Dian, your pantry addon faces south, and that, to me, is a prime spot for something pretty to happen. Since it is adjacent to the kitchen, perhaps a builtin row of floor to ceiling closet-depth cabinets across the west end of this room would work for a pantry, and allow you to make a nice sunny breakfast room with a place for some container plants. If not the windows, then a good skylight could give a lot of light there. I realize most older homes up north are not air conditioned so an opening skylight could help remove heat from the kitchen area. And, if it should by chance leak, the damage would not be as critical to the entire house as a skylight over the main living areas would. I think the wedge shape gives you home a distinctive quality, and it could be a very nice place for a desk and a reading chair. Of course, its use depends on what room the wedge leads to as you leave the MBedroom. And where are the windows on the MBedroom? I see none on the front wall and none on the back wall, so that means the windows are only on the Northern end? Is that a little cold? Of course it is true light, and artists like that, but this light gives very little warmth to the room. If you do not have closets on that back wall, I'd think about putting two separate windows in there. Space them apart, so you could maybe build in storage drawers on each side, in between, and under the windows, to give yourself a pair of window seats. This kind of project would depend on where the doorway from the wedge is located. Hopefully not right at the corner. :) Slateberry, the Taunton Press did a fine job with the Cape book. I again read parts of it last night, as I thought about the similarities in our Cape and in Dian57s cape. The fun in having a cape (if you keep your sense of perspective) is to not redo and get it over with, but to do and to do and to do again, in a progression of steps which fits the house around you as your family grows or changes. Hubby built the two upstairs bedrooms with a bath at the top of the stairs when his two daughters started growing up. The room over the garage, a couple of steps up from the dining room level, turned into his son's room. Then he added the 12x34' family room across the back when the 3 kids were teens and needed space for their friends. His wife wanted a fireplace there, so he added that. He wanted a place to get away from the bustle of teens, and added the porch off the bedroom which we are now turning into a master suite with a walkin closet (already built) and a 3/4 bath which is not plumbed yet, but is adjacent to the original only bath on the main floor, at the head of the stairs coming up from the basement. I would like to see a shed dormer extended toward the backyard, to make the upstairs larger, but with just the two of us, that is not a real objective. The tiny doghouse dormers on the front make the house look very authentic to the cape style. Not authentic is something I want for the front entry, which would be a covered entry, same angles as the gables of the dormers, just enough to give the entry some presence. To get the idea what it would look like, I've taken some digital photos of the house from the street, and then drawn the ideas over copies of the photo. I use PaintShopPro (not Photoshop, but that would work very well too). Dian57, when you have more photos of your house, present or past, please link me to the album online or upload them here. There are so many options for these houses, depending on your needs and priorities, and it is exciting to work through it all.

I really appreciate all your comments and suggestions. In rethinking this, we’ve decided to move the dining room table to the left of the kitchen, ditch the banquette and turn the former dining room into a morning room/library. (I am having trouble giving up my existing house and I was attempting to take many of the rooms we now have and recreate them in this proposed house. Both my husband and the building designer had suggested otherwise but it wasn’t until reading all your comments that I finally realized this just wasn’t going to work. ). I think this arrangement will work really well. Greenfish1234, I love the house pictured in the link you sent. Our proposed house looks very similar, flipped so the garage is on the opposite side, with a shed dormer above. It will then have the master bedroom wing where the garage of your picture is. And there is enough room over the mud room to connect the bonus room with the rest of the upstairs and include a bathroom there. I also think your suggestion about finishing the bonus room later is a good one, and that was our original intent; however, when I tried to fit my husband’s TV into the plan downstairs, it just didn’t work. We compromised by deciding to finish the mud room sooner, rather than later. And if it seems too expensive, we’ll just have it finished to the drywall and flooring and my husband can do the rest later. He’ll be retired at that point, his “shop” will move into the basement and he’d love having a project to work on. My existing furniture will fit there perfectly and it will get the morning sun.

Glad to hear that mid century has some appeal. The main upside I see is that this entrance facade lends itself to a midcentury modern upgrade. Midcentury featured materials (wood, brick, etc) in honest and straight forward ways. Natural wood siding on the upper gable end, a midcentury entrance (door, more natural wood, lighting, and numerals) are relatively inexpensive upgrades. I will try to share the look of the materials I have in my mind.

For the the yews that block the stone at the corner, I'd think about transplanting them elsewhere on your property and installing a different variety of yew in that spot, one with a more low, horizontal growth pattern. (There are MANY varieties of yews available if you find the right nursery!) The plants you have now seem to be the more upright type so you will have to continually fight with them in that location. Once you have exposed the stone, your color decision should be easier. I love that old photo, with the blue-gray contrasting with the yellow brick. But now that I look more closely, do I see the same stonework under the front window on the driveway side? If so, I'd keep the upright yew closest to the driveway to anchor things and do the same transplant replace as I mentioned above for the corner. Finally, I share your feeling about the mullions. Many people hated those old metal casement windows and couldn't wait to be rid of them, as they were leaky and prone to rusting, etc. (I recall my mother long ago refusing to buy a house with that kind of window!) But I wonder if there might be a way to add mullions to the windows you have? When we replaced our windows, which were the typical double hung wood sashes with 6 over 6 mullions, I was shocked to see that for many new vinyl windows the mullions were simply a grid that was added on to the windows after manufacture, while for others the grid is embedded between the glass. It might be worth some exploration to see if the add-on could be an option for you to make your house look happier!