I love questions with easy answers.... 1. If you have an opportunity to buy an Arts & Crafts house, do it. You are buying a uniquely American gem. For more information about these houses see Arts and Crafts Styles: Craftsman, Prairie and Four-Square Houses. 2. Keep your existing windows if at all possible. There are many good references on the web and in books detailing how to rehabilitate old windows. If you are deterred by the old sash weight balance system, there are a lot of replacement balances, including those that permit the window to tip in for easy cleaning. Blain Window Hardware is your source for all things window. 3. Recent DOE-funded studies show that a properly rehabilitated single glazed window with a storm window is just as energy efficient as a new double-glazed window. For historically correct wood custom made storm windows with sliding screens, check out Spencer Works. 4. Steam or (more likely) hot water radiator heat is the very best kind of heat. There are no drafts such as are created by forced air systems. You be amazed at how little dust you will have in your new house. To add cooling, I suggest a split sytem with one unit for the top floor run through the attic, and one for the bottom floor run through the basement. You can now get condensers (the outside part) that hang on the outside wall. Not the prettiest things, but they work. This dual zoning allows you to separately control cooling on each floor, so you can turn up the cool at night in the bedroom area, and dial it down in the day time. Vice-versa for the living areas on the first floor. This should be in the range of $8,000 or so for a 13 SEER high efficiency system. It's the duct work that adds cost. By splitting the system you keep ducting to a minimum. If space is very right, try a high velocity system with 4" ducts. These can be located nearly anywhere a water pipe can go. 5. To locate cat urine, use a black light. To eliminate cat urine stains and smells, call a cleaning service such as Service Master. These guys have the heavy duty equipment to make sure the job is done right. Good luck. A house this old is a continuing adventure.

For those asking for pictures, here's one from the street: I totally understand Virgil's (and others) concerns -- rest assured we have already spoken with a few local professionals and we're very close to hiring an experienced residential designer. Reading over several threads the past few days (special thanks to ArchitectRunnerGuy) has helped me to understand the design process better. It has also allowed me an opportunity to see things from an architect's point of view -- I get how it could be frustrating to always have clients bringing in their suggested floor plans... what was the phrase I saw on here somewhere? It was like "bringing a fast food burger to a gourmet buffet" :-) I think for us, attempting to draw up our own ideas was just an exercise to force us to consider all the details and the push/pull of different needs and wants... and we figured they would be a good jumping off point for discussion with whomever we hired. As I was searching for different perspectives, I stumbled upon this site and saw some amazing threads where people were collaborating and building off each other. That's what inspired me to post our "armchair architect" layouts. Even if we hire the best architect we can find, some creative and wonderful idea may come out the collective wisdom on this site that could have otherwise been missed... One thing ARG's other threads have helped me to understand is that even having a few sketches of ideas still doesn't effectively communicate all the reasons why to an architect. You can't just hand over those ideas and say "here, start with this, but make it 10 times better". The design charrette process he described is really the key to getting everyone on the same page. I've definitely learned better questions to ask when evaluating potential architects and designers ("Tell me about your process"). Getting back to question answering: Rockybird - this is in Georgia. There would be windows in the master, and the spare bedroom near the studio (although in Take 2, there's barely any exterior wall space left for one -- I caught that, but was out of ideas on how to make it better). The shared bath would technically be the only interior access to the Studio -- the whole idea is for my wife to be able to have clients in the studio without them having to come into our house. The shared bath is really just for cost savings... BTW, the current house faces north. As I've read more about the importance of south facing windows and light penetration, I see that both our ideas haven't been considerate of that and we would have some dark areas... Quinn - Wow is all I can think of to say right now! Thank you so much for your thoughtful and creative ideas. We had not considered layouts with the studio in the front of the house - that could definitely work, and yes the studio could be an L shape. One of the only reasons we were thinking it would be new construction was also due to cost savings -- other than a few more windows and HVAC, the studio space could pretty much be the same fit and finish as a garage -- bare concrete floors, etc. So we were hoping the cost per square foot to build that could be cheaper... I like your placement for the garage and "bumping in" the L shaped addition to be more respectful of the original house. And I love that the squirrelly hallway bothered you so much you had to come back the next day and make it better. I'd love to know what software you're using... seeing exterior renders really helps me visualize what the completed addition could look like. We are in complete agreement about hallways - we tried our best to eliminate them too. As for keeping things on one level -- for the studio it's pretty important. We have a two story house now and some of my wife's equipment is upstairs. She has tons of gear (lights, backdrops, etc.) and sometimes travels to clients. She is quite tired of the multiple trips up and down the stairs... Depending on the cost savings, we would be willing to consider putting the game room and/or a 3rd bedroom and bath upstairs. I think that's all for now. Thanks again to everyone for contributing, and I'll be sure to update this as things progress.

The covered front porch is robbing a lot of natural light. I do agree with Beverly that you can look at the outside trees. You would be amaze at how heightening the canopy on your trees will bring in so much more light. You have a good start.....just need some tweaking. Love the rug! For the furniture, I recommend the following: 1) Move the sofa to face the fireplace, creating a "hall" behind it. 2) Move the chairs to flank the fireplace. 3) Turn the rug the other direction, if it fits that way. 4) Add lamps on either side of the chairs. 5) Add 2 tall buffet lamps to the hall cabinet. 6) Add some lighter pillows to the sofa, along with some red. 7) The arrangement on the fireplace needs to be reworked. I'd put the red artwork up there sideways alone or with a couple of other pieces. Too much up there now. 8) Move the mirror to where the red art is now. 9) Remove the small pieces from the front hall table.

I’m looking at the Rejuvenation Rose City pendants as an example. Their 4” fitter will support a 10” classic schoolhouse (6” high) or an 11“ ogee schoolhouse (7” high); I prefer the profile of the ogee. If I want a 12” classic schoolhouse, I‘d have to install a 6” fitter. (The 6” fitter will fit much larger fixtures, like 14 and 16”, which seem too large for my space. The 4” fitter supports other fixtures, like a drum, 8” wide and 6” deep. So the 4” seems to give me more options for this particular spot). I don’t have to buy from Rejuvenation, but I do like their products and love that I have the option to swap out shades. So I can play around and choose the one I like for this project. (I want to try clear but if the glare is too much, I could swap to opal glass. ) I’d also have the option to swap it out in the future for a slightly different look. Does anyone else offer that? I haven’t seen it. Thanks for all your help!!!! I really appreciate it.