Gee, thanks everyone for all the kind words. Designing the room and the farmers porch was a lot of fun with the software. My contractor even had me print out copies to use for the permits. cady, you are right; I am sure I will actually save money on heating with the addition, because it is better insulated than the old house (even though there is blown-in insulation in all the old walls) and because those two, drafty plank doors are gone. They looked cool, but they were terribly inefficient and were not even used as entrances. As for a house tour, Id love to host anyone willing to drive all the way up here. With my travel schedule and location Im never able to attend all the great functions everyone coordinates on this forum (sniff). There are five bedrooms (and two barns), so plenty of crash space. August is the best garden show time up here, because all the big players e.g. phlox, rudbeckia, echinacea, heliopsis, etc, are in bloom. Unless everyone likes snowshoeing in the winter. claire, pokeberries I have in abundance. I should take some pics of them before they die back. Now, regarding cadys ideabeing a bachelor, I am intrigued by the idea of having a tarted-up hussy at the house, at least for a while. Is it possible to rent a variegated Artemisia? White wood asters sound nice. I have something that looks kind of like a faerie garden. There is a path off of the lawn through a copse of evergreen trees down to the pond. It is not very large, but it is kind of cool, with almost an enchanted feel. There is not much under the trees except for ferns and a few struggling brambles. Id love to add some woodland plants that could provide some interest and color. Any ideas? diggerdee, we dont have termites up here, but do have carpenter ants. The wood pile is now up on pressure-treated posts, so it is probably safer than it was when it sat right on the ground. But, I do spray around the house perimeter as a precaution. When we tore into the old walls, we found some evidence of carpenter ant activity, but it was not recent and didnt affect the integrity of the walls, fortunately. As for repair of an old house vs. a 1950s cape, Id have to say that they dont make them like this anymore. The house is pretty much built like a tank. Except for the fact that it is irregular in its measurements and has the original horsehair plaster on most walls, it is great to work on it. martinetct, your husband is totally spot on. One of the exterior walls (on the el that houses the kitchen and garage) was/is 2 ½ inches wider at the base than at the top. Try lining up trim against that. And, the floor in the kitchen slopes such that the new room is level through the French doors into the kitchen, but there is a 3 ½ in step up into the dining room (yet you dont notice it in the kitchen). The wall behind the farmers porch weaves like a drunken sailor, which made it fun to line up. And, of course, nothing is level and nothing is square. But, thats part of the fun and certainly part of the charm of an old house. As for the windows, they are Harvey replacements with the grill between the panes. Not practical to try to match the existing windows. When I bought the place all the storm windows were shot and all the main windows needed to be reglazed. I had the option of having the work done or just replacing the windows for the same price. I wanted to keep the look, so opted to have the old windows redone. But, even with the new storms, they are not very efficient. And, they are a royal pain to clean, they stick in the summer, some are missing hardware so dont stay open, and in general they are not fun. Now that weve put in these matching vinyl replacement windows that have a snug seal and that tilt in for cleaning with no grills to get in the way, I see how much easier they are to use and to maintain. Despite the cost, I think that, once I redo the kitchen (this winters project) I will bite the bullet and have all the windows replaced. True, they are real 12 over 12, but they are not original to the house (they are the kind that have the two metal buttons on the sides you push in to open and that lock into slots in the frame at two locations). There is only one place where there is original glass over the front door. The door is original and even has the bar across it to fend off attackers (as in "Katie bar the door") as well as the original skeleton key still in the lock. Over it are six small panes of glass. They are wavy and bubbly, and I believe have been there from the beginning. As for the original family being upstanding, yeah I think they had some money. The rooms are really big for a true colonial with the all the front rooms on both original levels being approx.15.5 x 14 feet and wainscoting pretty much everywhere. There are closets in almost every room, and if you remember that the British taxed houses based on the number of rooms and considered closets to be rooms, the owners either had a lot of money to spend, or, being in northern New England, just thumbed their noses at the British and figured no one would ever collect the tax from them. I prefer to believe the latter. I'll pass on your congrats to my contractor. I may come up with the ideas, but he does all the work. He was my house inspector, a carpenter, and it turned out he liked to work on old houses. We hit it off, and he has done all the improvements (or GC'd them) over the past few years. Another project I did not mention was one we did the first year I bought the place. It is a tradition that my entire family comes up for Thanksgiving two parents, sister, brother-in-law, six kidlings and a dog. It is an invasion on the scale of the Allied landing in Normandy with similar, if not greater, logistical requirements. Anyway, I needed places to put everyone and the house only had three bedrooms on the second floor (one space was converted years ago into a master bathroom, a guest bathroom and a laundry room). So, I talked it over with my contractor and we took that attic and converted it into a finished third floor. There are two bedrooms and a full bath with tub up there. It hardly ever gets used, except when my sister visits and we throw all the kidlings up there. We kept the massive roof beams exposed and used V pine for the ceiling. It looks pretty neat. We did get rid of the trap door to the roof, since it was covered anyway by the metal roof, and we also eliminated the musket holder in one of the windows that was there to steady the gun for plunking Indians or British, I assume. People have asked me if the house is haunted, especially since I live alone (not counting Cord, The Wonder Chow). I figure I am at least the 12th generation to live in it, so there is some history in the place. But, I have never been bothered by anyone or anything. Before I bought the place, it was in a state of semi-disrepair and no one had lived in it for a number of years. I figure that, when my whole family, from three to eighty two, is gathered around the dining room table for Thanksgiving laughing and talking, the house is happy. Anthropomorphic and stupid, I know. But, I feel like a steward and hope to eventually pass on the house in better condition than when I bought it and ready for another 200+ years. Of course, if one day I suddenly stop posting to the forum, youll know that the house got me. narcnh

Half of the existing patio slab is going to be completely removed because it's badly cracked, including the entire raised area were the hot tub used to be. Any remaining portion will be cut back to accommodate an appropriate footer. Completely new slab with monolithic pour onto of any existing slab to bring everything up to the height of the existing house slab (so there is no step down into the new room) As far as the bathroom goes, there is absolutely no other place to put it but somewhere on that exterior wall (because of the lot layout) No location on that wall is going to have an impact on angles to tap into an existing drain location or to a main line. So if the floor has to be raised to get enough slope, that's what is going to have to be done. We have no issue with it, should it need to be done.

I actually love what you've planned. But I'm definitely biased because it's close to my personal ideal kitchen layout based on the way I cook. I'm just drooling over what you have there! Our current kitchen has a similar island layout but completely dysfunctional builder layout where the fridge and range locations are opposite of what you have on your new design. Brutal layout, and we're now in process of planning new side runs that will hopefully end up similar to yours above (though without all the great windows in your plan). My main comments are: 1) Not sure if you'd even need the prep sink in your layout. Take this comment with a grain of salt however since I didn't see your original design or description of how you function in the kitchen. If you're a two-cook family or will have someone cleaning at the same time you are prepping, then yes it makes sense. But if you are the chief cook and bottle washer, then having the prep and cleanup area merged would be preferable in my opinion since you'd have that whole long run of island for prep with just a half-turn to the range. So if you're a one-cook kitchen I'd omit the prep sink altogether and use that cabinet space for dish storage (and you could put a small sink in the pantry for beverage/coffee center usage to keep family out of your path if you wanted). If you're a two-cook family I'd move the prep sink to the other side of the range, and you'll probably end up finding the island would be your primary prep area anyway with the "prep sink" used for overflow. 2) I'd keep the pantry where it is. No biggie losing ~5 feet of window that looks at an ugly hot tub and would only lighten a few feet in front of a load bearing dining room wall. You have close to 20 feet of window in your kitchen plan which I think will look stunning. 3) Perhaps consider shortening the pantry to the 4'2" x 9" area behind the fridge, if you were just going to end up filling it with some appliances anyhow. Then you have some potentially more interesting choices. You could put an extra wall oven/micro on the back wall just before the pantry would start (across from the side wall where you show the fridge now). Or you could do a double wall oven there, changing your planned range to a cooktop with pot drawers underneath and thus gaining more drawer space in the kitchen for dishes. Or you could do wall ovens where you currently show the fridge, and perhaps fit a larger 42" fridge on that back wall. 4) Do you know what counters you're getting yet? If quartz, then check the slab sizes and you might want to adjust your island plans accordingly to avoid seams. We wanted a huge island as well but we also wanted a particular caesarstone surface that came in a max slab size of 120 x 56 inches. So we adjusted our cabinets accordingly to make it a 9'9" length and 24"+12" depth plus pillars and seating area for a total finished island size of 10 x 4.5 feet, in order to get it in one seamless slab. So if you haven't already thought about it, you might want to check the slab sizes of whatever surface you're looking at and plan the island accordingly. Good luck! I think your kitchen will be amazing!

Since no one has given you any feedback yet, I'll take a shot... So you have what people call a barrier island. That means for the normal kitchen workflow you would have to walk around your island. If you read this thread, you will see the main problem with your workflow: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg111625296905.html (Maybe this thread should be made sticky?) To fix your workflow, you could either move your fridge to the wall with your sink or add a prep sink on your island. Also, through what door do you bring in your groceries? The small door in the kitchen to the foyer seems like it will encourage a traffic pattern through your kitchen. Having more counters/pantry there may be better. Regarding the powder room... having the guests go through the mudroom to the power room seems awkward and inconvenient. Could you have it open on the other side into the living room (I think that is the living room)? Also, you only need 2 more feet for a full bath. It seems like you have plenty of room to add a full bath if that is something that would be of value to you (it does help resale). Hopefully some others will chime in and help you out with this one.