OH and living in an earthome is COZY and economical. :) My parents build it in 1983-1984. It's 3BR 2BA, and about 2400 square feet (rough guesstimation). Every single room was used every single day. Their only regret was not having a sound proofed music room, but how could they have predicted they'd have two musically talented + incredibly obnoxious teenagers? :D Almost the entire south side of the house was floor to ceiling windows. The only other window in the house was a skylight in the kids bathroom (which they recently replaced with a solar tube due to 25 years of moisture issues!) The bedrooms don't have windows, so you sleep in TOTAL darkness. It's also 15 miles from the nearest town...one of my dad's friends was visiting from Los Angeles. When he woke in the morning to total darkness and total silence he lay there for awhile, and then called out in a meak voice "Dennis?" "Yeah, Rick?" "Oh thank GOD I thought I was DEAD!!!!" We never were scared of tornadoes, despite the frequent damage neighbors dealt with whenever a big one came through the area. We rarely needed to turn on the heat and we didn't have air conditioning at all...yet the house was always a comfortable temperature.

Here's a few of my house. I have always loved Capes and when I first saw this one I knew I could live in it happily for the rest of my life. We have done tons of work on it, it had been very neglected by the previous (and original) owner - especially the last ten years or so as she got older. Honestly we did things as frugally as possible, we have a real tight budget. Just about all my furniture came from CL - nothing cost more than a hundred or so dollars. Easy come - easy go, especially with so many critters and two young boys in the house, plus I LOVE the thrill of the hunt! I try to keep things as simple and clutter free as possible. Hope you enjoy! After growing in a few years - I still can't wait to refurbish that bow window ... Living Room, I love how the fireplace uses the same stone as the front of the house: Kitchen, this wound up being a total gut job, all the bits that wern't finished in these photos, likethe trim around the backsplash and kickboards under the cabinets are finally done: Master bedroom with my greatest all-time Craigslist score: a room sized Stark rug I got for $100! Please ignore alien kitties! It's so nice to have a spare downstairs bedroom for the birds - sometimes they are like toddlers when you cannot wait to put them to bed and shut the door! And a quick one of the porch - I love napping on the sofa outside :)

The recent residents of the house are renters who have been there for two years. It may be their furnishings and that might be why there isn't much on the walls. With the high ceilings in many rooms, that house has a lot of large wall expanses. Dedtired, the house is more blue than gray. Yes, the designation seemed off to me - I'm glad so many of you confirm it. I wonder if that's the real estate agent's idea of Cape Cod or the owner's. Gooster, not just a barrier island but so little working room around the cooktop on it. I guess the peninsula is the landing spot for the ovens but it doesn't seem very convenient. And anyone using the cooktop will be in the way of anyone wanting water from the sink. I've been trying to figure out why the cabinet area in the living room bugs me. It doesn't seem to fit. Perhaps because it looks more like a big bathroom vanity than a wet bar (which is, I assume, the intended use). What could be done to make that go better? Perhaps start with taking off the mirrors. It looks like there is no way to close off any of the public rooms from the others - entry, kitchen, breakfast nook and family room are all very open to each other and to the upper hall. It doesn't look like there are doors to close off the living room and dining room either but perhaps that could be added.

We've converted two attic spaces (same house, opposite ends) to living space, with low ceilings. From my experience, the first thing to do, after determining whether you can safely/legally finish the attic, is to run the electrical wires. To avoid running duct from a furnace/AC, I'd run 220v for a couple of baseboard heaters, and use the portable AC units which sit on the floor and vent through a window. I can see some natural light, so it looks as if you have dormers, which might be fine for egress and the portable AC units. We used foam baffles between the roof and insulation, then sheetrock as usual. If you are not confident about finishing sheetrock, and don't want to pay to have it done, you can tape it, then cover with inexpensive sheet beadboard. I like your floors as they are, but you'd want to seal them, if not paint. Those are much nicer floors than I've ever seen in an unfinished attic. I'm impressed that there are floor boards at all--I've see a lot of attics with a few pieces of plywood laid across the joists to store boxes. Since the knee walls wouldn't be structural, I think you could frame them yourself, with some research, and basic tools. You might as well frame them in, since that space is too low to use as living space, and if you feel confident enough, you can turn the space into recessed storage--shelves or converted dresser/drawers--very convenient if the space will be used as an office or craft room. If you choose the portable AC option, you could even tailor a storage space to the unit(s), for the off-season. Following are pics of some of the kneewall storage in our half-story attic addition. I did most of the work myself, with limited construction experience. (Left the electrical work to the pro.) The white walls, and closet doors, are the sheet beadboard I mentioned above. I also had to work around closet space in adjacent bedrooms, and the old roof supports, which is why the recessed shelves in the first pic are so shallow. If you can find cabinets, drawers, and chests on craigslist, Goodwill, and the Restore, you can keep the cost down--but only if you have more time, than money, to invest in the project. It would be very difficult to estimate the cost. Our neighbor is a master electrician, and we traded him a strip of land that he'd been asking about, to wire the whole addition. We already had all the tools needed. A chop saw/miter saw, set up in the space as I was working, was invaluable. Circular saw for angled cuts on 2x4 framing. Reciprocating saw for cutting existing framing, and a jig saw for small cuts is also useful. Framing and finishing nail guns are convenient, but I don't like using them, so I did all the nailing with a hammer. I love hearing a nail 'sing' as it's being driven into the framing. :) If you have friends or relatives with construction experience, who will do favors or trade skills, then you can keep the cost down. Kneewall storage ideas/google Portable AC units on Amazon