Hi from Anne, Actually, the cross stitch and other embroidery kits were not pieced. They were what we call wholecloth quilts. You got the size of the bed with the embroidery kits. Bucilla was one of the kit companies for those kits and I think they are still available today. They had many kits and the cross stitch and other embroidery kits were really popular. It kind of went with the 50's where the people considered all the hand work to be kits. Men often did leather work and copper work (not to say women didn't do that but the men considered those manly man crafts) and the women did tole painting, crocheted bed dolls (they were plastic dolls with crocheted big skirted dresses.), crocheted and quilted potholders and some quilts were made too, but mostly people were trying to get their lives back on track to recover from WWII, and then Korea came along on the heels of WWII. And there was the communist scare, and people were busy building bomb shelters in their back yards. I wonder today how many of those are still intact? We had men returning to work and women leaving the more industrial world, though they did still work, but more things like teaching, nursing and secretarial work. There was a focus on getting women to "act like women" whatever that meant. It meant women worrying about cooking nutritious meals, housecleaning, having their hair look just right, having frilly and basically useless aprons, and very pretty dresses with shoes and purses matching and women wore gloves and hats to church and going out. People focused on banning books. Did you know that there is a list of banned books every year. In the 1950s, I think was actually an attempt to ban Nancy Drew books as being shallow and poor literature, but in reality, Nancy Drew represented the new woman, having a nice car and able to be proactive and solve crimes (they were not mostly what we could consider crimes today). I read them all, and to this day I still could go back and read them again and enjoy them as much as then. A childhood friend and I would read the same books and then act the parts in her backyard of Nancy Drew. So much fun in those days. We did not have shopping centers or plastic (i.e. credit cards) yet, so we traveled on the bus to go downtown, visit all the five and dime stores as they were called then, try on hats and go visit Mode O'Day shops. How many remember those? How truly wonderful they were. And we had layaway. It was exciting to buy something on layaway and look forward to getting it. I guess cars and appliances were sold on time payments. Did you know that the sewing machine was the first thing to be sold on time payments, and within a year of when they came out, some 75% of households had one. It is funny to see a quilt of those times, for often they were almost totally hand sewn, but they would always use the machine to show that they had one for it was prestigious. And they often hired women to sit in the store windows and sew what are recognized as heirloom quilts with fancy quilting (I actually saw an exhibit in Los Angeles of quilts Barbara Brackman, our favorite quilt expert collected, and it had one or two of those as I recall. I always say that because some days I don't recall what I had for breakfast the other day. Chuckles. Well, that era brings back a lot of memories. Gals wore summer dresses that were full and pretty and those underskirts that made the skirts stand out and we had matching sweater sets and beautiful straight skirts with pleats in the bottoms and other beautiful styles. When women wore pants, they often were capris with men's style shirts with sleeves rolled up and the bottoms out with curves on the sides. Saddle shoes and pedal pushers were common at school. And the men and young guys looked so cool with their duck cuts and their cool pink or gray or turquoise shirts and nice pants with belts. No bums hanging out with ugly underwear, tattoos or shaved heads or beards and long hair in braids or pulled back, which comes from the prison crowd. Ask me how I know that. I am a student of criminal justice, and next year when I am almost 75, I should graduate. Whoo hooo! So I see a lot of documentaries and photos of the criminal crowd in prisons, and that is exactly what these guys wear. Pretty ugly. I love the days when men always had nice haircuts and nice shirts and pants and they were all handsome. Have a great Thanks Giving everyone who reads this. I purposely spelled it that way. We can give thanks for all we have and we can give to those who do not. Anne always

The arches could be original. If not, someone sure went to an awful lot of trouble to make them, and they do look nice. Are your crown moldings all original, and all match up through the main rooms? Are the floor boards original? If so, look at the boards on either side of the arches and between them. Sometimes that can tell you a lot. Craftsman, Mission, Prairie all were popular about the same time. Most houses built then borrowed a bit of this from one style a bit of that from another. The Craftsman and Mission styles both started in southern California. People didn't say they were building a Prairie style house, and only using the appropriate doors and windows, etc.,they were just building a house to live in. A book of the period, "Hodgeson's Practical Bunglows and Cottages" describes those new smaller homes. "They are the simple and unconscious expression of the needs of their owners, and as such they can be credited with the best kind of architectural propriety". The preface descibes how they can be covered with most any kind of material, shingles, clapboards, etc. The interiors can be plastered or not. People liked the houses because they were cheap to build and were a brand new style, unlike the then same old basic Eastern farmhouse. No I'm not an architect. If I hadn't listened to my high school guidence counselor when I was 16 I might have been. He said that since I didn't like math and my grades in it were just so so I'd never be accepted to architectural school. Years later I learned that I still could have gotten into the field. Ah well. I used to draw old houses when I was 7 and 8 years old. I had never seen a floorplan, so I drew the interiors in the only way I knew how. I used to do sectional drawings, like a dollhouse. I found my first library book of old floorplans in high school. I love to have lunch with a book of old floorplans spread out on the kitchen table. Yeah, I'm kind of nuts. I never was that interested in the architecture of public buildings. Even the grand mansions of the 18th and 19th centuries never interested me as much as THE HOUSE. A couple of years ago I got a yen to build an old house for myself in miniature form, a dollhouse. For my second house I went crazy looking for pictures of old chimneys and fireplaces from the 17th c., and English kitchen ranges that could fit into the mid 19th c. Believe me, I had to look far and wide, high and low. Whenever I look for information about one thing, I always find information about something else that interests me and that I may find useful in the future. I save it all. I started sharing with other miniaturists who wanted to reproduce times past in small scale. I kept hearing "I want it to look right, but I don't know just what is right and I can't find out anything about it." Well, I'm around to help when I can. We always lived in old houses when I was growing up. My father used to buy them and turn them into duplexes and triplexes. I used to look at everything and wish they could remain as lovely as they were long ago. Even the basic brick workingman's row house had a lot of charm and details. The first time I saw what was behind the plaster I thought it was so cool. Now that I've been finding all these online books I'm in heaven. I've gone through everything of interest in the libraries I've belonged to. And I've checked out all kinds of websites. Good thing I'm a very fast reader. Now as long as I stay on the ball with my filing system, I'll be ok..... Oh one more thing. My grandfather built his house with his own hands on his farm in northern Europe back around 1914. When he died he left it to two of his sons who lived there with their families. The house needed a facelift and repairs after some years and the brothers got into an arguement about what should be done. In the end, one took one side of the house, the other brother the other side. The house is now painted two different shades of green with two different clapboard treatments and trim. A home is not just a house, it's the people who live in it.

`Beautiful floors! I would use some of your furniture to block out your space vs kids space. Put the short side of the desk on the wall where the antique radio is (line up the edge of the desk with the edge of the wall opposite). Can you get a matching black cabinet with baskets? If they are tall enough, back them up to the desk with the baskets facing towards the window. Then all the space in front of the window is for the kids and kids stuff. Put the armoire under the 1/4 round window. It will encroach a little into the desk space but it's a huge desk... Will the rug fit across-wise? Put the rocker where the armoire is for a cozy read.

Wow, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for all of your feedback. I was not expecting all of this. I wanted to respond to some interesting points and ask a few more questions- I'm letting go of the multi-purpose idea. You were all right about that, it's just not feasible and wouldn't benefit anyone. Moving forward, I'm going to focus on making this strictly a craft room/office. Several of you have said that having the craft room at the front of the house is undesirable, but I disagree. Maybe I should have been more clear about the nature of my "crafting." I'm not a freehand painter or sculptor or anything like that. Half of the work I do I actually on a computer. I guess you could say I'm more of a graphic designer, but the finished product is physical (the messy part will actually happen outside in a shed). My point is that mess wil not be a huge issue. In fact, in my current living situation my "studio" is relegated to just a hallway and it actually works out fine. I attached some photos. I think having the room in the front would make it easier for customers to come pick up pieces as @doc5md suggested, (especially if I don't know them) because they wouldn't have to walk through the whole house. Plus I think it'll be a point of interest for guests. With the right organization, this room will look really cool. I'm picturing something like the photo I attached. @rockybird, while I would love to expand the footprint of the house, unfortunately, we're at max capacity for square footage we can afford. Also, these plans were already approved by the town, to change them now would mean months of delay waiting for another approval, but that's besides the point. This house is in North Jersey where there is not a lot of room. We only have .14 of an acre (gotta love NJ!) And we already had to ask for a variance as we expanded the existing footprint by around 40%. So expanding even more is out of the question. But thanks for the suggestion! I did just talk to my contractor (aka Dad) and he said that we can extend the craft room a little (about a foot) without altering the plans (shh don't tell) because that wall between the craft room and dining room is not a load-bearing wall. Granted a foot isn't much, but hey, it's better than nothing. @B Carey I appreciate the real-life family insight! I can see how the toy thing will get annoying (and disorganized) and I appreciate you sharing that. @Mrs Pete thank you for all your layout suggestions, I love the idea of built-in cabinets and am definitely considering that! @Virgil Carter Fine Art I really appreciate all of your professional artist suggestions, I'm definitely not on your level, but you gave me a lot of food for thought. I hadn't even thought of the direction the room was facing and I'm glad you mentioned that. I have to make sure to position my desk so that my computer doesn't catch the glare of the sun all day, since that's where I'll be spending a lot of my time. As for the glare on the art itself, I don't usually paint freehand, I create stencils using my computer and a silhouette cutter so the glare shouldn't really mess me up. I am a teacher full-time though, so my Etsy work is usually done after dark. I have to make sure to get good lighting in there as you suggested. As far as using the laundry room as my craft space, I really don't want to do that. It's not just that it's too small, but having to go up and down the stairs with the wood is what I'm doing now and it's super annoying. I want to be able to go from the shed outside to my craft room (all on the same level). I actually love that the laundry room is on the second floor! It's where 95% of the dirty laundry will be made. All of the bedrooms will be upstairs as will all of our clothes, sheets, towels, etc. Putting it downstairs or in the basement would actually be way more of a hassle. Many of you said the ditch the French doors and I hear you on that.... BUT I'm not ready to part with them yet :( Call me stubborn, but I just love the look. At the very least, I'll have them swing outward instead of inward, because you're right, they eat up a lot of space. I am also entertaining the idea of pocket French doors instead. @doc5md I like the idea of the single pocket door, that sounds interesting. What exactly is the issue with the French doors at your house? Do they get in the way? @sofikbr - I am worried about that dining room. I thought the same thing, it's SO big and it won't be used very much. My husband and I like to entertain, but I feel like if there's only one or two couples coming over, we'll probably stay in the kitchen/living room area. The dining room will really only be used for holidays, but that seems like such a waste. The wall between the dining room and kitchen IS a load-bearing wall so we can get rid of it. Does anyone have any suggestions for making that room more functional?? What about adding built-in bookshelves and making it a little library, too? Add cozy window seats maybe? @sofikbr I also see what you're saying about the bathroom situation, but the kids will just have to deal with it. You're right, they don't need a sitting area, but it just worked out that way. We can afford the extra bedroom space, we can't afford a third full bathroom. And hey, love grows best in little houses, right? I've known families of 6, 7, and 8 that shared one bathroom and if they can figure it out, so can we. Besides, I think the double sink and closed off bath area will help. The first photo is my current "studio" in my parents' basement. The 2nd and 3rd are layout ideas.