Lass, you are in a very enviable position, actually owning the property is more than half the battle. Both myself and my daughter would love to be in your position, we LOVE old houses. The Bing Crosby connection IS very cool indeed. This has always been a dream of mine, to buy and restore an old house, they have such carisma. Did you ever see the 1942 movie "George Washington Slept Here" with Jack Benny and Ann Sheridan? I'm sure your farmhouse is not in the same condition as the house in the movie was :).... my daughter and I went through an old house in just about the same condition as the one in the movie, it was a two story, with several rooms with bay windows (all smashed) a kitchen with pantry, a big covered verandah. It had a spectacular wide staircase leading up to the second floor and the bedrooms. This old lady was sitting in a small wooded acreage overlooking the water. It could have been restored into a thing of beauty. Such a sad day when it was torn down. Annette

We are just completing the Field of Dreams Farmhouse. We are building on a raised foundation due to a high water table and are building the first floor all on one level instead of dropping the mudroom down a notch. We mirrored the plan and added 4ft to the library toward the mudroom and added 4 ft to the guest and Master bedrooms toward the mudroom. The laundry we moved upstairs and bumped out 4 ft toward the bedroom. We stole the closet from bedroom 3 and used it as the Master Bath shower, built a toilet room in the middle, made the walk in closet a tub/spa room and put the walk in closet where the tub, toilet and shower were. A 72in vanity occupies the long wall against the laundry room. Here is a link to our pictures so far. Here is a link that might be useful: Field of Dreams Farmhouse

Okay, as I mentioned earlier, the idea of losing the dining room was not all that popular...so I went back to the drawing board, on my plan. The living room/bedroom side (the 1950's addition) is staying pretty much the same, but the master bathroom is back. The hall bath is more vintage style, with the claw foot tub and slipper chair...and I switched the sink and toilet...hopefully making soaking in the tub more enjoyable :) By adding the little 'back hall' I was able to flip the hall bath and finally have the plumbing back to back, which is a big improvement! The dining room is 'as is' with a bay window and french doors, rather than the current corner windows. This allows us to add the small sun porch/study, with windows on two sides, with short bookcases, below. There's room for a couple of reading chairs, a small desk, an orange tree and a few Star Jasmine. They're the plants I would love to have, even though they don't bloom that often, when the do....Wow! The kitchen is similar to Laura Calder's kitchen (which I love) with the addition of the banquette and wood stove. I finally found a way to incorporate the country kitchen, wood stove and view to the back. It's kind of a no-brainer, once we kept the dining room, but hey...it's a work in progress! LOL The sunroom and kitchen both have doors to the 'laundry porch' which is the laundry/freezer/pantry area, with lots of windows. It is the old porch and I still wanted it to look like one...as many old houses have this feature. The mudroom on the back is small, but works well to keep cold out and kitties in...and provides access to the greenhouse. This is mainly for starting veggies/herbs and flowers for the garden, growing a few veggies and some hothouse plants...but I couldn't resist a small table and chairs. The perfect spot for enjoying a quiet cup of tea :) Now that the kitchen is no longer open to the living room, I can bring back some blue! Here's a kitchen I love... With this blue laminate countertop for the perimeters and wood on the island. Same backsplash..don't this little blue flowers look great with it? A little more cheerful than the black granite, but I still like the sunflowers! Sarah Richardson's farmhouse island is a great example of seating on one end of the island...so not too close to the cooktop. I think both of these are beautiful! Maybe the first one for the corner sunroom (without the door) and the second one would be more like the greenhouse. Thanks for looking :)

muskokascp - dish drawers are 25" wide and 21" deep. they do hold a lot (24 large and small dishes; 24 pasta and regular bowls - also a few small/rice bowls to boot in each). but they also hold a lot because the plates aren't so huge. a lot of plates these days are enormous. sink footpedal is tapmaster - link here: tapmaster foot pedal though there's a cool touch-activated kitchen faucet by delta: delta pilar faucet i didn't know about it until late in my kitchen planning. but it actually would have been a disaster if i'd gotten it, as my 1 year old is always climbing on the island and trying to turn on the prep sink faucet (and she can't, because it's foot activated! haha). kitchen island overhang is 13" and never seems to be a problem, even for adults. hope that helps! good luck. cheers, caoh