Could you give us information about your family size, age of children, general lifestyle? These all must factor in as to whether this would work for you. You do understand you're talking about a HUGE remodeling expense here. Will you be overbuilding the house or the neighborhood? Lots for you to think about.

Yes, we have thought about all those things. Our offer will be taking all of that into consideration.

Family is two adults and one DD in college; one dog and one cat. General lifestyle? Not sure what you need to know in order to help me make this layout flow better.

• We are shoeless indoors. I need a mudroom/drop zone so that coats, shoes, boots, etc aren't dumped into middle of kitchen.
• I don't like visible clutter, so coats hanging on pegs on a wall in kitchen is no good.
• I must have an ensuite bathroom for the master.
• We cook a lot from scratch and shop at Costco. I have lots of small kitchen appliances and big pots, dutch ovens, etc.
• We relax and watch TV in the evenings and don't want to look at the dirty kitchen while doing so.
• We would like to be able to have overnight guests.
• We rarely entertain.
• This property will allow us to garden and have livestock, chickens, etc.

The house overall works for us 98% better than our current house. It's just not our dream house, and has limitations. If I had gotten my hands on it before it was remodeled, I would've done it totally different. Now I need to see if I can creatively make it work better. For us, and for future owners. I don't want to die here, but it's a good stepping stone for us.

Anyone have some suggestions on changing the layout?

True, and I hear your points. There is a full bath there by the back door. But also know that we have been looking at houses in this area for better part of a decade, and houses here do not have first floor masters. The big draw in this area, even in the million+ homes and estates, is "all beds on same level" and 99% of time that is on upper levels.

The preferred floor on which a master is tends to be a regional thing. In my area (KY), it's much harder to sell a house without one. Even young couples with infants, want yo be on a different floor. But in CT, it was a big black mark when they fold their house. They were told repeatedly, that parents worried about a kidnapping a la the Lindberg baby, if they were on a different floor. Of course, I think the Lindberg's were on the same floor as their baby...

We definitely could live there a while as is and wait to see. That's a good idea overall, to figure out the nuances. But I do want to have a master plan, which is why I'm seeking ideas. We would probably initially sleep in the office area, since that is the only real shower.

But I've spent 20 years living in a very dysfunctional house, and I don't want to buy something that will ultimately be as dysfunctional. To me, walking naked into the kitchen to get to the "master" bath by the back door screams dysfunctional. Especially at this price point.

Also, cpartist, as I said above, this is not my dream house, so it could happen, but I don't plan to stay here forever. For one, the property taxes are way too high in my state to even think about retiring here. Not to mention the estate or "death" tax as they call it

We had a recent serious health scare with DH, and it was a wake up call. We need functional living NOW, while we can still enjoy it, rather than waiting the 3-4 yrs it will take to build the dream. And this house doesn't tick all the boxes, but it is 99% better than our current situation.

Lily'sMom, I forgot to measure the headspace in that room. Here is a photo of it. I'm thinking 7' at the sidewall then vaulting up to 8 or 9 in center?

Do know that renovating a house to make it completely functional can take longer and bring up more issues than building new.

But I do hear you on taxes etc. (I live on Long Island part of the year!)

But to me the house looks very dysfunctional, especially for two people who are basically empty nesters.

Haha! Believe me, I know. We bought this house 20+ years ago and have tried to renovate it over and over, and it's still not done nor what we need/want. We should have torn it down way back then and built. Hindsight, as they say... So I don't want to make the same mistake again.

This potential purchase, though, is different in so many ways. It's not a teardown (ours was/is). It's in pretty pristine condition. It's just not everything we want. But maybe at some point we have to compromise. We've been looking for literally years. There's not much at all in our price range in our area.

So, your advice is to pass on this house, cpartist? It looks that bad to you? You say for empty nesters. Specific reasons? Is it functional for anyone? Or just not for us? I tend to be very very picky.

It seems like a warren of rooms without much connection.

That living room will be difficult to furnish being so long and narrow.

You say you don't entertain much yet you have a formal dining room. How often will that get used?

I'm thinking at "our age", you'd be better off having less spaces that are larger and work better for you both.

The question is, do you really need 3 and possibly 4 bedrooms, an office/den, kitchen, dining room, living room and sun room? And would you really want your guests pitter pattering around upstairs nearby your bedroom?

Would you be better off with spaces that work double duty instead and work more to how you live?

For example, I don't entertain much either but when I do (in my FL home) it will be a casual indoor/outdoor thing. No sit down dinners. So I eliminated the dining room but incorporated the dining room table into the kitchen area. So I have seating at the island for 3 and the dining table in my kitchen/dining room. And that space opens to my outdoor seating/eating area.

Have a large living room off the kitchen/dining room that also opens to the outside for entertaining and for watching tv with DH.

DH has his study downstairs, with a half bath and our master is downstairs along with our laundry room. And our master also opens to our backyard area.

Upstairs is my studio which can double as a guest room with the queen size pull out couch, a full bath and our official guest room with murphy bed. When it's not being used as a guest room, which is most of the time, it will be our gym. Hence the murphy bed.

So in total we have 6 rooms in 2870 square feet but every room has a purpose and/or double duty vs your 8 or if you make the attic area a master suite 9 rooms. It's not the number of rooms, but how they're laid out and how we intend to live in them.

From what I read above about what you need, it sounds to me that what you're saying is you need:

1. a large mudroom/garden room with a coat closet since you intend to garden and have livestock. This could be either one large space or two separate spaces.

2. A large kitchen with lots of counter space for cooking, canning, etc. That would include lots of cabinet space. Most likely drawers and possibly a large table to have an eat in kitchen.

3. A large pantry for your cookware, and for all the Costco runs.

4. A coat closet at the front foyer area.

5. A comfy place where your DH and you can relax and watch tv and possibly entertain when you do have the occasional guest or people sleeping over.

6. At least one guest room.

7. A bedroom for DD

8. A master bedroom with an ensuite.

Additionally, would either of you need a study/office/crafts room type of space or could the guest room double as that type of space?

Can this house be made to work for your needs without extraneous space that sits there unused?

Thank you, cpartist and others. cpartist, you have listed all the things that we have designed in the new build. There are just lots of complicating factors and unknowns and time that we aren't willing to deal with in order to build right now.

All that being said, we are going ahead and putting an offer on the house today. We shall see what happens. If they don't accept or it falls through, we will revisit the idea of building.

Since I didn't get any real responses to how to change or layout the house, and only return questions about whether or not we should (which is not what I asked), I guess I will start a new thread later asking for concrete ideas, if anyone would be willing to help.

Thanks again.

I wish you the best and if you get the house, I'm sure myself and others will be more than willing to offer other suggestions once you know which are bearing walls, etc. I definitely think if you're willing you can create a space that will work for you from what is there, even without going into the unused attic space. :)