First of all, thanks for your comments, I appreciate the outside viewpoint! Carla35- She brings home a stack of work every evening and weekend, and even if she doesn't do it, it serves to block any spontaneous activity or plan that I might propose. But if a friend, relative, or co-worker calls she will spend hours on the phone with them, and if they are in a crisis (real or imagined) she will spend tons of time with them, explaning they "need her support". Yes, I'm groused about it, and yes, we've talked about it, and it always ends with "after this crisis is over, we will have lots of time together". And maybe there will be a couple of quiet weeks between crisis, but usually not, because the work and friend/relative/coworker crisis are usually overlapping. Her friends are mostly of low moral character, or just hangers-on who use her time and money, and most of her relatives have "behavioral problems", so I don't want to spend time with them. And frankly, I've grown tired of trying to fit our married life into the tiny free spaces in her schedule. I get tired of following her around like a lost puppy in order to actually hold a conversation. popi and scarlett2001- You could be right that DW is bored with me, I'm not Mr. Excitement, but I am Mr. Dependable. I do about 90% of the housework, take care of the pets, take care of most of the financial matters, make sure her stuff is in her briefcase as she screams out the door in the morning, and support her 100% in these endless crisis she's involved in. And I have a full time high-level job of my own to go to everyday. It's kind of funny and kind of sad, it seems like I'm simply experiencing what most career women with inattentive husbands go through. ;-) We married late in life, so I knew we'd have our own friends and interests, but (I thought) we would both be giving up some "personal space" for "common ground" and companionability. I must have thought wrong! I've gained a huge load of work and grief for a small dose of companionship. And I think I'm just running out of energy to cope with the endless "crisis mode" we seem to be in. As the years pile up, it gets harder to believe that she can't manage her schedule well enough to live a semi-normal home life with her husband. So- rivkadr- thanks for the suggestion on meetup.com, looks interesting! I think I'm just gonna have to start taking care of my social needs on my own, and not worry about the grief that DW gives me for it. As I mentioned, there are some reasons for not making a major status change at this time, but at least I can have some fun while I see how things shake out. Thanks again!

Really nice house. You could remove (but not discard) the existing mantel and live a while without, taking the time to consider all your fireplace options, including a more bulky but less wide mantel that is a part of a fireplace surround. (The current mantel could be reused as support for shelving or a new mantel.) Would not paint or widen the existing built ins Would not paint the wood around the cased door opening to the entry unless you do decide to put white (or wall colored) built ins on that wall incorporating the tv behind where the floor lamp now stands (third pic). If you do keep the built ins beside the fireplace their current wood look, then definitely leave the baseboard the treated wood to match the built ins. If you paint the current built ins white, then paint the window trim white, too; however, otherwise, if the current built ins are going to stay wood as is, you could decide to paint the window trim white only if you're not going to add drapes that would cover most of the window frame anyway. Would definitely paint the trim at the top of the wall the wall color since ceiling white could visually shrink the height of the room. As you consider wall colors, in addition to considering blue or gray, you might consider a wall color that is a tan (but without pink or yellow hue) such as the lightest color in the stone in the fireplace -- and keep the ceiling white. If you paint the new built-ins surrounding the tv either white or a light wall color, you should seriously consider updating the ceiling fan with one that is silver metal and tinted semi-clear plastic/vinyl blades. As to the front porch, does any part of the floor of the existing stoop extend beyond the front wall of the house or do the steps start as you walk out the door (as the sloped rails suggest)? Something you might consider is building a treated lumber deck over the steps from the front wall of the house to the sidewalk from a point midway between the door to the right front corner of the house, with wooden steps leading from the side of that deck to the sidewalk and having it built with posts extending above the deck for the railing and to build to in order to add a porch roof later.

Yes that’s exactly what I was thinking!! But we were hoping to turn the existing garage into the new master bed & bath. And possibly adding a covered carport to the left or possibly even building a new garage to the left of the driveway (about midway up so you’ll pull into the driveway and turn left into garage) and building back from there onto the house for more sq footage. That would make the house more of like an L shape if that makes sense. But I love your idea, honestly I love how the possibilities are endless! It’s a fairly small house so I’ve been trying to figure out how we can reconfigure things to make more space. Here’s some photos of the current layout & some of the ideas I’ve had for changing it up. You’ll have to forgive me, I’m kind of a rookie! Lol

We just added a screened-in porch off the back of our small house, which faces south. We added this as we were in the process of a remodel that opened up the back with lots of light... so I was pretty nervous about how it might feel with a roof limiting some of that light. Especially because we have only 8ft ceilings. It definitely reduces the bright sun but it still feels like we have plenty of light. The white roof and pillars help, as for the 3 skylights that are placed parallel with the doors. I would have loved a pergola both to preserve the light and because they’re charming, but in our area the bugs are too miserable to get much use out of an unscreened patio. This is the best before and after I can show - It’s definitely not gloomy but the bright spotlight of sun through each door is reduced.