Wow. I, for one, am sure salivating over those beautiful pictures. Probably not exactly what Matt and Trish were expecting or looking for, but they sure took my breath away. We also are building a Craftsman house. Since I couldn't afford a real architect, I have done my own extensive research. And believe it or not...as useful as the internet is, I found the old fashioned library to be the best resource. I basically designed our plan myself. I tried very hard to stick to some true Craftsman elements with the scale, trim, and openness of the floorplan. Of course I'm pretty sure that my very large kitchen, master bath and closet do not fit the true Craftsman style, I have tried to be authentic in other ways. As far as decorating I do not plan to emulate a true Craftsman because I have a lot of traditional, transitional, and semi-antique (handcrafted pieces from the 1920s-1940s) that I will not part with. I am instead trying to create a Craftsman "mood" by highlighting generous usage of stained woodwork and painted tiles. We also have a decent but small start of a collection of art glass that I will be highlighting. I am going to be using earthy and sort of dark colors to achieve that mood. I know that my house will probably be somewhat dark even though there are lots of windows. The deep overhangs and eaves will sort of shadow the natural light. That's perfectly OK with me. I am not a bright light type of person. I like warm woods and dark colors. For what it's worth, I'm also not a morning person. I hope that the house we are creating will be a work of art and live well with my family. It certainly has been well thought out. I know it is not going to be authentic by any means so I hope that it doesn't offend anyone. The house will be in a historical district. Oddly enough not one of the other houses in the area seem to be a real clear style even though they were all built between 1915-1930. ECLECTIC RULES! I guess we'll fit in....

Dian, your pantry addon faces south, and that, to me, is a prime spot for something pretty to happen. Since it is adjacent to the kitchen, perhaps a builtin row of floor to ceiling closet-depth cabinets across the west end of this room would work for a pantry, and allow you to make a nice sunny breakfast room with a place for some container plants. If not the windows, then a good skylight could give a lot of light there. I realize most older homes up north are not air conditioned so an opening skylight could help remove heat from the kitchen area. And, if it should by chance leak, the damage would not be as critical to the entire house as a skylight over the main living areas would. I think the wedge shape gives you home a distinctive quality, and it could be a very nice place for a desk and a reading chair. Of course, its use depends on what room the wedge leads to as you leave the MBedroom. And where are the windows on the MBedroom? I see none on the front wall and none on the back wall, so that means the windows are only on the Northern end? Is that a little cold? Of course it is true light, and artists like that, but this light gives very little warmth to the room. If you do not have closets on that back wall, I'd think about putting two separate windows in there. Space them apart, so you could maybe build in storage drawers on each side, in between, and under the windows, to give yourself a pair of window seats. This kind of project would depend on where the doorway from the wedge is located. Hopefully not right at the corner. :) Slateberry, the Taunton Press did a fine job with the Cape book. I again read parts of it last night, as I thought about the similarities in our Cape and in Dian57s cape. The fun in having a cape (if you keep your sense of perspective) is to not redo and get it over with, but to do and to do and to do again, in a progression of steps which fits the house around you as your family grows or changes. Hubby built the two upstairs bedrooms with a bath at the top of the stairs when his two daughters started growing up. The room over the garage, a couple of steps up from the dining room level, turned into his son's room. Then he added the 12x34' family room across the back when the 3 kids were teens and needed space for their friends. His wife wanted a fireplace there, so he added that. He wanted a place to get away from the bustle of teens, and added the porch off the bedroom which we are now turning into a master suite with a walkin closet (already built) and a 3/4 bath which is not plumbed yet, but is adjacent to the original only bath on the main floor, at the head of the stairs coming up from the basement. I would like to see a shed dormer extended toward the backyard, to make the upstairs larger, but with just the two of us, that is not a real objective. The tiny doghouse dormers on the front make the house look very authentic to the cape style. Not authentic is something I want for the front entry, which would be a covered entry, same angles as the gables of the dormers, just enough to give the entry some presence. To get the idea what it would look like, I've taken some digital photos of the house from the street, and then drawn the ideas over copies of the photo. I use PaintShopPro (not Photoshop, but that would work very well too). Dian57, when you have more photos of your house, present or past, please link me to the album online or upload them here. There are so many options for these houses, depending on your needs and priorities, and it is exciting to work through it all.

It's good to go through and work out how you see the addition working for you, but you will definitely want to get an architect involved at some point. I am preparing for an addition also. Like you, I spent a lot of time figuring how I wanted the space to work for me. I came up with a plan and the architect tweaked it based on what I wanted. I didn't know how much my addition would run, so I paid the architect to draw the initial design. I had a contractor in mind who I wanted to work with. He gave me an estimate of what he thought it would cost to build looking at the design. When I saw it was in my budget, I then paid the architect to do the construction plans, which we submitted to the city. An architect should be able to tell you if there is much savings with your last plan. I thought it would save me money to expand one of the back bedrooms into a master - i.e. Tear out part of the exterior block wall of a back room and enlarge it. The architect told me it would be cheaper and easier to just add a new structure to my current house, connected by a door. I was happy to hear this, because it was what I really wanted to do anyway. One thing is that although that half bath costs a lot to put in, I would think it would be nice to have for guests.

I've tried to post a reply several times, and I'm trying one more time. I know this website is now using automated moderation and certain words like candidates' names are on the taboo list but I'm talking about pillows, for Pete's sake. Can anyone come up with a plan that has back to back natural linen sofas....one for the tv area and another for a cozy conversational area? I think this would be a great idea if it could work, but it means reworking the idea of a sectional, and having two sofas perpendicular facing the French doors. Why not look at Dekowe website for wonderful modern/ethnic looking pillows to pull in the red tones with natural ivory linen. They have gorgeous fabrics! I wrote on the other thread that Etsy has some lovely offerings from various fabric designers like Penny Morrison, Lisa Fine, Peter Dunham, Peter Fasano, Les Indiennes, Raoul, Michael Smith's Jasper, etc. Some that would work include Penny Morrison's Killi, Penny Morrison's Yasmina, Peter Dunham's Rajmata Tonal in teal, Lisa Fine's Lahore, Peter Fasano's Kori (I may be at the limit of pictures per post, I think) I think that's everything. I hope it goes through this time! If it works I'll see if I can add the photos again.