Alex, that is what I am leaning towards for sure. There was just some debate about the stairs that needed to be figured out on the design. Mush, I was just overbuilding to to 'be certain'. You say 37" is nice. I was thinking I would opt for 44 since rails will take up 3-4". I may be shaving them down to 38" if I am unable to have enough room after the landing turns (such as if the stairs cut too much in the front entry way) I am currently thinking with the extra 4' that will not be an issue...depending on how I manage the entry. Considering having a 6' dividing wall from entry and living room, then opposite of that a matching storage wall / closet to hide the cut out floor and allow coats, boots, etc to be stowed away. Suggestions? The closet is awkward with that niche, but I figured I would turn it into built in shelving floor to ceiling. Then there is an L shaped space for hanging clothes along one side and the back of the closet. Taking out the niche and giving it to the bathroom is a waste of space. I considered splitting the closet between both bedrooms. But where do you put dressers and a TV? I am not building the master bedroom to be excessive by any means. I want just enough room to get around the bed and feel comfortable (3' or so, I think) The garage is an awkward big. If it were wider and less deep it would be more efficient but location on lot doesn't allow that. I can easily use the extra depth for a riding mower, woodworking area, and my little motorcycle. dekeoboe :) Thank you for harping on me about my lax attitude on the stairs. So, Yes, that is true with only 78". So I am thinking about making the stairs less wide so the landing is less wide so I can fit an extra stair. Assuming 4' extra space is there at the front door, I think we could cut out one more I-joist to make sure I meet code. Do you have any other suggestion? Do you think my idea of having a storage closet with a false bottom to the right of the entry door will look funny when all said and done? What about having that section of the house serve as a foyer with walls on each side of entry? My only other thought is to have the stairs next to the garage wall, and behind the long kitchen wall. The garage person door would need moved further down so I can have enough stairs before the turn landing to not have to make any floor notches under kitchen cabinets. I really don't want to run the stairs perpendicular to floor joists. This post was edited by CTSNicholas on Sun, Feb 1, 15 at 15:37

Difficult room, but TVs never go in front of windows. Try moving the sofa at a 90° angle to the fireplace and put the end table on the other end by the wall. The only other option I can see is to put the TV over the mantel which I would do before I put it in front of the window.

How many people do you usually have sitting in this space and how will they be using it? The following is based on five people for each seating arrangement. How about two seating areas - one with the tv and one with the fireplace. The one with the fireplace, put two loveseats facing each other and an upholstered chair with the back to the window. The other seating area - one love seat along the window wall and two upholstered swivel chairs at each front corner of the loveseat. Have the tv on the same side wall as the fireplace. (Of course, this depends totally on the first question.) What would help us a lot to help you would be a floor plan or more pics so we know exactly where the window ends and what's at the other end of the room.

What do you want the room to be used for? Only a living room or a living room plus office like you have now? Living room and dining room? One quick suggestion- Even in a small room, in fact, especially in a small room, you want to try to use less decorative accessories. Using too many decorative accessories even if they are smaller can read like clutter. You are better off having fewer, even larger ones. That goes for art, fabric hangings sculpture, dolls and decorative objects. For example, a large embroidered fabric 3 feet x 4 feet elephant makes much more of an impression. Same for a Hanuman or Todsakanth mask, or a dancer doll. When on it's stand, if the height reaches to 2.5 feet, that makes a wonderful statement. They can be displayed in different ways, for example you can purchase a decorative corbel or bracket and put what you want to display on top. Try to go through your things and seriously think about what has strong sentimental value or that you love. Get rid of the rest. If you still have a lot of things left, you can rotate them, they don't all have to be on display at once. Think of your place as a museum, and you are rotating the collections. Also, if you don't love the curio cabinet and the china cabinet, you don't need to keep those either, because you may not need all that space just to store the collectibles you are now purging. It's important to remember that just because you may be getting rid of some posessions that you inherited doesn't mean you are getting rid of the warm memories that are attached to those possessions, or the honor and love you have for the relatives that gave you those those things. You can of course always photographs these things to help you remember them.