K, Our front porch is the neighborhood meeting place. If you can add one to your home, no doubt you will enjoy the benefits. Here are some features I recommend: electrical outlets on both sides of the door for holiday decorations, ceiling fans, recessed lighting on a dimmer to create the right ambiance and have it wired for sound. Good Luck. Jack

oruboris believe me the sociological aspect does concern me more than the other. But I would not call my parents seniors they are both in their late 50's but my mom had a large stroke about 2 years or so after having heart valves replaced and repaired due to rheumatic fever as a child, and has had about 11 surgeries in the last 2-3 years mostly because part of her skull had to be removed for swelling with the initial stroke and when they put her skull back in it got infected and then she had to have a prosthesis placed. She is from a mental aspect very functional she reads and writes etc... My dad is disabled but has been so since I was a child. So both are fairly young still...dad needs help with mom because he is disabled and just not able to get up and down as much as she requires and still do everything else required to run a house. Also there are things she needs like being walked to see how much function she can get back that with everything else he does for her he is just not able. But he tells me that the loneliness is what is really getting him, because it is him and mom. We go by but we also have a house to run and I work full time and we live 30-40 minutes away. If it was next door no problem and mom has flower beds which neither are able to take care of anymore and she loves them, dad is not a house keeper and mom without help is completely bedfast, she requires at least a standby when getting up and down. So it is just to much for dad to handle and I just cant run two households and work full time. But you are correct in that they are not used to having 5 other people around even though our kids are older 14-21 and two are in college locally, and the middle one stays mostly at his dads. so obviously we don't go to bed at 8 or 9 pm like mom and dad does. The house now has as you come in the door a dining room, then kitchen to right then laundry room. Kitchen, dining, and living room are open and you step into the living room from the dining. Off to the right is a master bedroom and master bath and to the left is a bedroom, and a computer room slash bedroom with another bath in the middle. What we would do essentially is make the addition for us it would come off the end where the computer room/bedroom and bath are and the entrance in that area would be through the computer room so that there could be doors shut to muffle noises why mom and dad are trying to sleep. On the addition we be a entrance probably french doors just like any other house would have more than one entrance and there would be a den, master bedroom and master bath and then two large bedrooms upstairs. It would put us with a home with basically 4 bedrooms and 3 baths. But always good to have the extra room even on down the road, I'm convinced you never get your kids raised.

Hopefully this works. This is what we are thinking of doing. 14 x 14 mudroom with raised 6x8 laundry (to take advantage of plumbing on wall) and 28x40 garage. Is it worth the extra trouble of figuring rooflines and frost etc. Thanks for any thoughts you might have. Here is a link that might be useful: renovation plan

Thanks. Mine was built in 1973 and in no way resembled an MCM. However, yours does and looks pretty damn cool. I’d research “atomic ranch” for ideas. ETA: yes, garage was an add-on. There is a large attic space up there now with an actual floor! LOL. We waited 13 years to do the outside and add the garage. The brick was just in the front and crumbling. I love driving up to my house now instead of cringing.