Hi, Good to see some ideas going on this style of house. They are tricky to work with. I love the idea Lavender posted (Bob Vila). I can't open the pinterest link posted by rocky bird, can others open it? We are in the throws of building an addition on our split-foyer. We did add a little bit to the foyer, wish it could have been more. However, our foyer after the build is complete will only be a guest entrance. Our family will enter via the garage man door and into a generous sized mudroom. All family coats, shoes, knapsacks etc. will be in this basement mudroom. I don't even plan to give the kids a key to the front door, so they are forced to enter via the garage to the mudroom LOL. Here are my thoughts on split entry foyers for what is worth from a person who has ripped hers apart and is rebuilding it. 1) Avoid having family enter through front door and having their stuff dropped in that tiny foyer. Try for another family entrance (maybe through garage to basement level? or a side or back door) 2)Consider an extra wide staircase going up (ours is 4 and a half feet) and a narrower one going down (ours is 42 inches here). This way the larger staircase invites company to go up. Also with the wide staircase a person can sit on the stairs, and put shoes on, while another can pass by. 3)Consider putting an extra tall door (8 foot) for those foyers that typically are a floor and a half in height (12 feet). It fits the space better and lets extra light in if you have a transom above or glass in the door. In our case, the door draws more attention to itself as the garage protrudes and partially conceals the front door. 4)Consider beefing up and beautifying the exterior steps. Our new steps are concrete stringers, and soon to be installed stone risers/threads. The landing is also stone resting on a concrete platform 5)Put a forgiving flooring material on the interior steps so you can walk on it with boots, etc and it becomes an extensions of your foyer space in a way that a carpet can not. We will have hard wood steps. 6)Open up the wall between the living room and staircase wall. Also, endeavor to have the top of the stairs going down open to a railing. This way there is an illusion of more space I would love to hear your ideas on how to use trim to bring down the height of the ceilings in these tiny, tall ceiling spaces. I keep thinking something creative like chair rail or something might make the wall heights more in keeping with the tiny space. In other words, anything that makes the interior foyer space look less like an elevator shaft would be good. Best of luck all split-foyer owners. Carol

Agreed you need to sort out water issues before you do anything. Not even vinyl plank will be suiitable if water just gets trapped underneath it. Get someone in who does foundation/foundation repairs to take a look at what may be going on. Don’t assume it is just the doorway.

You have a beautiful home! IMO, the natural spot is the storage closet area. I'm a fan of a clean entryway so I'd keep coats, jackets behind door(s) to reduce the visual clutter. Either use the closed storage you have now and place a bench under the picture, or open it all up and create a space similar to the one AuntThelma suggested. Another suggestion for opening the space up and creating a grander entry: change the swing of your front door so the handle is by the sidelight window. Since you're handy, you can leave the light switches where they are and install Lutron Pico wireless switches by the window and easily operate the lights.

@deegw I am in love with my little farmhouse. It is currently not much to look at but I have attached some pictures. I have essentially deconstructed the interior in order to regain access to the best parts which were covered up years ago. We took it down to the studs and pulled out ancient insulation which had been blown into the walls around 1960 - there were mouse nests in there! We have tried to "mouse-proof" the walls and had to do some repairs to the structure here and there. I added some headroom to the stairs so people over 5'6" don't have to duck to go up the stairs...things like that. I am going to put the original wood plank walls back up in select areas. One wall, which is interior and still intact, has been wallpapered with wood grain wallpaper. Who wallpapers a wooden wall with wood grain wallpaper?? That wall is along the stairs and is essentially 2 stories high, so getting that wallpaper off will be a project. I'm also renovating the bathrooms. They were redone by someone recently, so there is nothing quaint worth saving there. It has been interesting getting rid of the layers - When we pulled up the carpet and subfloor in one bedroom, we found wide mismatched planks of wood for flooring - not your typical wood flooring like in the rest of the house. When we pulled them up (because we needed to reinforce the floor without disturbing the original ceiling below), we found old newspaper glued to the underside. It was hard to read, but I could make out "God speed" "run its war" and "be for allied" which was neat. Wish I knew the story on this was under the floor. I think a uniform slate for the mudroom is a great idea. Plus, I already have slate pavers on a pathway outside, so that will tie in! They are the uniform dark type, not multi-colored. I've attached some "work in progress" pics. With the mudroom decided, any opinion on the tile for the laundry room? I picked something I liked but would love any other opinions on that...also would like opinions on ideas for the bathrooms. Here is the exposed chimney and some original walls and ceiling (covered in soot, I think?) The tiny door (removed for now) goes under the stairs. I put in new white oak floors over the original. The original floor was really in bad shape and there was no subfloor. I would love to have been able to refinish the original floor but it was all wonky and cut up from when radiators were installed. One cut was 3'x4' -- huge! (no radiators were left when I bought the house, but all the boiler equipment was still in the basement.) Removing carpet from a bedroom. Mouse tunnels! We got rid of that grossness and put in new insulation. Also sistered some beams to improve floor stiffness above. Work in progress - peeling back layers. This landing was covered in carpet. The wall to the left was covered in the 1970s paneling you see straight ahead and then that was covered in drywall, so the trim around doors was basically flush with the wall from all the layers. Here is what we found under the stairs when we removed the 1970s paneling that made a little closet. Who closes in a closet and leaves trash? That's all it was - trash. I was hoping for a cool time capsule. Or treasure. :-) Oh well... Here is the possible tile option for the laundry - next to a kitchen cabinet that will be the same color as the laundry cabinets. Here is the same tile actually in the laundry room - next to a salvaged door that will go in this pocket. Tile is in a different layout. I'm not sure which is better or if there is a better option....thoughts? PS - just for fun - here are some pics of what I found in the barn. There is also an old wall mount kitchen sink and a wood stove in the barn, which I assume came out of the house at some point.