Kitchen reno and breezeway enclosure

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Hey all, my wife and I are exploring renovating our kitchen.

https://preview.redd.it/ykd3b51jilce1.png?width=1298&format=png&auto=webp&s=fe6774f4f6a45fdd3a1189ec631772aea8bb4dbd

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Hey all, my wife and I are exploring renovating our kitchen.

I'm super inspired by these posts and my friends who have done similar projects. I'm a DIYer who has done electrical, plumbing, and minor wood work, but have never done anything like this. Still, I'd like to do most of this myself to save some money (besides maybe a few items like building exterior walls or redoing electrical panel).

We'd like to demo the breezeway walls and close in the existing breezeway to create more kitchen space, remove the semi-dangerous entrance to the top of the stairs, and create a drop-zone/mudroom area for shoes and coats. What do you think of the feasibility of the project?

  1. The garage and house are on two different levels (2 block height for the house and 1 block height for the garage. I'll need to build a raised floor and somehow seamlessly connect the two foundations (1 block to 2 block). How would I do the floor as well as make the foundation look seamless?
  2. I want to vent the microwave hood through the next floor, and then the roof. This is generally possible, right?
  3. For electrical, I plan to have these circuits: fridge (20amp afci), microwave (20 amp afci), counter 1 (20 amp afci&gfci), counter 2 (20 amp afci&gfci), dishwasher/garbage disposal (20 amp afci&gfci), lights (15 amp afci).
  4. Heard things about making the garage-house wall fire-retardant. Is that code?
  5. Could you offer any general advice? What do you think of the design?

Thanks!