Plans?

Sorry. Not sure why it didn't go through.

What are the goals for the expansion?

More rooms + we wanted dining room

"It feels like we are entering the living room directly."

That's only because you are entering the living room directly.

Anything we can do in the interior so that it doesn't feel like it ?

Expand the entrance porch a bit and enclose it. Add a new porch and door.Your kitchen needs work.

What needs to be done for the kitchen ?

This will cost, but consider this: move the hall bath to the other side of the hallway, next to the bedroom. Move the front door to the left. Now you can create an entry hall, as open or as closed as you wish. Move the garage entry to the end of that hall. You can out a closet there, or hooks, or boot tray, drop zone, whatever you need. It is still close to the kitchen, but keeps the traffic out of there. The bedroom hall is more private. The living room is cozier. You might also set the front door in a bit, even with the porch, to be more sheltered and friendly, and break up the flattish façade.

Why do you need more rooms? kids, guests, work? What is the site like? the neighborhood, the climate? You are doubling the size of the house, might it be cheaper and easier to buy a house with the rooms you need?

Rough idea below:

Thanks for this.

Expanding the house for kids. We live in an expensive area. We will have to get into more debt if we have to buy a new house. Expanding is cheaper at this point.

Regarding the design : won't moving the main door to the side break the curb appeal ?

Actually we are planning to add vaulted ceiling in the living room. If that's the case, I don't think we can add a wall there.

I was actually thinking of creating a foyer by putting some kind of different ceiling design in the front but I'm not sure if that will work. Any ideas ?

Remodeling costs MORE per square foot than buying existing. Look at the for sale that has all of the things that you want. Then look at the price. Subtract the value of your home from the price of the for sale home. Now, take that cost difference and add 50-100% to it. That's your renovation budget to get it to the level of the for sale home.

I thought I'd do some "rearchitecting." I'm not quite sure if you only wanted to switch the Living Room to a Dining Room and create a larger new Living Room, or if you are additionally trying to keep 3 bedrooms and add a dedicated Office beyond that. I also assume the rear addition is maxed to setbacks.

It also appears "tight budget" is undefined but regardless of the numbers, the existing house size and amenities should limit that. For example, with an existing small house having 2BR/2BA, then making it a 4BR/4BA per your proposal but still retaining the bones of the small house, is probably not a prudent decision.

As with anyone who sees this plan, the entry into the "public" spaces is very odd - meaning the route from the front door to the Kitchen/Living. My instinct, if you are going to spend a considerate amount of money and human capital, is to make it better rather than a missed opportunity. Being on a crawl space reduces a lot of the cost with moving plumbing.

The second thing I noticed after the entry route is the proposed front addition and how that works with the existing roof. If you have a common gable setup, adding another gable parallel to the garage will be difficult. The entrance does not have to be symmetrical within an addition, instead you should prioritize balance in the massing.

So in Scheme A, considering as little impact as might meet your program, you could simply just add on a cathedral Living Room, and open up the converted Dining to it. You still haven't fixed the route from Entry, but at least you have Kitchen/Dining/Living grouped visually and functionally, and makes sense if you use the backyard for outdoor living. Then adding only a Master Bedroom and reusing the existing Master ensuite. So now you have a 3BR/2BA house which seems to be appropriate.

In Scheme D is what I would evaluate if I were to undertake a much larger program of adding onto the front and back, and making a new Master Ensuite and dedicated Office. Mainly I would fix the entry route and relocate the private access to be private. The downside is the Living is disassociated with the backyard outdoor living. The upside it is still a 3BR/2BA or 3+1BR/2.5BA which is still in the genre of the existing house bones. If I had done Schemes B & C, they would have addressed adding a bedroom onto the front and Living onto the back, but I only followed your proposal as a basis to show another line of thinking with that concept.

Hi bpath,

I liked the design you had proposed earlier of adding a wall in the front door.

Are there any inspiration designs you can share on the same ?

bp said " I didn’t see an elevation so I can’t comment on that. "

" Are there any inspiration designs you can share on the same ? "

Help us help you. Have you had any changes made by the drafter? Any elevations? Any progress in the last 5 months?