I am renovating a small stick-frame ranch house. The plan is to vault the ceiling over the living room by replacing the ceiling joists with rafter ties. Over the other half, I want to make a sleeping loft in the crawl-space attic. Unfinished, it is 5' 1" from the top of the ceiling joist to the bottom of the ridge beam. It is a shallow slope on the roof, with about 5' rise over 13.5' to the midpoint of the house. (the high point in the roof)

I can't find anything like this on the web so far, but I am wondering if I can make a shed dormer in the attic that starts at the ridge beam and actually goes up from there? At the very least, I can make a sleeping loft in the crawl-space and open it up with skylights or roof windows, but in my dreams, I will make a room up there that can be stood up in, and even have a small balcony off the back of the house, as there is a very nice view.

I am attaching some pics from sketchup to indicate the current state design, without any dormers or lofts. It just shows the idea to vault half of the ceiling.

If I could afford it right now, I'd put a second story on the whole house, but I can't, so I am trying to add a "bedroom" anyway with this dormer idea, but I'd like to get a portion of the room at least, with stand-up ceiling height.

Thanks for any thoughts!