So if we were to do a 1.5 story with the master on the main level, where would you put that, behind the garage then? My thought process would be to first determine priority of room placement in the most ideal location for the use of the room and then if conflicts between room placement develop then rank by how much time is spent and how time is used for each room as well as the importance of that use compared to the importance of the uses for the other rooms. If watching the sunrise from your bed pays off with more enjoyment than having the sunrise and morning sun striking your kitchen, then plan accordingly. For instance, do you plan on using your master suite as a parental get-away from the kids, using it during the day or will your non-sleeping uses be restricted to evenings only, meaning that any views from the rooms would be lost to the darkness of the night? If the views are not important, I'd bury the master suite near the garage in the above sketch. If however, views and day time use are important, then I'd move the master to the east/south/west walls, perhaps right off the entry or in the back off of the kitchen. I'm not necessarily saying to put the master off the entry or off the kitchen, though you could, I'm just using these as examples that reference the above sketch. The way I'm designing my own home is to use a very self-reflective process which tries to understand how I actually live my life rather than trying to contort my lifestyle into architectural trends which presuppose how people SHOULD live their lives. So, to continue on the questioning, why exactly do you appreciate a main-floor master? Is it so that you can avoid stairs? Is it so that you can hear the comings and goings of the kids at night as they try to leave the house, is it because you don't want the kids too near your bedroom, is it because you don't want noise transmission from the master to be easily heard by the kids, and so on? Once you can articulate to yourself why you want something then you can find the best solution for your plan, rather than adopting a cookie-cutter approach. For instance, what I found amusing in some plans was a main floor master with a child's bedroom directly over it on the 2nd. Now, to me, if the goal was to reduce noise transmission from either the child's room to the parent's room or vice versa, the separation by floor, while having intuitive appeal, would fail to achieve the mission. The example I used in an earlier comment was to have a master suite separated by a stairway corridor AND a children's hallway which together create a 7'-8' dead zone, possibly with some walls other than the master and child's bedroom walls also added in between. There are no common walls shared, there is a huge dead zone in between and the goal of reducing noise transmission is, I believe, better served than a downstairs master with an upstairs child's bedroom directly over top, sharing common ceiling/floor as well as sound transmission paths down the walls. Of course, if sound transmission has nothing to do with the appeal of a downstairs master suite, then what I've sketched out is a solution to a problem which doesn't exist, or doesn't matter. I was thinking the master/office space on one side and then the kitchen, dining, great room on the other. That makes sense to me. Would you move the great room from the center of the house below to the front where the dining study is and move the study to where the great room is? Lots of configurations can make sense, but they must make sense in relation to how you envision yourself using the space and the particulars of your lifestyle and preferences. I'd say grab some graph paper, or even blank paper, and just block out the rooms and see how they interplay with each other, note how you foresee traffic patterns within and throughout the space, imagine daily routines taking place within the space. Once you have an idea of how you live, or how you want to live in the new space, then get the graph paper and try to get a better handle on size and furniture placement, and traffic patterns and by the end of this process you should have a very good understanding of how you want the space to be configured. I did the same for my house and this has resulted in me doing away with a formal living room from the now traditional LR/FR combo pack and reallocating the space elsewhere in the home, such as combining the entry with the LR space in order to create a larger sense of space/volume, has led me to create a larger kitchen than would be warranted in relation to the size of the informal living room, has led me to other design changes that likely violate what trained architects use as benchmarks for how homes should be designed. Thank you for the garage tip also - I thought 24x24 was rather large? We will be getting an oversize door for sure. I'd say measure your cars, block out a 24 x 24 space on your lawn, use cardboard boxes or something else to fill the space of your cars, then throw in the other junk you're likely to store alongside the walls of the garage, and see how much space you actually need. Try to get out of your car and see if the door bangs the wall or the other car. A 24 x 24 garage is actually pretty good considering that many designed give a 20 x 23 or something similarly ridiculous.

Hi angiep, what a cute house. I live in 750 sq ft! Personally, if I could dbl that space, I'd be a lot happier! My house was built in 1949 & unfortunately, is not craftman style. Just plain ole '40's - '50's cottage style. 2 bedrm's, 1 small bath, 1 living area, 2 very small closets & 1 small one in the hallway w/ shelving next to the bath, like a linen closet. The kitchen is not a bad size - pretty much sq or a little rectangle! I'm just starting to redo that. I was going to turn my current kitch into a dining rm & add on a kitchen, but I was out of work for a yr & 1/2 & now I'm just able to redo the kitchen only now. Kind of a bummer, but it is what it is. I'll post pictures on here when it's all said & done. Probably will be after the 1st of the next yr when it's all thru! I wish I could say my bills are great, but not so much! I have very little insulation & live in Austin, TX where it's in the 100's this time of yr. They just raised our rates & my last bill was $215!! That also includes water & garbage, but trust me, the majority of that is electricity! Then add a $5000 property tax bill & my small house isn't that cheap to live in! I would definitely not be able to afford a larger house at this point! But, as I said, I've made it really cute over the years & have just learned to make it work. It's not the easiest thing to live in such a small place, but I've been here for 13 yrs, so have learned to purge a few times a yr! Or, if you're smart, just don't buy new stuff! I have a hard time w/ that, tho! I just wanted to congratulate you on your new digs. You'll figure out how to live in it & be very happy! Good luck!

Hi Ellendi, luckily it is quite a mix of houses around here and the ones I posted are not close :) Good point though, I do not want to copy the color or styles of the houses close to us. Thanks for the link AnnieD - lots of good ideas there. I think I am going to go with plain glass and then add an applique if it is annoying to have the plain glass. I now need to decide whether to do one door with a window on the left side only that opens as a casement or the top that opens like an awning or the single door in the middle with either two fixed windows or two sidelights. If I do the one fixed window on the left side, I was thinking of making the door mostly wood with a window on top. Any suggestions on door websites? I attached a better picture of our existing doors looking straight on. We are going to cover the walkway with a trellis and get rid of the windows on the right side (garage) and change out the windows to the left of the front door. I am thinking of trying to match or complement the windows to the left with the window(s) at the front door. Lots of details :)

If you want a forward facing gable over your entry: remove the existing roof of your front porch. It can be replaced with a shed/half roof sloping away from the right exterior side of the house after you create your front porch with a forward facing gable. Enlarge and enclose the walls and flooring of your existing porch so the exterior wall on the side closest to the road is made even with the rest of the front exterior wall of the home. Beginning halfway between the downstairs right front window and the right front corner of the house, create a forward facing gable with a ridge point halfway between that beginning point and a point on the right that is as far right as needed to be even with the far right edge of the existing front porch. Your new front exterior wall of your new wall will be a continuation of your existing front exterior wall and the forward facing gable you create will cover your new 6' deep front porch. Your new entry door will be on the right half of that new front porch. Alternately, remove only the half of your existing porch roof that slopes away from the road and enlarge the walls of your existing porch as before -- to have the wall closest to the road be even with the exterior wall of the home now closest to the road. Then extend it the roof slope on the back upward to a new ridge point that will enable the slope that is on the road side of the house (of even length) to extend over your new front porch -- that will have a shed roof toward the road. Again, put your front entry door in the right side of the new front exterior wall of your new entry and create your gable roof facing the right side of your home. Then create your new sidewalk leading to your new front door. If there is room for a 4' - 6' front stoop between the front exterior wall of your home and the tree w/o harming the tree roots, the tree needn't be cut. Toward that end, you might use a treated deck board floor for your porch rather than dig a footing. As an alternative, you could use a flat roof for your new entry and create a deck that wraps a few feet around your right front corner. Edited to address tree issue and deck issue.