What do the elevations look like?

Thanks for your response. I don't have elevation drawings but I'll post photos (pardon the landscaping overgrowth - we're having a lot of pruning work done soon!).

Here is the front of the house. There are seven 8" rise steps from the driveway level to the sunroom door, so the house is already sitting 4 1/2 feet above grade; this is what made me thought a bsmt garage might be possible):

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The side with the sunroom:

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The back of the house:

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And the other side:

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It seems like that hallway will make the family room too isolated from the kitchen and rest of the house. I would want them to be more connected. Have you considered putting the addition off the rear of the house instead, like this?

Thanks atmoscat! That switch makes sense... and I actually had something similar as a earlier draft. Definitely better connection between kit/LR. Two questions: (1) the space to the right of the kitchen island, i.e. the transition area between kit, LR, and entry hall, seems like dead space -- how would you use it? (2) if I still want to do a double garage underneath with doors that face "up" in the diagram (which is toward the street), it seems I would have to widen the fam room quite a bit. I don't want to do a side entry garage b/c laying a new driveway seems like it would eat up a lot of the side yard. Any thoughts?

Edit: Oops. I had posted a new idea, but then I realized it wouldn't work because I put the basement stairs where the garage doors would need to go.

Okay, this one still has some bugs, but at least it's not physically impossible. It is pretty rough, though, so you'd have to try it with actual dimensions and will probably need to make some more adjustments.

To get more garage access space along the front, I moved the basement stairs to the back, between the kitchen and family room.

To reduce the dead space, I shifted the whole kitchen toward the family room, removing the pantry. This frees up space between the kitchen and bathroom which could become a walk-in pantry or maybe a laundry (if it's big enough - depends on actual dimensions. I think you'd need at least 4' for a pantry.) It seems like you could use the storage! You could also shift the island away from the range wall by 6" to give you a 48" aisle. That's what people in the kitchen forum recommend.

11.5' is definitely not wide enough for an island with seating - maybe not even one without seating. But if you move the wet bar to the other side of the dining room (now that you have a walk-in pantry), then you can borrow that space for the walkway behind the island. You should have 60" if there's seating, aim for 48" without.

That's great. I especially love the pantry idea, great way to get rid of dead space AND give us much needed storage (you're right, we def need it). This is such an interesting exercise to weigh out our different priorities -- I'm leaning back toward a side entry basement garage now (even though it eats up more yard) because I think I can get better functionality on the first floor. Here's an iteration on yours:

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I agree that trying to have a front facing garage makes it really hard to get everything you need into the addition. The side facing gives you more flexibility. I really like your latest version! The layout really makes sense now. Love the storage you added at the entry, the wider pantry, bigger deck with good connection to the living space, and flow through the dining room. I see that you moved the powder room to the outside wall and gave it a window, which is nice. But if you leave it on the other side, you could add that little dead space behind the fireplace to the closet. For the other one, you could put a door on the side wall above the toilet and have a little storage cabinet there. Both powder room options have their pros and cons, so it would be a question of what you prefer.

In the pic below, I also shortened the wall at the corner of the dining room to be even with the (relocated) closet. I'm not sure what your aisle behind the island seating is now with the kitchen bumped out, but it still looked kind of tight and that corner sticking out seemed a bit awkward. I see you were trying to make it even with the front of the wet bar area, but it makes more sense to me to have it be even with the back (the wall that defines the edge of the dining room.)

Interesting idea - flipping bath & stairs location would allow us to make better use of that dead space. I had liked the idea of the stairs to bsmt opening into the kitchen (making bringing groceries in easier)... in this plan the stairs would open to the LR. I'll have to noodle on that. I also do like your idea of shifting that wall to the back of the wet bar wall... my only concern with that is there is a load bearing wall between the existing LR and kitchen (the front of the wet bar), and without that far wall remaining where it was, I wouldn't know where a beam would be supported in that part of the house. Something for an architect/engineer to help me figure out. Thanks for your help!

I much prefer your original idea. But then I'm not someone who thinks the kitchen must have sight lines to the LR - in fact, I don't WANT it to! It's a darling little house and I'd go out to the back or to the side, with the side back from the front.

Don't lose the character and the charm of the house by trying to turn it into something it is not - it's a little vintage cape. If you go out the back, you can put a dormer on the back of the 2nd floor and get much more room - a nice master bath and good closets, as well as a nice sized 2nd BR with en suite bath.

I hear you, Anglophilia. We'd get design help to be sure we don't destroy the house's style. We need to think through the front / side / rear... there are pros to both configurations of the living room (pushed forward vs pushed back).

GreenDesigns, yes we have budget for this, though probably on the lower end of $150-250k. What scares me is that the prior owner considered extending shed dormers across the whole back, creating a master suite, and the architect said that the lowest of the three bids they got was $150k. !!! Apparently the prior owner wanted high end finishes, and the quote included installing AC which she did separately, but holy crap. Her plan would have added <150 sqft, and not even a new room, just larger existing rooms. I was floored by that figure and worry about what that means for the cost of doing anything like what I've sketched up so far.

We are in the Boston suburbs. Wondering if we could save some money by going with a design-build firm.

Boston area? Try 450-600K for your plans. You are in an extremely high COL area.

How much of that figure is based on finishes? My SIL, who lives half an hour away, has the same home, but their 2nd floor was an unfinished attic when they bought it. They built 2 bedrooms and a bathroom on their 2nd floor for $60k.

Unpermitted, uninspected, undocumented, and uninsured does not equate to a properly designed and constructed project.

We certainly wouldn't do that... I had no idea my SIL's price point
means she didn't pull permits etc. We never discussed that, and it never
occurred to me. So that's pretty much a bucket of cold water on most of
my schemes - we would never get close to that amount out of the house
on resale.

Here's an idea that *might* be in budget? My first idea months ago was to add a family room to the back of the house and reconfigure the kitchen:

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Pros:

-provides much needed additional family hang space

-more counterspace in kitchen

-kitchen appliances moved only slightly from existing locations (reducing cost)

-wall to existing LR not touched; no need for structural beam

-sunroom remains intact (with its views)

-expanded deck a better size for family/party use

-new bsmt space that can be finished at some point

Cons:

-blocks the 1st fl bathroom window

-no windows in kitchen!

-structural beam required where kitchen exterior wall is removed?

-even less light in old LR / new dining room (but helped by adding small windows on either side of fireplace?)

-all 3 birch trees in back yard are removed, making outdoor space significantly less charming

-nothing else on our need/wish list gets done (no garage, powder rm, etc.)

It's good to go through and work out how you see the addition working for you, but you will definitely want to get an architect involved at some point.

I am preparing for an addition also. Like you, I spent a lot of time figuring how I wanted the space to work for me. I came up with a plan and the architect tweaked it based on what I wanted. I didn't know how much my addition would run, so I paid the architect to draw the initial design. I had a contractor in mind who I wanted to work with. He gave me an estimate of what he thought it would cost to build looking at the design. When I saw it was in my budget, I then paid the architect to do the construction plans, which we submitted to the city.

An architect should be able to tell you if there is much savings with your last plan. I thought it would save me money to expand one of the back bedrooms into a master - i.e. Tear out part of the exterior block wall of a back room and enlarge it. The architect told me it would be cheaper and easier to just add a new structure to my current house, connected by a door. I was happy to hear this, because it was what I really wanted to do anyway.

One thing is that although that half bath costs a lot to put in, I would think it would be nice to have for guests.

I agree you need to get an architect involved and get an idea of the costs so you know what's feasible, both structurally and financially. I also agree about preserving the charm of the existing house, which is actually part of the reason I thought shifting the family room to the back side of the house was a good idea. Your original idea would have a big garage and family room addition front and center. As far as your most recent idea with the FR on the back, seems like it could work. But, losing the trees would be sad, and it also would not give you a garage. That said, you definitely need to know how the various possibilities affect budget, and make your decisions about priorities from there.

Thanks for the input, all. The reality check, while disappointing, is important. The most cost effective thing to do, I suspect, is to build a simple great room "box" off the back of the house, maybe leaving the kitchen alone except for making the picture window a doorway into the new space. I've been so reluctant to build off the back of the house because of those birch trees, but we also have 6 birch trees on the perimeter of the yard that we could uplight instead, which would bring back the charm I fear losing.

Have you explored how much you could sell your rouse for "as is"? How much it would cost to just buy a house that better meets your needs? Until you do these two things, put the remodeling ideas on hold. You're talking about an expensive remodel in a high COL area. Doing a cheap add-on could hurt the market value of your house.