I don't think chairs would make sense. You have limited height and I don't think anyone will ever sit there unless it was a space for small children. I know I would be uncomfortable there. That pretty much rules out all but the first table. Possibly the smaller desk at the taller end with some accessorizing in the corner. Another things to consider is that anything in that space still needs to be dusted and the floors around it cleaned. Maybe I'm sensitive to that because I'm tall and I have two dogs who are in shed mode --it's only 100 degrees outside, but I think I would tire of having to duck and clean in the shorter space. It seems your entry has space on that far wall for a table and possibly for a chair or two (hard to tell from just seeing the one side), so it doesn't seem like you need that space for a table. Personally, I like the idea of a bookcase, but I'd also not want it to get lost under the stairs. What is on the other side of that wall? This idea is not a move-in arrangement so long as an idea for a project, but I'd look at the possibility of putting in drawers or cabinets on the other side to take up about 2/3 of the depth and then bookshelves on the entry side. No furniture would be used under the stairs, but it might maximize your use of the space. Don't know what your needs are in combining two households, but it's an idea. The entry is appealing -- from the wood floors and stairs to the arch and the French doors -- lost of things to say come in and check me out. Looks like a lovely home. Enjoy making yours and mine into ours.

We don't have one in our current house - it's another flight of stairs, and then crawl space. As there's another 900 or so square feet of crawl space, the under stair area isn't used. In our last house, we drywalled it in, and it was a lower ceiling height area of the office on one side, and the workshop on the other side. In the house before that, it was a little wine cellar, as I recall. However, my favorite under stair space was in the house where I grew up. It was originally storage, and then my mother turned it into a cozy little kid place. She put a light in there, carpeted it, pillows all over, and hung pictures. I spent quite a lot of time reading in there. There was also a curtain hanging in front, so it was very cozy. The walls weren't finished or anything (stud walls), so there were places to stash stuff. Best use of crawl space I've ever had!

Thank you, Palimpsest. I always appreciate your thoughts. I planned the library shelves to handle my oversized books so I think I'm good there. I'm leaning toward the plant under the stairs. I have a mirror that I don't like on the wall that I think would fit under there with a plant in front of it. Something to try at least. As for the figurines, it was never my intention to scatter them and I don't plan on buying something else to put them in. I have two china cabinets. The figurines are all in one china cabinet in my office and I am thinking about moving them to another cabinet that's in the library. That's all. This is one of those weird areas that will make some people will roll their eyes. Oh well. :) Dee, we tried her dog bed there before we put her toys there but she's so tall that she kept bumping her head. :) Plus that's not a room we hang out in so she wouldn't stay in there. She wants to be where we are. Les, there might be enough room for a cooler but we had one of those and sold it. Just not important enough for us. There's another fridge in the garage that does just as well for the wine and we have an antique sideboard in the dining room that holds all the other booze and wine. I appreciate the way you phrased the question of the figurines. Thank you. For me, yes, I love them all. I'm writer and a reader and that's what they are all. They make me smile when I look at them. I almost didn't post the figurines question because I know those sorts of things are hot buttons for people. Oh well. Ultimately I will have the cabinet built for them in my office above the filing cabinet but that is a project for down the road when there is more money to spend. For now I was just contemplating moving them to get room for another bookcase. If I don't put them in the library china cabinet then I have a china cabinet in the library that needs something in it because I'm not fond of the look of the china in there. And I've tried selling the cabinet but no takers and no, there is no where else in the house it can go. :)

Well there is one thing I think is pretty unanimous - the doorway between the dining and living rooms will get moved over to the west about 20", allowing the space under the stairs to be better utilized either for storage or a little reading nook/desk spot. Got the toughest decision out of the way first :) I really don't want to mess with the plumbing stack that is behind the built-in.....so unless that's really the only way to make things work, there will be no passageway along that north living room wall. I had thought about moving the heat pump away from the laundry room window and over to the west, on the other side of the garage door, and then converting the laundry room window to a door and having that be our main entry on the back side of the house. I'm afraid it may look funny though to have two exterior doors right next to each other, and I don't want to lose the exterior access to the garage, so that door will have to stay put. I think the laundry room window will need to stay as it is and the dining room door should be the main entrance. We can redo the landscaping & put in a sidewalk that will direct traffic to that door from the driveway. One thing I'm not sure of is if I should do sliders or French doors? Is it weird to have a slider as the "front" door? And how do I handle privacy - the door faces the back yard, there is no house or anything back there that could see in, but I still want something to cover the door at night. Maybe built-in blinds would be best? I love the idea of moving the kitchen to the nook....it would be so nice to look out into the yard while working in the kitchen, but that would mean that we have to use the dining room as THE dining room. I don't think that will work if the dining room door is the entry and even if it weren't, that room is not really suited for a dining room table. It's too narrow and too much of a passthrough room. I tried it out briefly a year or so ago and it didn't work very well. bp's suggestion of closing off the current laundry/kitchen connection and moving the washer/dryer there looks good - we could open up a doorway to the right of the sink and shift the sink/stove/kitchen to the south. Opening up a doorway to the living room from the kitchen would let in light from the big picture window in the living room, so the kitchen wouldn't feel as dark. The rest of the laundry room space (north end) could be used as a mudroom and normal household traffic could go from the garage to the "dining" room and then on to the bedrooms or living room. The one thing I'm not sure about with that plan is where does my pantry go? I would like to have a decent pantry as we do a lot of gardening and canning in the summer and I don't have a basement or cellar to use for storage. Maybe it would have to go somewhere in the laundry area. Thanks again for the terrific suggestions and the kind comments about our little house. It's not perfect and definitely has its idiosyncrasies but it's also got a lot of character and charm - thanks for reminding me of that, I tend to take it for granted sometimes!