A picture of the existing house and floor plans, and the proposed plans would help.

Both ideas shown above are not good.

I have included the plans, these designs probably focus on providing additional space over keeping the exterior aesthetic of the home, which we are hoping not to sacrifice.

Not a pro, but I guess I don’t understand why you couldn’t bump the roof of this section up to just under the roofline of the main portion of the home (vs above which is what your elevations call for), then add a dormer that fits the style of your existing front dormers but is maybe flush with the wall of the lower level. This is fairly common on cape cod style- will try and find some pictures as examples of this. Then, on the backside- why is your architect/draftsperson so fixated on keeping the existing main floor footprint (eg are there setback requirements or something?) vs just squaring off that portion of the house, and then carrying over the existing shed dormer on the back of the house to the new portion?

The term I was looking for is a “wall dormer.” You could attempt to match the style of your existing dormers with a wall dormer somewhere in the middle of the new upstairs (again, with the bumped up roofline falling just under the main roofline which would be traditional cape cod style). Examples of wall dormers:

Great questions I was really trying to keep roof line lower than the main roof, to keep the ceiling height of 7 feet , which I believe is required the lower roof level was raised. I included a photo of what we were hoping to do with the roof line but the architect wasn’t able to, I may need to ask more questions. The wall dormers are a great idea I will double check if this 7 feet is a requirement all of the way through the room. We did ask about expanding the back portion, it would make the room more functional but it adds a significant cost with creating a new foundation etc almost doubling the cost. I really appreciate the feedback. I don’t want to add a tumor of a structure to the existing house.

Our roof line hopes for the new structure.

Your inspiration pictures look good, but your house is different enough that I don't think your roof will work out like them.

I know this is a smaller project, but a good designer or architect could sure help your builder with the design.

Your bath looks small. There are no dimensions, so I would double check the clearances. The plans also show a large window over the tub -- will that work?

I drew up a quick model to experiment with -- it's not exact, but close.

What type of siding will the addition have?

This looks at putting the bath next to the existing bath.

Thank you for your new design ideas both for the interior and exterior. It gives us something new to think about. For the siding I am not sure yet, currently the bottom floor is stucco and the front of the main house has wood siding. We were hoping the design would guide the siding. I appreciate your feedback.

You could easily do this. Build the addition out and use a single post to support the corner.

Minimal foundation work -- just one hole for the post footing.

This last comment is what I was curious whether you had explored or not and could potentially solve some problems. I still don’t like the addition’s roofline above the main house though. If you went with PPF’s idea of a post supporting a cantilevered section upstairs, I’m wondering if you could also get away with the lower-scale front, perhaps with a shed dormer (similar to some of your inspiration photos)— as that extra upper level space on the back could allow you to shift the position of the bathroom (and thus the need for headroom) further back on the house as well....possibly? Hard to get a sense of some of the dimensions are from photos..,.

Forgot to mention— if you do end up having to have roofline of addition higher than main house, I like both PPFs rendering and the second rendering you originally posted with the shed dormer feel. Combining the front elevation from the second rendering with PPFs cantilever idea could make a much nicer side/rear elevation than what your designs are currently showing.....

Ok I’ll shut up after this comment as you actually have a real architect giving advice here (lol)— but using my fat fingers to do a photo ‘markup’ on my phone, I attempted to modify your first elevation to reflect the wall dormer idea. It’s a super primitive rendering but I like the feel if you could get it to work for code, etc.

These are really helpful comments, drawings and photos. We have a rendering of the addition being taller than the main house but I read that this was not considered a good practice. The height really helps us but I see very few photos of houses with additions that are taller than the main house. But if it looks a little more natural than we would be open to the higher roof line. I like the dormer addition we are missing the charm in our current designs. Thank you so much again for help.

I love Cape Cods and I just feel like there has to be a way to accomplish what you are wanting here! One additional idea came to mind— something that you sometimes see with Cape Cod side additions are the use of covered porches to unify the design (see photos). I can’t help but wonder if something like this could work on your house as well, and have attached another “I edited your elevation with my fat fingers on my iphone, and now I’m posting a drawing that looks like my 1st grader drew” (lol). Best of luck with your decisionmaking— keep us posted on your progress!

Oh I like this concept, we did get a drawing with a porch out front but not with this roof layout. We don’t have a door leading out to the porch, but I always wanted a porch. I like how you pointed out the different ways a porch can be used in the cape cod styling. Your drawing skills are superior to mine, I appreciate the ideas.

I feel for you. I went through every permutation in the world adding to our story-and-a-half house. FYI, here's what our current code says about ceiling heights in rooms with sloped ceilings:

Thank you for this information, I think we have a little more wiggle room with lowering the roof line of the addition, which is a big issue with all of our options for me.

I forgot to add that only the required area has to be at least 5 feet high. Ceiling heights can be lower than that outside of the required area (as is usual in a cape).