Hi everyone,

My wife and I are trying to plan an addition onto our mid century modern house and are at a bit of a cross roads with respect to entry ways. Currently we have a front entry way under a car port (with a curved driveway), that has a decent sized closet. We'd like to add a mudroom and garage and this is where we're unsure of what we should do.

This is the plan for the front of the house as it currently stands. As you can see there's 2 doors to access the mudroom area: from the garage and from outside.

I'm curious what people think about the following:

1. Will having the exterior door allow enough space to get into the mudroom as a family of 4? It looks a bit tight if the exterior door is open.

2. What if we switched the door to swing the other way? It would allow people direct access into the mudroom, but then blocks the hallway to the rest of the house.

3. What if we removed the exterior door and only entered through the garage? Would we find this a pain if we're constantly entering/exiting this way? what about when the kids get home from school? If there's a car in the garage we'd have to worry about the kids scratching it as they go by and leaving the garage door open.

4. We currently have 2 doors on the front of our house which causes a lot of confusion about which is the front door when people visit, especially if they've never been here before. Do you think having an exterior door on the side of the garage will still cause people to be confused? (people often think our house is actually 2 separate houses)

5. The rear door off the garage will be removed from the design in favour of extra storage space.

We live in a place that is cold/snowy for at least 6 months of the year so access to the mudroom is important, but at the same time we want the space to be usable and not feel crammed as we try to enter/exit through it.

Just another quick note - the bathroom you see here by the garage is currently our laundry area and is the current existing front corner of the house. As such it is structural so we need to avoid changing that structure or else be faced with mounting costs.

Anyways, I appreciate any feedback or suggestions. Thanks.