The optimal, although pricey, solution to the heating of a two story room is radiant floor heating. Both forced air and radiant systems invariably create air movement which allows warm air to rise. Since the warmest part of the room is at ceiling level, that energy is wasted (unless you're hosting bald NBA players). With radiant floor heating, the heat is evenly distributed all over the floor. It can't rise because there's no way for cold air to get underneath it to replace it as it rises. Consequently, the floor is the warmest part of the room and the ceiling is the coolest. And since your extremities are the first thing to feel a chill (especially as you get older), your room "feels" warmer than the reading on the thermostat. We have a two story living room and radiant heating throughout the house. The previous house I built had a two story great room without radiant and that's why radiant was a must for this house. Incidentally, it saves energy in rooms with ceilings of only 9-10', too. That said, recognize that in most places, you'll still have to install forced air ducting for A/C (and may want to install a furnace to deal with radiant's lag). One final thought on high ceilings. Lighting shouldn't be a problem if done correctly. Our ceiling has cans on dimmers in a box beam ceiling. That plus accent lighting works great (see below). Bob

Dormers are essentially required for attic (in the roof) square footage. I am not a building code expert but I am pretty sure that bedrooms require windows, assuming you want bedrooms on more than either end of the house they require dormers. As to your first drawing, houses similar to that (I forget the style) can be very striking and are very nice. I am not sure that they are cheaper to build than just going straight up, especially in Minnesota wher the snow load on the second roof is going to have to get transfered down to the foundation. If your plan has walls that will carry that load then it might be great, but that would essentially eliminate an open floorplan. I would think that the additional bracing required to have an open floorplan, modifications to the roof (essentially turning one roof into three), and the additional complexity of the plan would significantly eat into the cost savings that were the whole reason for the lesser square footage. Looking at the floorplan, I am assuming Lauren doesn't mean adding square footage over the garage roof, rather, building a second floor on most of the first floor (all that is not covered by the garage roof) and putting some additional one floor only square footage under the roof that also covers the garage. I think that would be fine, especially, if you can get the garage entrance turned sideways.

Just put an addition on my house as well, and it looks very similar to yours, only I have a front porch. Because my house has a hip roof, we were only able to go from an 8 to a 9 foot ceiling for the back addition. Otherwise, it would have looked weird in the front of the house. Your architect will be able to help you with that. I would go somewhere from the front door to that walkway between the garage with the addition in back. I'm not a pro, so don't take my word for it....but I think the placement of the roof lines with that area will make the most sense. You'd be surprised what an update it will make! Lucky for you, your garage is in line with your house.....my was at an angle and made for a VERY tiny laundry room coming in from the garage, but it's just the two of us now and we will make it work. I could only make my addition 20 feet wide because of the angles of the different roof lines and hip roof. It doesn't appear you have that problem, so could make a fairly large addition out of it! I'll try to attach some pictures of mine to give you some ideas of how it transitioned into my roof line. I, too, have two entrances like you. One we use the heck out of, the other one just for moving big things in and out of the house! LOL!!

Wow Celery...your renderings are very cool. Definitely helps to visualize. Love the look over cover above but regretfully conflicts with the window over front door and as much as I would like a taller door, cannot change this at this time. I would like to remove the oversized columns and free up some space on the bricked patio...add planters left and right of door. I love Amy Lynns suggestions for new lighting. Attaching a photo of corbels that I thought might be workable with existing cover minus the dental moulding that is there. Either these or squared columns cut in half against the brick to free up some room on patio...maybe keeping trim lighter in color except the darkening gutters and downspouts...partly to keep cleaner looking...they get sooo dirty..thoughts?