adopted whole -heartedly by the builders, not only because the buyers ask for it, but also because it makes the respective spaces feel larger and thus more valuable. The kitchen has become the living room. Cabinets are now crafted from the finest cherry like the living room furniture used to be. Tops are granite. Our homes hemorrhage money in the kitchen like it grows on trees. The hobby of eating has supersized America to an alarming degree. Its apparent that my preference is to turn the kitchen back into a work space and recapture the living room as the primary activity area. Lets stop hanging around the island eating salty snacks and sucking down adult beverages. I know that my wife is never comfortable having the kitchen so exposed. She wants her own domain, away from the peanut gallery, where mistakes can easily be hidden, and messes can exist without disrupting the entire household. She can't be alone in this ( I don't cook, I just show up when I'm called and clean up after)

2) I've been working for a while to be sure my main living spaces can comfortably house both fireplace and TV without resorting to putting one above the other. Usually I do 2 focus walls with an L shaped seating arrangement opposite. I'm not wild about corner fireplaces generally speaking. This plan places the fireplace and TV side by side, which is usually not as successful. I've been working on developing elevations of this long wall to be sure I'm happy with it. I'll post these later on. Love to hear other thoughts on this issue.

3) I'm quite comfortable with long narrow rooms as a main living area, but I suspect others are not. The bowling alley feeling is easily mitigated by multiple entries and cross axis as well as window bumpouts. My own 100 year old house has these and it works quite well. It actually helps a lot of furniture options by creating 2 separate activity areas. Recent design trends, as voiced by Chrisopher have gone to wider, more square rooms, where furniture can "float" Tji floor systems with easy 20' span capability, and a steadily growing s.f. budget has allowed this. I'm wondering if now, in a new age of a more prudent economy, if long narrow rooms will become more in vogue. Time will tell. I wonder what other designers think.