This is a cute house -- nice porch, the whole thing's nicely proportioned. I agree with you that just a little more elbow room would make it more comfortable.

I think an upstairs is possible. Looking at how the roofline runs, I'd think you could have a SMALL room on each side of the staircase:

I'd think you'd place the office in the area over the dining room, and it could have a window looking out over the driveway.

The upstairs room (not actually a bonus room because it's not a FROG -- finished room over garage) above the master bath could be larger because it could extend towards the front bump-out. This won't be a large room, but it would have some nice architectural detail with a room and an alcove. I assume you're going to lose the cathedral ceiling in the front bedroom to accommodate the upstairs room?

Looking at the rest of the house, I see a couple things I'd do differently:

- The front bedroom has a chopped-off corner near the closet. This is nuts. Why would you spend more to indent this area? Instead, it could be an alcove for a desk or a dresser; since the room isn't large, I think it'd be nice to be able to "tuck away" a piece of furniture.

- How do you enter the shower in the master bedroom? I don't see an obvious door.

- No love for the idea of all back-door entry traffic being shuffled through the kitchen.

- I think I'd use that back closet as a pantry.

- I'd add a second set of stairs to the side of the front porch. When guests park in front of the garage, this would be a nice, welcoming look.

- What're you doing with that little enclosed area between the dining room /screened porch /garage? It screams brick patio with herb garden to me.

- Though not super-functional in this area, if you do some sort of seating in that area, I'd make the dining room windows into sliders. Alternately, a square-bay at the end of this dining area would "define" the dining room and set it apart from the great room.

- The biggest single thing I'd want to add to this house would be storage.

LOVE your suggestions. For the upstairs, thank you so much for giving me a mental image. What you described sounds perfect. And yes, I can forgo the front bedroom cathedral.

I totally agree on the pantry, and that silly corner on the front bedroom, ha! I'm thinking of forgoing the shower in the master bath, and converting that tub into a large-ish tiled walk in shower with a spot for some cubby shelves next to the toilet where the little shower was. (Not shower shelves, like normal towel shelves.)

Looooove the suggestion for extra porch steps and the bay window. Don't you love that porch? And the screened porch (slash catio in my case) to avoid bugs in the summer.

I'm working on my tweaks I'll request and post those here if you would like to revisit then