Greetings all, Thank you all for the input and ideas. Some notes and answers to questions: * The bonus room is actually 11 x 8 feet , not 11 x 7. This makes it moderately more useful, but still an awkward space. * The black box between the dining area and kitchen is the fireplace. It oozes craftsman charm and we are hesitant to remove it. * Laundry in the garage is certainly a possibility, though we tend to do laundry at night. The idea of walking back and forth from the garage in the dark, especially with the exterior doors that we have, is not particularly appealing. A lighted breezeway is a possibility. * Enclosing the rear porch is a possibility, though the space is only 5.5 feet wide and there are a pair of steps from the bonus room to the porch floor. It would take quite a bit of work to enclose that area and incorporate it with the interior of the house, and I'm not sure how we could make that a useful space once enclosed. * Due to the odd roof configuration for the addition, all walls in the rear are loadbearing except the wall that separates the laundry with the bedroom, and the wall that separates the bedroom with the bonus room. I believe the wall between the bedroom and the living room is also loadbearing, because of the shape of the roof. I've attached a diagram of the latest iteration of our potential remodeling plan. The way it changes our current floorplan: * The hall between the laundry and kitchen is closed off. * The resulting closet in the kitchen becomes a pantry. * The old laundry room becomes a bathroom. The exterior laundry room door is enclosed. * The bedroom connects to the bathroom via a pocket door. * The bonus room is divided into two rooms, a walk-in closet on the right and a laundry space on the left. * The walk-in closet addresses our current problem of having very little functional closet space. The laundry room in this plan is intended to serve multiple roles. The floor would have some kind of resilient material: we have marmoleum in the kitchen and we think it's fantastic. The resilient floor allows this back room to be a nice transition room to and from the backyard. The laundry wall, which is 8 feet wide, has enough room for a linen closet, and a long counter with a sink over a compact washer + dryer. This layout gives us a linen closet, a place to fold clothes (the countertop), and a clothes bar to hang clothes to dry. These are all features we miss having in our current laundry room. For entertaining, we can use the countertop and sink as a buffet area or bar. We do a lot of entertaining in the summer, particularly backyard barbecues, and having the sink and counterspace in the backroom might minimize the amount of foot traffic between the kitchen and the backyard. Right now, most of that foot traffic goes through the laundry room which is, as you might imagine, quite uncomfortable. This plan is more in the direction of making the back of the house functional and comfortable, as opposed to trying to make the space work for a family with kids. We aren't sure a 2 bedroom house will ever appeal to a family with kids. The laundry + closet idea for the bonus room may not be the best solution, but I honestly can't think of a good use for that space. The 8 foot dimension makes it narrow, and the sheer number of windows and doorways is overwhelming. There's almost no empty wall space to work with. I don't know why the addition designer did not simply skip the rear porch and extend the house out the extra 5.5 feet. We really wish that we had a better way to get from the kitchen to the backyard. The ~3 foot wall between the kitchen and laundry has a considerable amount of electricity and plumbing in it; removing that small section of wall would be quite expensive. When we were designing the kitchen for the remodel we tried to include a direct door to the backyard, but we couldn't come up with a plan that didn't otherwise kill the efficiency of the space. We love to cook, so reducing the effectiveness of the kitchen to gain access to the backyard wasn't a compromise we were willing to make.

I was lucky enough to be give a copy machine and use it for most of my enlargements. For some projects I have to use the copy I enlarged and enlarge it even more, which often means I have to physically cut and tape several sections together to get a finished pattern. For simple patterns where you need just the basic lines or where you can't get a clear copy to enlarge, I do the "squares." It takes time but always works. I place a sheet of tracing paper over the project and square it off. Then make a sheet of larger squares on newsprint and place tracing paper over it and draw away. I use a very fine pencil or marker to do the squares. I did a life size Santa that I had drawn on a 4"x6" note pad using this method. I enlarge it on a copy machine several times then did the squares. I made him for my daughters & family and ended up making and selling 16 of them.....never again! Hope this helps! Belle PS...if you have a electronic fix it shop near you, check it our for a copy machine.

Oh Thank you Sylvamae!!! Great tip! I find it sooo frustrating to cut a pattern out cuz of that. They say to use contact cement smeared onto the pattern line, but it just bubbles up under the cement when I do it. So I will try this tip! I have been doing some stained glass work, but my camera is broken so I can't post any pics right now. I am about to start a lampshade, so will have to get a camera soon!!!heh heh!

" I am wondering whether we can really improve this ... OR... . Once that's decided we can proceed with a plan. " That is best decided WHILE developing the plan, within the scope of a real budget as LWO suggests. "Where should I seek help for this kind of dilemma?" See who is available where you are. You can usually get a sense of that without making a commitment. See if a KD that works with spatial changes and offers alternative options is available where you are. If you find the "right" one they will hold your hand, discuss pros and cons, do a couple of layout options, and will have some form of 3D to help visualize. A bonus if they take you to similar jobs they have done and/or mock up space IRL. No one who does that would work with "reasonable" as a budget-they will want a number to shoot for. You can do it here with a "layout thread" positing a full plan and letting the layout folks at it. That alone doesn't take care of budget questions though. From what I've seen it helps if you are clear on your goals and decisive (since you will get opposing opinions at times.) You can do a combination of the two. Go back and forth. Layout here and pros to make sure you meet budget. It can be longer process. Some KD's will resign from that if it gets to indecisive. Some of what to do and what it will cost depends on what is below-basement, finished?, crawl space? slab... Every now and then we swap the DR and the kitchen but no way to tell without a full house plan.