We have been slowly improving upon our 1970's 1550 square foot ranch home in Portland, OR. We have done siding, windows, added covered decks, flooring, doors, trim, two bathrooms, and added an indoor laundry over the last eight years. Some additional detail and photos are available on our blog:

http://www.dvhart.com/tag/remodel/

Over this time, our family has grown from just us, to us plus two young children and two large dogs. I'm working from home about 60% of the time and despite trying to do double duty as much as possible, we've concluded the house is just two darn small!

Our house has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, two living spaces, and a galley kitchen. As you can see from the floorplan, neither living space is particularly large, and each suffers from traffic patterns cutting through them. There is no accoustical privacy in the public living space. A major kitchen remodel (relocation possibly) is in our future, as is the possibility of excavating our six foot crawl space to add nealry 1000 square feet in a daylight basement. See the basement outline for the relative location.

We are looking to add:
1. An office removed from the public spaces where I can work uninterrupted.
2. A play space for the kids that is not on-the-way-to the entrances, exits, or the adult public spaces.
3. A craft space that is adjacent to the play space but can be closed off to keep small fingers out of the serger... and the paint... and...
4. A 400 sqft woodshop that opens to the backyard through at least an eight foot sliding barn door. I've done most of the work on our home myself, including the architectural columns wraps, railings, and bathroom and office cabinetry. The garage hasn't had a vehicle in it for years - and this is Portland, my spouse would really like to load the kids in the car without also dealing with the rain.
5. A full bathroom, preferably with the sink area partitioned from the bath and toilet area.