Sorry, here is the photo link!

Here is a link that might be useful: Ranch home link

Some more points, Only the front of the home has any encroaching eyeball's, which happens to be from a home directly across the street that has two picture windows facing toward the home! The bedroom wing along the southside has a nice open southerly exposure. That south side wall can also serve as a place for an egress window to the front corner BR if a window design is chosen where one is not (probably preferable?) placed on the front west facing wall, as I have drawn in a couple sketches with transom windows. The current entry door faces towards the west as well and takes a beating from the exposure. Another reason I sort-of like the idea of a new entry having the door face toward the drive entrance (north).

I would really like to add a masonry chimney back into the home, maybe in the middle of the foorplan to give things some needed detail and texture, but where?

The structure is very tough to add an extra level of detail to, but considering all phases of the home are being re-done, I want to try. This home has major location apeal and is worthy of the investment.

Let's try this... On the floorplan, pink=old/original and green=new/proposed. The squigly lines are arrows that are indicating either "load bearing" or a wall to be removed for the new proposed floorplan. Rooms on the north side of drawing starting at the mst.bath are BR, main bath, laundry, BR in front corner.

{{!gwi}}

I'm really trying to figure this out, but it just isn't coming to me. Maybe I just don't have the imagination for this.
I can't figure out anything in the bottom part of the picture, such as where the garage door and front door are and any other bedrooms.
It looks like you are only keeping a fraction of your existing walls, and isn't this going to need a new roof? So I'm already thinking, tear this down and start from scratch.
So my only comment is that in the kitchen, I would add a prep sink on the east end of the island. Otherwise you're going to be carrying food all the way across the kitchen to wash and back to the island to prep (because I don't see a lot of counter space) and then turn around to cook. I don't see a dishwasher so think that your dirty dishes & pots & pans will take up most of that corner counter.
Anyway, good luck.
R/
Lisa A.

c9pilot...I have not been very clear in what is depicted, nor did I label details, my bad. This drawing is high-lighting the floorplan of the existing structure and some fundamental changes I have proposed to the structure. Sorta wanted to get those decided on before going on to other interior details, though certainly it all needs to be considered in order to tie-in.

The structure is outlined in Pink=old/original and green=new/proposed. The "new" proposal (green outline) is showing the old double car garage being reduced to a single car garage, and a hip roof bump-out added on the front of the home (lower portion of drawing). The new bump-out adds 8' for an inside entry area and 6' to the BR wing on the right. This allows the BR to be brought forward and have a laundry room added between the main bath and the front BR. The rooms on the right side starting below the mst.bath are a BR, main bath, laundry room, and front BR. The large area in the center (17.5'x26') would be considered the living room. Total new "proposed" living area would be 1660 sq.ft.

My intentions were to generate a discussion on how the "proposed" changes would be percieved by others from both a live-ability and aesthetic design standpoint. This home was a candidate for a tear down, though I have chose to take a different route and work with-in the parameters of the current structure and boundary set-backs. The roof is only hand framed 2x4's and covers about 1250 sq.ft., pretty small and easy to deal with.

I was able to find a respected architect who makes house calls. He was instantly able to understand the many issues concerning property access, site orientation, surrounding environment, etc. He even read me fairly well after a short conversation and a walk-about.

The homes garage needs to be made smaller because of a set-back encroachment, aside from my own dislike for street facing ominous garages.

The privacy and views because of an elevation drop are toward the southeast-south. That orientation would also provide a nice southerly exposure in the winter when the sun is low in the southern horizon. Unfortunatley the homes public areas, kitchen, dining, and living areas, are not taking any advantage of that. No fun sitting in a large living area looking at four walls unless you are nintendo junkie (his words). So looking at doing something better, not just different, will involve a total "flip" of the homes floorplan. It was dicussed it would be nice to atleast get part of the kitchen and living area over to the south side of the home. That would require the bathrooms, laundry and atleast one bedroom to be moved toward the garage. It would very nice if the kitchen could still interact with the back yard which is outside the north and east wall of the kit/din area.

It was aknowledged that the roof would not be a big deal to replace and I expect/want to do that. I think I have resigned myself to accept the 8' walls and 5/12 roof so as much of the structure as possible could stay. It was also talked about using trusses on both ends of a new east-west ridge (instead of the current north-south) and hand-framing between them to vault the ceiling and maybe add clearstory windows over a new living area along the south side wall.

While enertained at my effort with a new entry and bumping out the front wall for a laundry room, he did not feel it addressed either well enough to go through the effort. I liked his style and candor. It was just a couple hours of consultation with nothing else planned.

So now that my mind is grasping at changing direction and entertaining another set of drawings, I'm whooped. I'm open for talking points or ideas if anyone see's something to start from...TIA.

I am ready to explore some other options. One of which would be to add a second story (near 500sq.ft.) to the existing structure. The current homes foundation and newly added foundation in the back meet engineering for a two story home.

The north side existing garage wall still needs to be moved right 5' to the proposed single car dimension, (green line). The front, west side, of the home would stay as existing at the "pink" wall lines. This basically makes the structure a "L" with the front leg 46' and side leg 51' long. Both legs are 26' wide. That would make the only difference between the two leg's length 5'. It is like a square divided in to 4 equal pieces, missing the left rear piece.

Can anyone give me a sense of direction before sketching if this existing floorplan would more conducive to one particlular style over another for a second story? Im not set on a style such as prairie or cottage etc. But am intersted in a particular build if it's more efficient to build.

My first thoughts are to try and design the second story by matching "one" of it's vertical wall plane's up with either the front "L" (exterior walls) or the rear "L" of the existing structure. I'm enclined to go to the back wall's to give some depth from the front view with the addition being set-back from the front walls and let a lower hip roof off the wall plane in the rear, maybe double as cover for a back porch, very prairie like. Am I making any sense?

Mr.Architect wanted 10K to proceed :O

I am having trouble understanding one thing: The garage, assuming you didn't mind a two-car wide door[s], still needs to be moved back, on an existing structure?? If you can get away with keeping that structure intact, why not just remove extra wide garage door and replace with a 9' wide and perhaps some windows? Unless you are legally forced to reduce that structure, why lose it?

Also, do you really want a master bedroom right off the kitchen?

amtaustin, thanks for looking...the floorplan with mst.BR and kitchen shown, was laid out attempting to work with the existing structure/floorplan. It was a series of comprimises that are know being scrapped in favor of a whole house re-do. The garage does need to be narrower to accomadate an easement. Moving the front wall plane "back", was my attempt to lessen the garages prominance on the front of structure. The current garage is 30' deep.

I am now researching designs for a whole house remodel and adding a second addition. I originally was steadfast on not having two go 2 stories for an additional 400-600sq.ft. But it is very obvious after much effort that kind of addition on the single level structure will be both very expensive and not be very pleasing. I posted a sketch on the building forum with a second story added on the front view, for discussion.