Hi Barlowmom, how great to connect with someone who has a similar floor plan! You gave me lots of interesting ideas to consider. If you are able to take a photo of your floor plan, I would love to see how you were able to somewhat open the kitchen and family room space while leaving the half bath as it is. I agree that this would be a big cost saver! :-) As for your idea for upstairs, our architect is heading in that direction. However, we won't have enough space for a master bath and closets without using the space above the screened in porch as well. (Part of the issue is that I have back problems and need a laundry closet on the second floor...) Are you going to have a mudroom in your plan? If so, where will that go? Very helpful to hear that the finished basement makes a big difference. Ours will be super basic, but I think it will give us breathing room just to have it. Thanks again for writing! Sara

Layout...I'm trying to create your current space on graph paper (to then add the 14' deep addition), but I keep running into measurements that don't add up. Would it be possible to measure your actual space? Actual spaces rarely match what they say they are on paper from the builder and post them here? Take graph paper and draw up the existing space - walls, windows, doors, doorways and measure each as well as the distances b/w each. You don't need to add the refrigerator, etc., just the infrastructure. I'm assuming any doors and windows in the new space can be placed where needed (correct me if I'm wrong). From that, we can just add a 14' deep extension off the existing space (the width of the Kitchen + Dinette, I assume) and work from there. You could do it by hand and take a digital picture of it or use PowerPoint or similar to do a quick drawing and save it as a JPG file and post it here. You can find free graph paper online. Do you have a full-basement under the current house? Do you plan to add a basement or crawl space under the addition? Dining Room as a Playroom...we did just that in our home as well. For the first 10 years or so, our DR was the Playroom, without any Dining Room furniture at all (we moved from a Townhouse with no formal DR). We ate in the Kitchen in a small area. As our children grew up (now 15 & 17), it was used less and less as a playroom and we eventually reclaimed it as a DR - a DR that was rarely used for anything except at Christmas, Easter, and birthdays and as a dumping ground and the occasional project the rest of the year. One caveat - we finished part of our basement and added a "toy closet" for storing toys not currently "in use". The kids eventually outgrew our small table space as well. When we remodeled, we reclaimed our DR to use everyday as our main table space. We took down most of the wall b/w the Kitchen & DR and added a peninsula for (1) some separation b/w the two rooms and (2) more counter and cabinet space. The DR became an "informal DR/formal kitchen table" space and it suits us perfectly! We did not have the luxury of being able to add an addition, so this worked best for us. You do have that luxury - so you could continue to use the DR as a Playroom for a few more years (not many more years, though, unless you are planning more children!) Perhaps you could then turn the DR into a Study/Computer Room/Library and get several more years' of frequently used space out of it. You might even consider starting the transition now - add a desk or two for homework. I would probably put a computer station/docking station out in the open, though, so I could see what the kids are doing online...

I also lived in a small but charming 1930's Tudor many years ago, and like you, had the formal living room - formal dining room - tiny kitchen floorplan. I loved the charm, but missed the openness and space of our prior home. Then I got divorced and kept the house, but ended up with half the furniture I'd previously had. And only half the money. So remodelling was not in the budget! What I ended up doing was moving the remaining casual furniture and TV from the 'family room' (a back bedroom) into the formerly-formal living room. (It was right inside the front door.) I arranged the furniture the best I could and resolved to learn to live with it - though it didn't look half bad! Then, since I lost the dining room set in the divorce and had a two-year-old son, I bought an attractive but sturdy and child-friendly table and chairs and set that up in the formerly-formal dining room. Another surprise -- it looked good. Then something amazing happened. I fell in love with my house! I began spending the majority of my time in the house's prettiest rooms, and actually lived in the house the way it was meant to be lived in -- living in the living room and eating in the dining room - every day! All it really took was relocating the comfortable and livable furniture from the 'back' rooms to the front rooms. A pretty throw dressed up the 'shabbily-comfortable' couch, and a casual dining set changed the entire tone of the dining room. If you're spending your time in the basement, and not using the dining room, that's the problem that needs to be addressed! If your living room has the house's best architecture, use that room to live in. Move the TV up there, or if it's a ginormous honker, get a smaller one that won't take over the whole room. Try 'dressing down' your dining room first until it's a comfortable place to eat. Move the 'too good to use' furniture to the basement instead. Or use it anyway and give it a 'patina'. If the furniture is really good (and not merely 'fancy') it can take the use. Try that first before moving any walls -- You might be very happily surprised.

Laughable- thanks so much for the link, perhaps we can do something like that this summer when we have more time. Looks like a great fix for now until we can save the 3K for window treatments. Whit- our kitchen is just over 16' long and 12' wide. For the lighting plan we actually have a small pendant to still put in over the kitchen sink. We originally purchased 2 pendants over the peninsula, but with the kitchen light fixture, dining chandelier so close by we nixed it. We used the highly GW rec. home depot LED 4" lights. We had the electrician put them where we needed them most and have 8/9 in the kitchen and then more threw out the first floor. They are all on dimmers. With out the uppers to worry about shadows on the countertop we rarely turn them all the way up. During the day I rarely turn on any lights as the place gets lots of natural light. Good luck with your remodel. I really working in this kitchen and find it plenty big for us. We hosted Christmas and had about 5-6 people cooking/prepping and it was great. Cleans up well and the peninsula has been perfect for my 3 year olds meals and craft time and keeps her at bay while I cook. Just wanted to ad our much anticipated new addition finally made her debute fashionably late on 2/13/13, a successful VBAC: We are enjoying her just as much as the kitchen ;)