Does your list of New Year&#x92;s resolutions include updating, renovating or adding onto your home? Not sure how to get started? </p><p>For inspiration, here is the story of a 1957 Prairie Village ranch house built way before walk-in closets, SUV-capacity garages, first-floor laundry rooms and home offices were the norm.</p><p>The owner thought her home lacked character. She wanted a comfortable bungalow feel and had carefully collected pictures of homes she liked. My advice: <span class="italic">Always </span>file images that appeal to you. Even if the pictures show completely different styles, an architect can decipher why you are drawn to it. Maybe it was the amount of natural light or the size of a kitchen island or obscure detailing.</p><p>Her wish list was big: a welcoming front porch, a home office, a larger dining room for entertaining, a master bath spacious enough for a jetted tub, a larger closet, a mudroom, a studio space for making jewelry, a pantry and a garage large enough for her to park two cars and be able to open the doors.</p><p> Another good tip: Even if everything can&#x92;t be done all at once, tell an architect <span class="italic">everything</span> you want. That&#x92;s because you don&#x92;t want to do anything twice. Renovating the kitchen first only to add a master bath above it or a new adjacent family room happens all the time and usually makes a future addition trickier and more expensive.</p><p>With her photos and dream list, the owner interviewed architects. I toured her home, listened to the changes she wanted to make and reviewed her pictures. She wanted to know what was possible with her budget and also what made sense. I provided a fee proposal of what it would take to redesign her home, create the drawings with specifications and observe construction. </p><p>Her three-bedroom house included an enclosed 1970s-era porch with a rarely used hot tub. The home had nice bones with an efficient layout, ample-sized rooms and a sturdy yet simple brick front exterior with side-access garage. The kitchen had been beautifully updated, but the rest of the home was untouched. </p><p>To explore the possibilities, I measured her home. With the base plans, I developed three concepts. We reviewed the ideas and walked through her home, and I described what would be changed or added. We continued to revise the plan until the design was complete and ready to be finalized into the construction drawings.</p><p>The final solution added 220 interior square feet for a mudroom, laundry and pantry. This new space allowed for a comfortable garage entrance with a coat closet and a pocket door between the mudroom and kitchen to keep the pets safely inside while unloading items into the pantry from the car. </p><p>The renovation also included a new front porch and a screened porch shared by the living room and master bedroom. The garage was enlarged and has two single garage doors and extra storage space. After new lighting plus stained glass the owner designed and made herself, suddenly the home features enough character and charm for strangers to ring her doorbell and ask, &#x93;Have you ever consider moving? This is exactly what I have been looking for!&#x94;</p><p><span class="factbox_head">About this feature</p><p></span>Today House + Home begins a feature written by area architects, Drawing Board. Kansas City contains such vibrant public and private buildings that we want to share residential design through an architectural perspective. Local architects will write about ideas, building materials, projects and more. Drawing Board will run the second Sunday of each month.