Jessica Craig, I thought you might like to know this. When my daughter was a baby and I took her for swimming lessons, I met another wonderful Mum Wendy and her daughter, Sophie. Sophie's father had recently passed away and so Wendy was trying to adjust to the hand that fate had dealt her. They had not long purchased their house too. We have remained very close all these years and I can report that both Soph and Wendy are a force to be reckoned with. Sophie (now 15) is a talented singer, is doing well at school and has oodles of personality. Wendy is studying online and working towards fulfilling her dream of one day writing a children's book. The house has been renovated and is a very warm and welcoming home. It has not always been an easy road as single mum for Wendy, but it continues to get richer as the years move by. I hope that in some of your harder moments, this may bring some small level of comfort to you.

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!

there is also a difference between ceramic and porcelain tiles - often these issues come down to a combination of (a) tile batch size/consistency (b) tiler's skill/capacity (c) communication in that if the tiler opens the tile box and he can't practically achieve what he thought he might because of the general discrepancies in size then they should at least speak to you before they start. So often with many issues in this game, it's about managing people's expectations and having open/honest discussions at the right time. When this breaks down, problems and disappointment is more likely to occur......so coming back to it, if you have high quality porcelain tiles that are millimetre perfect, square and flat then the capacity to lay them with minimal spacing is higher. Also the substrate/prep plays a part as if it's all out of whack and not perfectly straight/plumb/square then you'll be in all sorts trying to achieve the minimal tolerance detail.

thanks, I do appreciate that & yes I'll think about doing that ;) I think it's important to understand that "help" in with this stuff involves critique to a certain extent. I'm all for helping people, that's kind of inherently what my job is all about, but in order to do that in the best way possible we need to be appropriately positioned to do it, and give it the time/attention it deserves and we're not going to tell you the answer for nothing. You can't easily sort this stuff out via a forum. You're building a house that's going to cost you hundreds of thousands so I beg to differ, you can afford to get the design right, perhaps not a full blown architect service, but I'd argue it's false economy cutting corners at the design stage. Investment in design is money well spent. What Retro and I are saying, and clearly you are seeing it too here because you're still struggling with it all, is that design is a 3 dimensional process. Form follows function and the facade will reflect the plan solution. When you get to this point and the facade's not working, then the plan's not working either. You need to be working with someone with the capacity to understand the consequences of the floor plan spatially. But in your case what I'd argue is that if this is a serious priority for you the designer needs to understand this aspect back while they're planning the layout, NOT tweaking it afterwards. Building design is a skill that is incredibly underestimated in it's complexity. Ultimately until we understand exactly what your comprehensive brief requirements are we are limited in capacity to either critique or suggest a better option. Hence my suggestion that you best engage a competent designer who delivers the contemporary style that appeals and is integrated rather than applied to the floor plan. honestly that's the best advice I can give you here - I'll be in touch :) PD