can put in skylight if you need more light ? more lights ? or build your fake wall a bit in and only high enough to hide the windows but not all the way up to the ceiling so you let in light from your 3 windows?

Hi, Are you going to be concerned about noise attenuation coming from the games / home theatre room to the rest of the house? As solid core doors will work better than hollow core when closed at reducing the sound transmission. Sealing the door frames and adding ceiling baffles will help further but would need to be considered at the design stage not as an after thought. The solid doors by themselves over hollow doors may drop the STC rating by 6 to 8dB which is noticeable. Andrew

In my early twenties I designed kitchens for my mother and two aunts (Uncle built them and they worked), but when it came to designing my own - had to fit a constrained space and no possibility of extension - I chewed my lips for ages - like Nicole, I drew and measured ad infinitum, and used graph book walls, views etc. I did one extra thing - which I think worked - I listed all that I wanted to store, and tried to analyse how I liked working in the kitchen. Some things I had to settle for because of space (such as a smaller dishwasher) but most of it has worked. We have a corner pantry, which I (and the cat, husband a bit larger) can walk into, but have not put small appliances in there - they sit in a large drawer beneath the main working bench, which also works well. It all looks good to me Nicole and thinking carefully about needs and how things work in advance usually results in something you'll be happy with. Good luck!

always good to please your husband and you'll have a better chance of achieving a good result together....cost will depend too much on the reality of the site to guestimate...we always begin by consulting a builder to check the existing building to see what's possible structurally, check with Council to see what's legal and then you'll need formal plans drawn up so you can collect quotes but i'd be inclined to ask about the whole project as you may have a better chance of attracting an experienced custom builder for a bigger job than just the small extension (even if you negotiate to have the work done in stages ...best of luck