The big window. In place of the dark couch.

Like if I was sitting at it, with my back towards the window?

This is like organized chaos. You have way too much stuff. Every surface. Every wall. How many tvs do normal people need? No one wants to hang out with your shoes. You need an intervention and a yard sale.

Ok, the garage conversion was for me to hang out in. A man cave I guess. So it’s my desk, my sneakers that I collect and a TV to watch, and a TV for the surveillance system. I agree, there is way too much stuff in this house. But nothing can really go. Well, for sure one of the 2 couches downstairs could, but that’s really about it.

"Like if I was sitting at it, with my back towards the window?"

No. With one leg on the window wall, one leg where the bookshelf is. The computer monitor will go on the wall side.

Gotcha. That’s what I was originally gonna do but, the desk sticks out 11-12 inches passed the wall

There's nothing wrong with having collections. You just have to display them to their best advantage. Usually that means grouping them together. So once the desk is out of the corner you can move the shoe display over by the other shelf (again, that should be lowered. It could be nearly touching the shoe display). I think it looks like it would fit on the wall to the left of the door.

What kind of budget do you have? Would it be possible to build an entertainment unit that allows your security monitor to be hidden behind closed doors when you're not looking at it? Or maybe there's a system where it can display art most of the time.

I feel your pain! I live in a split foyer entry home and one of our biggest issues is lack of storage space. Could you maybe move the ride on bikes and trikes into an outdoor storage shed? We used to love our open railing bannisters when our children were younger but now we don't like the fact that if things are not kept immaculately clean, the first view on walking into the house is of clutter. We are considering adding some walls to make the downstairs more of a separate area that is not visible the moment you enter the house. I wonder if that would help in your situation or not.

I deleted my last comment for a better one. It doesn't matter much if the desk sticks out. Set a floor lamp in the gap between the end of the desk and the couch. Or use a blocky side table and have the front right corner of it touch the back corner of the desk. You'll have a bit of a gap there but I think it will improve the way the room is used and your shoe collection will look much better if it's not half in front of a window.

And I live with kids so I know about the proliferation of papers, photos, crafts, etc. It looks horrible in photos but in real life your home should reflect your *whole* family and kids are going to craft!

Ask your S/O about the possibility of using one frame per child or a collage frame for your family and update the photos once a year.

Who is responsible for this area

Because that person seems to have a nice touch, could you get him or her to help you with ironing out the rest of the house?

Maybe you could put the sectional in your man cave and move the nicest sofa to the living room on the spindle wall. Get a huge wall unit for where the sectional is and move the tv to that wall. The wall unit would have shelving for framed photo and closed storage for all the books that are crammed into that bookcase and the toys.

Bet that's the father's apartment. No kid stuff.

Back East, we used to call houses like yours High Ranches.

You've gotten some good ideas for your downstairs man cave room. You're making progress in understanding how you want to use your spaces.

In an earlier post you said I do have an area downstairs( where the sneakers are) which is a pretty
big room. It was the garage converted. It’s around 12’x20. But for
whatever reason my wife likes to sit in LR to watch TV. I think my
biggest problem is not knowing exactly what I want done, but for
something to be done. (If that makes any sense ).

But now you've identified that it's your man cave, with your desk, your collections, the security monitor. That's progress, because you can let go of the idea of your wife watching TV in your man cave.

Does you wife have any ideas about what she likes and doesn't like about the house?

How does the eating table, dining room table and kitchen work for the family? That's often a reason that people are dissatisfied with their house. What problem were you hoping to solve when you were talking about taking out the wall between the kitchen and dining room?

Yes, that’s what started this thread. I asked what my house was called cause as far as I knew I lived in a Inline high ranch. I’m in NY, so I assume it’s different in different areas. We call this either online or wideline high ranch. The thing with mine is it’s a ground level entry instead of the split foyer entry. I did all of the downstairs. ( yes father lives there). Here, here’s a quick rundown. Me and my wife purchased this house when there were no kids and no thought of anyone living downstairs. When we had our first child, we wound up spending a lot of time downstairs so decided to put a kitchen down there. it was a bathroom, family room and extra bedroom with an area for a kitchen for a mother daughter. My mother surprisingly passed and I didn’t want my father staying alone so I just told my father to take my downstairs. When hurricane sandy hit, we had to do some work so decided to convert the garage to living space as we never once used the garage. I did all the furniture and designing downstairs. ( when it came time to do upstairs, I wasn’t into it so my wife did it. ) im gonna take pics of rest of my downstairs. But the dilemma came when we lost all of downstairs except for the converted room. But no bathroom or kitchen there so no time spent there.

This thread originally was ideas for kitchen , LR, DR just like you said. Wanted more open, and just left those main living areas were just too small or could be arranged better.

.

.as you can see in the last pic, even this flow is disrupted by the bathroom separating kitchen and living area

So the dilemma is for the kitchen, living room and dining room upstairs? If so, what are the problems?

Just M, Did you resolve your man cave. I was thinking to pull your sofa up closer to the sofa and have your corner desk go behind it. Your sneaker storage can float against the wall next or near the laundry door. I don’t know if you want to re-wire your tv and push it down more in front of the other sofa facing that wall. This is how I was thinking of having the room laid out.

Wow Claire, I love that. I’m gonna see if that layout will fit and work. Thanks so much. I’ll def post pic

So the couches not touching any walls. Always wanted to try that but never did

Right and you can have a clear path to the laundry room what I didn’t ask you is what are the sizes of your seating

Both coaches are 7’ and 3’ wide. Pretty big. Really should get rid of one.

You still should be fine

Many homes are designed & built in accordance with the width of the lot. Sometimes a builder will modify the floor plan to make it fit.

I have one suggestion in answer to your original question : IF you can look up your property on your county auditor web site, it should show your real estate taxes, your home's appraisal value, ownership history & price that was paid (it will include names if anyone owned it before you did), sq. ft., how many rooms, year it was built, etc. AND will also give a description of your home; ranch, colonial, bi-level, etc. If it does, that's what it would be called if it is ever on the market through a realtor. I hope you are able to look it up. All you need to enter is your address.

I thought OP built the house.

The prior house was a little 1 BR cottage with a basement. The builder bought that house and knocked it down and filled in basement and built this. I’m on a 40x100 lot. House is 25’x45’. On the county public records it’s listed as Raised/Hi Ranch which is what I originally stated but come to conclusion that different homes have different name throughout our country. Like the commonly referred bi level or split level house here is called a hi ranch here.

.

Is that all the space you have in the back. Your house is more compact. The builder could have put in a few more feet in the front

I have more space, not much, but more. Lol.

Yep you have plenty of space you’re able to extend a a foot or so. Actually if you don’t want to add to the back You can pave it more to have a better seating area with a nice fire pit

Hold up. Now we're adding on to make room for all our stuff?? Get rid of things. You said yourself you don't need both of those couches. You don't need all sorts of small fluttery tables.

And your kids probably benefit greatly from your yard.

There is one thing I know for a fact, and that is it doesn't matter at all how much room you have. If you're tidy and organized 1600 sqft will do quite nicely for a family of five. If you're home is a chaotic mess 4000 won't be enough. And you'll fill every inch available.

Lol... Lindsey is this your DH

ROFL

Well you talking to him as though he was your husband haha

I wish my husband was this interested in the functionality of our house...

No, I meant "we" as a collective group of collaborators :-D

What are you doing with your home anyway have you fixed the aroma

Mad funny.

Claire do you mean me? I don't remember mentioning it but your question is relevant.

Our house smelled terrible when we bought it due to un-tended pets. Gutting down to beams, studs, and joists took care of that though! Only the master bedroom and finishing stuff like baseboards are left to do, Husband is working on it slowly and sporadically as work allows. Which is practically never...

OMG! This post is the song that never ends. Hire a designer who can help you use the space more efficiently and tame your storage issues. It may be a 3000 sq ft house, but your four person family is living in half of it and your dad is living in the rest and you can't fully utilize the converted garage. It might get better when the kids are older if you can hold out.

Haha...Yes Lindsey I’m talking to you. I haven’t seen you answer the thread in a bit

Just didn't have anything to add since yesterday. Until I decided to get wife-y!

you added something on that thread......I haven't seen it.

I'm sorry, I'm so confused. What thread are you taking about?

about your home with the aroma

I think you must be thinking of a different user...

maybe

Have you tried the layout Just M