We remodeled a 1957 ranch a few years ago and had a similar problem. In our case it was the dining room that was at the center of our floorplan and had no natural light. You didn't say what your roof looks like, but in our case we were able to redesign our hipped roof so that we had a gable-end with a window opening to the south right over the old dining room. It's kind of like a skylight, but with less leakage potential. We opened up a portion of the ceiling to make a tunnel of light, and kept the rest of the ceiling at 9'. It really changed the way our house functions. One of the reasons we were able to do this is we remodeled after a fire which destroyed about 1/2 of our roof. So that was an opportunity we grabbed with both hands. We made the old dining room into a study and put a transom window on the wall between the new study and new DR. It works really well to brighten the whole middle of the house.

You guys are awesome! I tried to incorporate everyone suggestions (because they were all great!) and this is what I've come up with. Since I'm not sure which of the kitchen walls are load bearing, both designs incorporate the possible need for a beam to extend down, which is fine. LAYOUT A: large pass-through looking into the living room and the doorway to the kitchen has been expanded. Basement stairs and corner coat closet have also been removed and the doorway into the addition has been widened. Hoping the outer facing cabinets around the beam can act as a place to put keys and bags, otherwise, we have no entryway. Concern: I'm a messy cook and with that being said, I'm questioning whether the stove should be below the pass-through because I'm envisioning grease splattering and sauce flying into my living room. LAYOUT B: The same as layout A but with a smaller pass-through that begins after the stove. My concern for this is despite the pass-through being just shy of 5ft wide, based on this mock-up, it doesn't look like it does much to open the room. Would this be a waste of money to even bother with? Here's a loose floorplan of both A and B. What are your thoughts? The fridge jams me up a bit because it seemed too bulky near the kitchen entrance and moving it towards the addition opening made it too crammed again.

I would do the brick veneer, just make sure to offset the addition some from the original so you don't have to worry about tying it into the original construction and it won't be noticeable it is a different material. Wood frame construction and brick/brick veneer is common. Edited to add. Obviously the framing have to be tied into the existing house. What I meant was to not have a straight flat boundary where new material meets old material. If you can have it meet in a corner it will be less noticeable. So either move the addition in a little bit or out a little bit from the existing structure.

Thank you, both! I certainly understand and appreciate where you are coming from. Waiting has been our mindset for a long time. We have lived here for ten years mostly focusing on saving, doing infrastructure projects, and tackling smaller landscaping projects (it is on 3+ acres and much has been done in the back). It doesn't look like much now (spring has not really arrived where we are) but the beds will be full with plants soon as it warms and we always plant annuals, planters, pots, and baskets. The greenery always does wonders to make it look more welcoming! We have gone back and forth about waiting. Unfortunately, the paint has been slowly running off the house when it rains since we moved in, some places are down to bare aluminum, and the deck has not been done for three years and is in need of painting anyway. We feel like we need to address it now in order to maintain the house and keep from opening ourselves up to bigger issues down the line. Aside from the painting (which we plan to do ourselves) the other projects should not be impacted when we renovate (patio furniture, trellis, steps, etc.). A good chunk of the funds will go toward furniture and based on our budget estimates. The paint and associated supplies will represent a much smaller portion.