Young-gardner - It's so hard to try to shrink things - esp when at the same time you need to add things. Not sure it's going to be possible but I am trying! As for the kitchen - that is what I was thinking 19' is HUGE. My current kitchen is a tight 10x10 which is small but 19' - I have no idea what I'd do with all of that length - seems to be awkward being so long and narrow. Thanks for the pics, that helps since I am a very visual person! I did some more modification like you suggested and then again another way in that area and it is just an odd shape to try to adjust I think. :( I haven't given up yet. I do really like having windows facing 2 sides in the kitchen (even though part of them are really in the dining area). Kelhuk-thanks for your thoughts. I was wondering that very thing about the living room. I definitely do not want to get into that type of situation since I basically have something similar now. It has so many openings at opposite ends that you have to literally walk through the middle of living room to get from the hallway to the kitchen. There is no way to walk a perimeter. Makes for awkward furniture placement too. Thanks for you comments - hoping others will chime in a well. I am wondering since the 1st plan (which was really the second picture) will be easier to modify since I need to add a 1/2 bath but in it's current state I have a little bit of wiggle room with sq footage. Any ideas on how to add a screened in porch on that first one? Back to the drawing board. Every time I feel like I'm 'close' the more I look at it not so much. Good thing I'm starting early.

If your contractors are like the ones I've hired, they're not going to follow the plans anyway. It'll be generally the right size and shape, but unless you're there verifying each measurement it's not going to match the plans. If you've got guys like that doing your work there's not much point to paying for an architect. The only exception seems to be electricians, who will put things exactly where you want, if you give them measurements. Another issue you're going to face is that you can't know exactly how the addition will structurally fit into the existing building until you start removing parts of the building. At that point the contractor will probably start modifying the plans to fit what's already there, rather than rebuilding things. The later option is a lot more expensive and time consuming.

First, comments on changes other people have already suggested: - The utility room /mudroom enlargement circled in red is nothing short of brilliant. it takes space that's already planned, already under-roof and makes it into a much more functional area. Note that the main house door is now right next to the trunk of the car ... perfect for unloading groceries, and everyone will have room to "spread out" a bit as they enter the house (as opposed to be crammed into that little hallway space. Do note that you can have a whole world of shelves UNDER the stairs in this space, making it a fairly large storage area. This could be a spot for the gun safe; it's a little more private than the hallway-just-off-the-great-room, and guns are something many of us like to keep private; plus you'd have the counter space for bringing guns out to check, clean, whatever ... and with the gun safe moved to the utility /laundry, you could use what's now labeled as "gun safe" as a pantry. I don't think I'd want an exterior door in this spot though. It'd be out-of-sight-out-of-mind and very easy to leave unlocked. - Second, the area circled in blue ... I'm less enamored of this area. This house isn't large, and you don't have any other space to act as an office ... yet we all know we need a space to store bills and other mail, a spot for a printer, a place to charge laptops, etc. That's what I'd do with this "media room" ... I'd use it as a pocket office. It could be closed off with pocket doors. Pocket doors for a pocket office. If you do away with the little office space, here's what I'd do with this spot: You don't need two hallways, one running on each side of the gun safe ... it'd look kind of weird from the great room ... and that nose-to-toes powder room is too small for comfort. If you go with a pedestal sink, you can have a slightly-larger-but-still small powder room accessible from the "back side" of the house ... and have a coat closet opening towards the living room. Alternately, you could have a little indented niche for a hall table ... or you could have a set of built-in bookshelves. Other thoughts: - Thoughts on the hall bath -- look at the changes I made to the full-floor-plan above: You really don't want a pocket door on a bathroom. Pocket doors are perfect for doors that stay open most of the time ... like the utility room in this house ... you'd keep it open most of the time, but you want a pocket door so you can shut the dog in there occasionally, and so you can close it off when guests come over. Pocket doors, however, are harder to close than regular hinge doors, and they do wear out more quickly than hinge doors (and when they wear out, fixing them means breaking into the wall --expensive. However, if you put a hinge door on this bathroom, one of your two sinks (you really should ditch the duplicate sink ... expensive and no point) is behind the door. What I'd do is move the toilet so it's kind of behind the door (slightly more privacy) and go with one looong sink vanity. You'd have so much space for drawers and storage; you could use a portion of this long vanity as a linen tower. I like that this bathroom has a window. - No, this plan doesn't have a foyer, but you know you'd place the sofa opposite the fireplace, and it would create an entryway. I've lived in a house like this, and it works fine. Place a sofa table behind the sofa, and it becomes a drop spot for visitors' keys and purses. I don't 'specially love this example, but it'd be easy and inexpensive to do something like this ... do install a floor outlet in the appropriate spot so you could have lamps as shown: - The dining room is narrow. I'd do two things: First, I'd go with banquette seating, which requires less space than a traditional table. Something like this: Second, I'd go with a sliding door (the newer styles are called gliding doors) instead of a French door. The slider requires no in-swing, which will help with your tight space. - The master closet is only 5'8 in the shorter dimension. A hanging rod with clothing will take up 24" ... and you must account for the wall thickness ... the reality is that you're going to get L-shaped clothing storage, not the U-shaped storage that's shown here. You could use the other wall for hanging accessories. Measure your current closet and see what I mean. I'd steal some space from the bathroom and revamp this whole area ... something like this: Your whole bathroom /closet area is 15-4 x 15-6 ... I'd give 7' width to the closet, which would allow you 2' on each side for clothing a 3' walkway down the middle ... I'd also open it on the end so it connects directly to the laundry. This would give you approximately 24' linear clothing storage (which could be half hanging space and half folding space, or whatever suits you) as well as good connections to the bedroom, bathroom and laundry -- so convenient. I'd simplify the bathroom and take out the corner tub (which is pretty, but not so practical). 6' for the tub and 6' for the shower -- both large enough to be luxurious -- leaves 3' for the toilet, which is tucked away in a corner but isn't in a claustrophobic, hard-to-clean stall. This gives you space for long 9' vanity with loads of drawers for storage ... plus a 3' linen closet. Your walkway would be about 3' wide. I'd put windows over the tub and toilet ... and another window at the end of the bathroom so you have a nice sightline when you enter from the bedroom. - Your plan shows a patio off the covered porch /by a kid's bedroom. I'd rather have that patio off my master bedroom. I'd put a door on that side (which would also give more light than the two windows that're shown) and have backyard access from the master. Final short thoughts: - I agree that the main living areas, which area flanked by bedrooms and covered porches, will be dark. - I agree that fake dormers are weird, but I also think that if you remove them, the roofline will be missing something. You'd need to do some other adjustments to the roofline if you remove the dormers.

Part of me wonders if it would be less expensive to buy an extremely old house and redo it from top to bottom instead of finding craftsman and paying a premium to make a new house look old. My knee jerk is "probably not, and only if you were to find an old house that was excellently taken care of and didn't require a lot of fussing with to become workable for modern lifestyles." That said, there is a whole "new old house" movement. There is a "magazine" (published once a year, but with an annual kitchen and bath issue, and a source guide) called New Old House, a number of online articles on the topic, and some excellent books by Russel Versacci, among others. (I'm particularly fond of "Roots of Home," but I haven't seen his newest one yet). Now, I, personally, don't have the budget to really to it up right and use all authentic natural materials, etc. But it is possible to gain some helpful tips and develop you "eye" for what makes a house look more authentically "old."