Bma, I'm sorry I didn't mean that you thought my solution was an eyesore. Though I'm sure at times ours was. Especially in winter with snow pants, hats and gloves added to the mix! I wish it were easier to know expressions here without using html. I've tried, but it makes everything italic or bold. Thanks for the pictures Saruna. In the picture of yours I've linked to below I see that you could easily do both of the ideas I did in our home only just down the hall a bit from the door itself. I'm so glad I asked for pictures. I'd move your bencdh across to the opposite wall under the lightswitch and put the shelf above where you have the bench now or even get a narrow hall tree. We now have one at our back entry that I got at Hobby Lobby. I had just bought it and plopped some things on it that happened to be close by. I don't have a current picture of it, but actually you can see it better in this pix. I think you'd have plenty of room to have one like this where your bench is now. You could add your own hooks to the sides low enough for your children to hang their coats and be out of the way of the sitting area. I now have basket in the cubbies where shoes can be tucked and just measured to make a cushion. The cushion will be sixteen inches deep by twenty nine inches wide so that gives you an idea of the size.

How tall are you? Can the cutting boards really be kept above the fridge and you will be able to use them? If you don't want the spice rollouts, I think you need to resize both the uppers and lowers so that the vertical lines look correct. Also have you thought about what kind of hood you're going to put over the stove? In order for the hood to properly capture the smoke etc. it should be 6 inches wider than the stove and in your drawing it looks like the stovetop and the hood are the same size. I would switch the microwave drawer to be near the stove because you are likely going to be doing the cooking activities at the same time and that way you could stand facing the same direction watching everything. Any possibility you can steal a corner from the garage for a walk in pantry? On the wall where you have the drawing of the pantry by the garden, you have a single door going to the garden, I would consider putting the widest possible glass doors (maybe if there is enough space they can slide, rather than open into the room and split on center so that when they're closed they look like fancy French doors but when they're open they won't take up space) so that you can look out onto your garden-unless it faces due west and it gets nothing but late afternoon sun and would just overheat the kitchen. You have a lot of extra space in your kitchen, would you ever enjoy sitting in a chair by the garden area and having a cuppa tea while stuff is cooking in the kitchen? How does sound carry through your house? Can someone be up early moving around in the kitchen and not wake everybody else up? Would there be a benefit to putting a pocket door between the dining room and kitchen? On the side of the island facing into the sunroom, I would attach a bookcase so that you could put all of your cookbooks there. That island could be larger if you wanted it to be there is certainly space for it going towards the garden door. Is there supposed to be seating at the island? There does not appear to be enough space for it. I may have missed it, but is there a broom closet and place for all the cleaning supplies? That little bit of pantry between the entryway stairs and the kitchen is a lot of wasted space I think you should post a copy of the entire bottom floor to see if that can't be better utilized.

Thank you all for the comments. The entire right wall of the master bath is an open closet with a built in dresser, hanging rods and a bench. I think a deluxe walk in closet would be useful to store extra clothes and whatever else to help keep the open closet neat and tidy. I think it would add to resale value more than just extra garage space. A second master closet with a wow factor would be a nice bonus and hopefully seal the deal for new buyers as they went through the house and discovered it. Good guess that the rec room is used for storage now. When we bought the house we thought it would get more use, but we were not aware how hot it is in summer, and how cold in winter, or of the roof leaks. Our stored items are out of the way of the leaks we know of :) I am trying to get rid of things we truly do not need. Replacing the roof would be part of the job. A complete roof rebuild, not just the roofing material, since it is not built to be indoor space. It is built with plexiglass sections which magnify the heat..........and have deteriorated. We are aware we may need new walls and trusses to support the load of a real roof vs the plexiglass sections. I have had an architect look at the space :) But they are not signed on to do the drawings. I wanted to get other ideas first. I would like space to hold our safes and file cabinets not in the garage so they are more hidden. We were robbed once so I keep checkbooks and any personal financial documents in locked file cabinets and a freezer sized safe. I store old papers such as tax returns in a locked metal cabinet that I would want with the other papers. I know it would burn in a fire, I am more concerned about it being stolen and compromised. Do I need a file and safe room as one of the spaces? Perhaps. Or just in the big closet. I have also considered making it all or some of it a hidden room with a secret book case entry. It could be hidden from the garage, and by the time you walk around to the bedroom, you would loose track of where the walls are and it would be hidden :) The current double doors and single door at the top of the rec room are frosted glass French Doors. I like the light through them and would like to keep them. I like the idea of a new master closet more than I need it. Due to the firewall issues. I need to decide where the interior/living space ends vs garage. That is one reason I wanted to create this closet space on the interior side of the fire wall. Even if it ends up being just an unfinished not leaking storage space. lafdr

There is nothing wrong about the plan to change the house entry and possibly add a detached garage. In fact, moving the main entry to the back sounds like the only sensible approach for your particular situation. While you should be careful not to overimprove your house for its neighborhood, that advice applies to all homeowners and all properties. Some people will always object to a house backing to a busy road and that is OK. A wise real estate agent once told me that I should not assume that my objections to a property were shared by all buyers. One house I thought would be hard to sell, because of its location on a major street just a few houses from a stoplight, was bought by someone who found the location convenient and liked the easy access. Just treat the most obvious aspects of the house as a feature - easy access to main road, dead end street, and plenty of parking. Sounds like that might appeal to someone who wants to run a home business...hair dresser, music lessons, counselor, craftsman, online sales or some other choice. Anyone who might be in a profession where they get called out at odd hours or in poor weather might want a practical house in a convenient spot. I would suggest that if you build a detached garage, make it a desirable feature with extra depth, good lighting and extra access doors so it could be used as an office or workshop, not just a bare minimum garage.