The roof issue is one of the reasons only the house is being re roofed now- plus we were losing shingles with each gust of wind. I anticipate the breezeway will go away in the next phase of remodeling. Our roofing contractor has some ideas, I have some ideas but I hope a landscape designer will have the ultimate idea! Our idea for the breezeway: from the house make one step down to a covered landing (4x4' or so) and from that landing have a T stair, with one set heading to the back yard and the other toward the front yard . Each staircase would be approx 4-5 steps down and be against the garage wall. The front stair would end and have a boardwalk like path to the relocated service door to the front left of the garage. This proposed door is in line with the proposed porch off the front of the house. The stairs, back yard and front, would be somewhat protected from the elements by the garage roof. Need? Hmm- I WANT a porch I can sit out on and smell my soon to be planted lilacs and watch the horses on the far side of the road. I don't particularly need a covered breezeway-it would be nice since this past winter in MI was just awful. But what I NEED is a path, be it concrete, asphalt, wood, or paver stone, that I can safely carry stuff in from the garage. I would like to have the choice of using the front door or the side door of the house (at least one of those choice should be covered), and allow for drainage. If only the garage was built just 4 little feet farther west....but it wasn't. I agree there are somethings that can't be fixed in a house, location, design, and atrocious remodeling debacles, to name a few. I think, however, this can be fixed....I'm just at a point where there is so much to do, both interior and exterior, that I'm getting a bit overwhelmed by it all. We may need to live with the current set up for awhile and then allow function, instead of aesthetics, to influence our decisions. Once our current house sells (praying!) I can afford to hire a landscaping design professional to help figure this out. In the mean time, we need to think about the foundation landscape work: drainage, regrading, irrigation systems (DH will hate that one!) and re-seeding. Any ideas on how to join the house and the garage would be greatly appreciated. MM

Rebuild. At a premium. Or move. There isn’t anything cost effective that can use a porch to create legal habitable space.

I really appreciate all your comments and suggestions. In rethinking this, we’ve decided to move the dining room table to the left of the kitchen, ditch the banquette and turn the former dining room into a morning room/library. (I am having trouble giving up my existing house and I was attempting to take many of the rooms we now have and recreate them in this proposed house. Both my husband and the building designer had suggested otherwise but it wasn’t until reading all your comments that I finally realized this just wasn’t going to work. ). I think this arrangement will work really well. Greenfish1234, I love the house pictured in the link you sent. Our proposed house looks very similar, flipped so the garage is on the opposite side, with a shed dormer above. It will then have the master bedroom wing where the garage of your picture is. And there is enough room over the mud room to connect the bonus room with the rest of the upstairs and include a bathroom there. I also think your suggestion about finishing the bonus room later is a good one, and that was our original intent; however, when I tried to fit my husband’s TV into the plan downstairs, it just didn’t work. We compromised by deciding to finish the mud room sooner, rather than later. And if it seems too expensive, we’ll just have it finished to the drywall and flooring and my husband can do the rest later. He’ll be retired at that point, his “shop” will move into the basement and he’d love having a project to work on. My existing furniture will fit there perfectly and it will get the morning sun.

Sorry - the photo is confusing. I should've clarifiied when I posted. The center of the vault runs from the center of the fireplace toward the kitchen. The dotted line going parallel to the beams is just the center line (for the construction drawings). I'll edit the post. Thanks for pointing that out.