Put all your specs into this: http://www.carltonbale.com/home-theater/home-theater-calculator/ It will help with seating distances and such based on your screen size. Ours is 12 wide by 15 long, drywall to drywall. 144 inches wide is just enough for a bank of 4 chairs on our rear, elevated seating, just one step up. The front is a bank of three, creating a small "aisle" on each side. We have a 100" screen (diagonal) which is basically a 4x8 screen. Keep in mind, that neither of your designs allow for a raised second row. For two rows, you either need to elevate the second row, or elevate the screen, which can look odd. In your first plan, can you swap the bottom bedroom with the home theater, extending towards the pool table where the couch is? Then the door into the HT can be on the extended wall by the closet and the closet can be made larger for that bedroom. From the grid in your pics, you could get about 12x21 without impeding on the pool table, and narrowing the closet slightly (while making it longer). You should be able to get all of your seating (and dry bar) in there with raised levels going back. Brian

I just bought a home from my unkle that was his dads. Its a National home bult in 1954. It is updated a litle bit but still needs alot of work. Do you have the seril number and information plak by your basement steps? There are quite a few of these homes by me. If theres any information you want feel free to email me.

I am in AZ - home of the dry heat. Keep the bedroom at 69 during the summer and we love to hunker down under a comforter but don't like the weight of anything too heavy. After buying and discarding countless down comforters, we purchased a silk filled one at Costco. It was one of those traveling show things. We paid $270 plus tax but that was 2 years ago. King 106 x 96. Washes easily, doesn't bunch up line so many of them do. Website is smartsilk.com and it looks like Amazon may carry them. Amazon typically has a generous return policy too. I too could not buy a comforter sight unseen unless I knew I could easily return it.

Nothing like getting construction estimates to clarify the thinking. I'm in New England so the prices are high. So back to the drawing board. We are now trying to see if we can get much of what we want with the current space we have. So if you look at the architectural drawings, there will be no bumpout of the eating area and the door will not move. We would like: 1) amazing light (hence all the windows)--they are the main driver of the renovation 2) workable nice kitchen for people who cook 3) defined eating area. We are down to 2-3 ideas and I would love your thoughts and input. As mentioned before the footprint of the kitchen is 11'10" x 18". There is also a separate butler's pantry which stays in place and will continue to house: the refrigerator, the dishwasher, a full sized sink and the dishes, glasses, cutlery as this space works perfectly for us. The main kitchen is meant to be a light space with a full sized sink, range, good counter space and reasonable storage. Eating area will contain a banquette. We played around with a 3 sided banquette but I think it will be too claustrophobic with our current space so we have 2 remaining options which I sketched out in the attached drawings. OPTION 1: we turn a current window into a door in the middle of the kitchen to separate the cooking half of the kitchen from the eating half of the kitchen and (Bonus!) I get direct access to the garden, which I would love. Cons: we lose a bit of counter space and/or a bit of banquette length. In this version the kitchen run containing the range is about 7.5' long and the run of banquette along the back wall is 7'. OPTION 2: the door does not exist and the room is split into kitchen/eating areas that abut each other. This allows the kitchen counter to be a bit longer and the banquette to be longer, ie each could be 9' or any reasonable division of 18' into two parts. My concerns with this plan is that it runs together and of course, I don't get the garden access. Husband likes this one as he does not understand for garden access.