I don't think you want the scale of the addition to be larger than the scale of the original house.

Hopefully the person designing the addition is capable to advise you properly and has a comprehensive understanding of the end result as a unified whole, inside and outside.

What does your architect say?

Hard to imagine that large a room added to 1930s house, but I would not want steps between kitchen and dining. We lowered our kitchen/dining addition and have steps between it and rest of the house, and it worked out well. Any change in level has to be obvious, purposeful and integrated, especially for guests who may not be familiar with the house.

We added onto our 1920s house and I wouldn’t have even have an threshold change between old/new -- so I would definitely not do steps between rooms

No higher ceilings than in the original home, ne steps keep it simple IMO anything higher than 10' is not good and IMO 9' is perfect

I would not add such an out of scale addition to a vintage home. It is very rare for that to look good, or add value. If you must have that much space, you need to break that into several different smaller rooms, with scale appropriate ceilings, not a big tall pole barn. Or, find a new to you home that is significantly larger. In the end, moving is going to be much cheaper than creating that addition. Remodels are more than twice the cost of new construction.

Thank you all 😊. The architect actually STRONGLY recommends to put the steps in in order to make the ceilings higher.   He is very experienced in the old homes in this area so I trust him in that way BUT I know that more steps in this house (already a 'feature') will increase the trip hazard.   The steps to the ground level ultimately have to go somewhere so if we don't put them inside, we will have to put them outside around the patio.  He argues that this is a similar trip hazard but without the benefit of the ceiling height.  BUT in my opinion, outdoor steps are less often navigated than indoor steps. 

It becomes the lesser of the evils, I guess.

Do not ruin that house by building something that overshadows it and looms over it. Shrink your ideas down by more than half. All with the same features, style cues, and ceiling heights, as the original home. The neighborhood and your bank account will thank you. If you ”need” that additional 1000 square feet, that is not the house for you. Spend the 500-900K elsewhere.

Why don't you post the design? It should not look like this.

no steps - existing ceiling is fine

I vote no steps. Just a bad accident waiting to happen. I think you’ll be fine with the existing ceiling height too.

You said in your post you are fine with the 8.75 ceilings so forgo the steps. If you are aging in place this just ads to the problems you will encounter. These high ceilings are a waste of space in my opinion.

Another vote for no steps.

I also think the addition is overly large.

How big is the original house?

Definitely no steps between dining and kitchen. who wants to carry dishes/glasses/etc up and down stairs?? if it was just living room i would see the architects point more. but i also strongly feel 1930s home should have a dining room not a great room so that would be my solution. 😂

You don't want to spend the money to build a large renovation only to regret the blood stain at the bottom of the steps and the personal injury lawsuit.

(sometimes a little drama helps to emphasize a point)

No steps. My last house had steps down to the living room, and steps down into a den. It was a tripping hazard, and also was not good for older guests visiting. Its the main reason, I sold the house. Nothing wrong with 8 foot ceilings.

N.O

S.T.E.P.S!

Thank you to all for the solid advice and opinions. Some have asked for the plans which for some reason took me awhile to figure out how to post a portion of. Here are plans with the steps and without the steps. Any advice on where to place the steps would be appreciated. Any feedback on kitchen layout would also be appreciated!

That top plan is kind of like an Escher print. It hurts trying to figure it out. I'm not a naysayer on steps, as I purposely placed them in my house, but why is the kitchen so separated far from the dining?

In either case I would not do the tray ceiling. The tray is only making your room look shorter than it really is since the eye will read the height at the perimeter walls, not the height in the center. Let the room be one single height, open volume for the most expansive sense of space.

First absolutely NO steps

Two things I see right away.

1. Your mudroom feeds people into your kitchen or through the laundry which is not a good thing.

2. Your dining room is way too far from the kitchen.

Is the shower in the powder room original to the house?

Where in the laundry room will you store everything you need? Hang wet clothes etc?

How will you feel having a bar right across from the powder room? I ask because people tend to congregate at the bar and honestly it feels a bit isolated from any of the rooms and looks like it could become a pinch point.

The kitchen looks good.

Please show plans including the original house.

How will adding this addition impact the light in the original rooms as well as any trim or built ins?

No Steps. When looking for homes in the past we always avoided ones that had any internal steps between rooms (other than a true staircase between floors).

@cpartist (I don't know how to respond to specific comments, so I apologize)...

The mudroom is mislabeled.... it is actually a 'scullery' /pantry leading directly fromthe back of the garage.  There is a door from the garage into the bar area which is actually going to be the kids' drop zone and just before entering the house, there will be many shoe shelves (where the laundry currently is in the garage).   I specifically didn't want the mudroom/drop zone leading only into my kitchen so we redesigned to make it what it is.  

 As for the limited laundry space, it just kinda is what it is. There will be space to fold inthe pantry, but often we just bring it into the living spaces and fold on the couch/floor involving (ideally, lol) the kids).   

The kitchen isn't as far from the dining is the plans seem, although it is across the family room.  I prioritized having a bigger kitchen that wouldn't be a pass through space rather than abutting the dining room.  I am ok with the walk.   We were limited in that we can't tear down walls due to the age of the house. 

The shower in the powder is original although the fixtures have been redone.  If it seems too open, I can keep the wall that is currently in place that extended from the laundry room wall un front of the bathroom (a 2 foot long wall) that blocks the sight line fromthe dining room into the bathroom.... probably a good idea to keep a wall there 😄.  I will add the original plans soon.

I disagree.

17' is a long distance carrying food and it is a remuddle of the house. If it were me, I'd flip the back end so the kitchen is on the right side and the family room on the left. This would put the kitchen closer to the dining room.

It would also mean the mudroom isn't feeding into the kitchen.

What exactly is the vestibule and how does it relate to the rest of the house? Right now it just looks like the architect couldn't figure out what to do with the space.

and again:

Where in the laundry room will you store everything you need? Detergent for example. Hang wet clothes that can't go in the dryer? etc?

Could the laundry be moved closer to the bedrooms where the majority of laundry is generated?

How will you feel having a bar right across from the powder room? I ask because people tend to congregate at the bar and honestly it feels a bit isolated from any of the rooms and looks like it could become a pinch point.

@cpartist

Thank you for your comments. I certainly don't want to invest this much money to make a 'remuddle' so I would like to set the context for our renovations.

-this is a historic house in a VHCOL neighborhood. It has been mentioned that we should just look for a new house and move but we have been for years but we love our location and our relatively big yard (13K+ sqft vs the typical 6-8K) for this area. We are also have a large city park-like space on our boulevard style street. To buy a new house that would meet our needs would be out of our budget by about 2 million.

-due to the historic listing, we are limited to how we can add on. Many, many houses around here have been altered and it is encouraged but it must be 'separate' from the primary house and thus we can't remove walls.

-I purposefully want a large kitchen for entertaining (we have family over 15x/year at least) and I do NOT want a kitchen that I will have to step around kids/others (which is the galley kitchen that i have now). What is labeled a 'mudroom' on the plans is actually a scullery. There is an entry to the pantry that has a door through the laundry room. The MAIN entry is actually near the bar area which is what my kids will be using (that is existing and what we use as is) and will bring the kids and my husband into their drop zone.

-I am probably the only person in the world who hates having laundry near the bedrooms (which would be upstairs) for several reasons. I can't stand hearing laundry near my bedroom (and due to us working and having 3 young kids, we run the laundry in the eveningtimes) and I love having the laundry near the entryway so sports dust, daily muddy/sandy playclothes, wet towels, kitchen items, etc can be left before being tracked into the house. I don't require a lot of laundry detergent etc, and 1 shelf on the wall will be sufficient. I plan to hang the wet clothes on racks above the w/d and on the wall abutting the house. as it is, I don't fold in my laundry room (which is actually in the garage and works very well honestly) because I need more space and tend to involve my kids to teach them (this is a shared chore imo).

-the bathroom that you see is existing and it is actually right outside the current (and original) kitchen. The current kitchen is the 'bar' and 'vestibule' area. proximity to the kitchen hasn't prevented us from entertaining in the last 8 years that we have lived in this house.

-The vestibule will have a china cabinet and is large passthrough.

-Yes, the bar might be a pinch point but it is in proximity to my husband's den/media room where there is a couch and tv so in my opinion, the flow is acceptable. As it is, that bar area IS the kitchen so it has certainly been a pinch point/congregation area but hopefully with the addition, the congregation area can be pulled into the new addition somewhat. we are limited because the stairs are behind the wall of the bar.

If the general consensus of contributors is that the dining room is too far from the kitchen and that it will be 'muddling' this remodel, then I will scrap these plans and start fresh. Thank you all again!

Why not just make the kitchen/living area into the kitchen/dining area and use the dining room for something else?

How will you vent your dryer as it's far from an outside wall?

I think if it were me, I'd put the laundry where the bar is now, and turn the dining room into a bar/sitting area. Then you'd have a nice flow between kitchen/new dining in old family room and new bar and living room.

Please show pics of what the house looks like now and what the layout is now.

Without seeing the existing house -- both floors, and the proposed 2nd floor, and even images of the house, it's not easy making relevant suggestions.

I wondered about turning the rooms like this. Probably not enough room for the pool, but the kitchen is closer to the dining room.