I know this is an older post but I am completing a garage conversion so I thought maybe I could help and hop off what others have mentioned. #1 DO YOUR RESEARCH!! Our garage conversion has taken over a year because of zoning and permit nightmares. As someone else has mentioned this is not an easy transition and not only is it costly up front, if you are thinking of selling within the next 10-15 years you may be better off relocating instead of renovating.....also for sanity purposes! If you are eliminating a garage it's a good idea to think about how you will replace it. We built a 32x24 pole barn in the corner of our back yard and are putting in a driveway next year. However, you have to look at the blue print of your lot and zoning. For example, we have a decent size corner lot but we still have to abide by the 60/40 rule for greenscape: we cannot build on more than 40% of our "greenscape" on our lot. In addition, the structure had to be so far behind the house so when any of our neighbors stood on their front porch they wouldn't be able to see it. Because split levels are laid out so awkwardly and we have 4 kids and another on the way we decided to make our oversize 2 car garage a kitchen, living room, and dining room so all the bedrooms are upstairs and living space is downstairs. When it comes to the entryway it seems silly to get rid of the driveway since the main entrance is still in the front. You don't want to give up off street parking. Even if you build a garage in the back and have a sidewalk leading to the front door think about walking groceries all that way....that's what a buyer would think: too confusing. I agree with what others have mentioned about the windows. You want to create a seamless look in the front so definitely try to keep the same style windows. Adding some flower boxes along the front or some sort of retainer wall that matches the current style leading to the door could work just be sure there's room for proper grading so you don't end up with water or rot around the base of your new structure. The floor inside will have to be leveled and a new footer installed for that same purpose but best not to add any unnecessary obstacles. If I were you I would consider hiring an architect to go over what you're thinking in terms of design inside and out. It's worth the extra couple hundred dollars to pay someone with experience and knowledge of zoning for your area to lay it out for you. Best of luck!!!!!

Your kitchen is likely going to be your most expensive project. You might want to plan all the additions now so the end effect will mesh together well but only do the remodel in stages. Since you want to enlarge/expand your living/dining area, consider removing the sides and roof off the foundation of your screened porch and enlarge that foundation to create the size living/dining room you actually want all along the entire left end of your home -- perhaps sixteen feet wide. Have the roof extend twelve feet in the front, part of which would be your new entry with its floor at ground level and the steps to your main floor level WITHIN that new entry, but with the entry ceiling the same as living/dining room ceiling height -- the first step in removing the split -level look you indicate you don't really want. The second step to removing the split level look you don't want would to move the front windows from your current living room and install them in the left side of your new living room so you could build a new bedroom of both your current front entry and the right side of what is now your living room The left side of the living room, with fireplace and a single or double front facing window, could become your new home office accessible from what is now your dining room. The right end of the living room and current entry hallway/stairs that lead UP to the main level from that mid height front door (no longer necessary) would then become one of your new children's bedrooms. Enabling you to close off that mid height front door would be the third and final step to ending the split level look you don't like. You could then build one (or two*) more children's bedroom behind your new living room and part -- (but only part) -- of your current dining room. You want to leave enough space on the exterior wall in the right side of your dining room so that when you later enlarge your kitchen to include most of your dining room (except for a path to the two new children's bedrooms on the back), you can swap out the current back door for a sliding glass patio door that will lead to your new deck or screened porch built beside the new children's bedroom(s) behind your newly expanded kitchen. With an expanded living room upstairs, your entire downstairs not used for garage can be rebuilt. Create a wide front to back hallway as a mudroom between your garage and the rest of the downstairs and create a laundry room within that mudroom. Then the entire rest of the downstairs can become your much larger master bedroom suite with fireplace. Once your Master bedroom suite is rebuilt in the downstairs, your main level master bedroom could become the third children(s) bedroom addition rather than building two behind the new living room and the existing dining room. What you would actually be building on would be an "L" shape on the left side of the house (extending forward beyond the current front of the house) and then wrapping around the back left corner.

Looks like the current windows are replacement windows because of the size of the frames. You could do a more traditional window, called a Chicago window to replace the bow. (Bow windows are not ones I personally like.) A Chicago window, one with a fixed pane center and two outer windows with operable sashes, is see in the lower right on this house. If you are replacing the other windows, I like the style of grids only on the top part of the window like this house has. Also, I would open up the ceiling of the portico. Right now it looks squat.

Why an addition at all? IMO it's not the size of the kitchen that matters as much as the efficiency of the kitchen; read: bigger is not necessarily better (and sometimes is worse). What are you hoping to accomplish with an addition? Can what you want to accomplish be accomplished with changes to the current space? I grew up in a house with a kitchen about the same size as what yours looks to be, and a similar shape/layout, and it was a very efficient workspace, which I typically find kitchens of these shapes to be if the appliances and sink are in optimal locations. Well, this is pretty much everything I was going to say. - First, you say you want a BIGGER kitchen. But HOW do you want it to be bigger? Do you need more counter space? more storage? more seating? The more you analyze your needs and the more you tell us, the better advice you'll get. - Also -- yes -- efficiency matters more than outright size. What -- specifically -- works about your current kitchen? And what functions do you want to see improved? Your current kitchen looks nice. I had a kitchen very similar to it once (years ago in a rental), and it was the best kitchen I've ever had.