As I said above...One room has a brass bed, in it, colors are burgundy gold tan etc. trim is off white and walls a gold bm 1095 . furnitute is dark Baker high end stuff. Other room is low end oak type furniture for now...being used by a college student so no desire to put new furniture in there. The masculine look was my concern as well... We did look at the Treillage...nice look, but didn't feel well under foot if I recall. Have another carpet in mind, not sure of name and would post a photo if I knew how.

With that much remodeling planned for the future of this house, you could probably buy a new one that is more suited to your needs much cheaper. Remodeling square footage is always more expensive than new construction. Your area of the country is one of the most expensive for either. The smaller the square footage added, the more expensive per square foot the project. If this is a great location, where the lot is the major value to the property, then do consider a teardown, as it'd be easier and cheaper. If you have sentimental attachment to the home because it's a family inheritance or something, then go to an architect to have him plan out a sensible addition that fits the style of the home and also manages to give you the additional space you need. Higgledy piggeldy additions always look like what they are---afterthoughts or "temporary solutions". And then the money runs out and you're left with something that doesn't work well and is ugly and will stay that way.

Mine is 12 x 15. I think it also depends on the scale and placement of other rooms, especially closets and bathroom. This is a 1952 colonial so the closets are single door (but go double width inside) and the 2 of them are in the side wall that butts the only upstairs very small bathroom (wall hung sink, toilet on one wall, shower/tub on opposite wall.) I have 2 other bedrooms oddly shaped with a single closet in each. My point is that I don't have a master bathroom or a walk-in closet. In my bedroom, I have a queen bed set between the 2 south windows, on the west wall with one window in the center is an amoire (shelves for tshirts/winter sweaters) and an old travel trunk for storage but mainly to sit on to dress and a taller old chest of drawers which has great deep drawers and on top has a small tv for the morning news & weather report - important here in the NE. The wall opposite the bed has my very old triple dresser. I am usually upstairs reading in bed by 8 pm as I arise at 4 am for work. I like having the 3 windows for breezes and to look out into my long yard and the weather. Decades ago while in Kansas there was an old 3 story house that actually had a ballroom on the 3rd floor! The attic was above that. It was a simple looking house from the outside but oh the inside was a delight! I will never forget how the master bedroom literally went from the front to the back (bed area in the back half), three sides of windows with shear curtains flittering in the breeze, and a simple sitting area. The closets and bath were off to the side very unobtrusive. The door to the room was in the center of the wall from the hallway. Perhaps it was the subtle decorating, furniture scale, and feeling of elegance yet comfy that appealed to me in this very old house (1920's ?) If I ever won the lottery and could build my own 'perfect' house, I still think I would like my bedroom like this old one.......and I am single! Go figure!

Those are very nice chairs, ML. I agree that they could go in the living room as easily as the dining room. I like the wavy "x" legs, especially. It gives them a little something extra. I have studied your diagrams and read your descriptions, finally. Ran around all day yesterday - went and got a Holter Monitor at the cardiologist's and then hit Salvation Army, where I got a sweet little bakers rack - solid metal, welded seams - for $35! Just needs a little 3M Rust Reformer. I think you have shown us the kitchen design before. I remember the sink across from the Bertazzoni, the big garden window, the baking area. I am not sure if you had the nice indentation there for the cook to have a safe zone, though. I do remember the sitting area outside the bedroom, though. It is neat to see the diagram of your home after all these years of seeing photos of little parts of it and imagining how it all fits together. The nosy neighbor, is he on the side with the clawfoot tub and your clothes closet? Is the new vestibule in the front new this time? I don't think I remember seeing that. I am also a bit surprised that you gave up on the storage/pantry units on either side of the window seats. I like your idea of base and wall cabinets with your favorite solid surface counter there, though. Does the table that you use in that space have extensions that you can use to fill the dining room if you have a large group? I am now struggling with an idea I have for my family room. We now have a nice (but huge) 1990s TV unit with the doors that slide out to shut the TV behind. Which I never do. The thing is 5 ft high, which is too high to place my gnome garden upon. I have my air plant garden up there, but it can hardly be seen. I want to ditch the furniture, get a larger wall-hung TV (old eyes can't see small print) and have a furniture piece that I can set things on and under. Craigslist had an beautiful console table for $230 that was under 2' deep at its smallest configuration that looked like a sofa table. It could be pulled out to 8' long! Yet it was only about 8" deep! I could set things on the floor underneath it, as well as on top. It did need a little restoration (it was from the 1930s), and I would not feel really comfortable putting a garden on it, as drips could happen. But since I made the entire kitchen into an island, I have no place for a table-height table, and thought I might want that option if I could ever talk DH into getting rid of the hunk o'oak that I once thought that I just had to have! I'd love to give it to someone to make into a nice play kitchen set like MamaGoose made! We could bring up dining chairs from the basement and have a sit-down meal if we wanted to. Currently, we eat at the island or sitting on family room furniture. I have a tea cart DH and I have used as a dining table, though. So I am imagining that you have the extending table that I wish I had! I hope that you are well by now, and that Marti is over her cold, too. I hear that both flu and colds are going around in Michigan, with Norovirus and RSV also hitting hard. We have been lucky, so far.