connecting 2 houses and the space puzzle that it creates

Briefing

I have recently bought the house next door to my primary residence. The houses are only about 4 feet apart. My current house is only a 2 bedroom and we will need more space/bedrooms for kids soon, so I am playing around with the idea of connecting the 2 houses.

We love our current house and its open floor-plan focused on the kitchen and entertaining. We want the new combined house to compliment that.

The pictures are of the exterior of the 2 houses from the front. (Newly purchased house is painted blue). The interior pictures are of the current house along its right side, going back towards the backyard (all are living areas). I thought it may be helpful to see these along with the floor-plan. I didn't attach pictures of the interior of the new house as I'd like you to think of that floor-plan as a blank space, keeping costs of renovation in mind. We like the idea of keeping the exterior siding on the inside of the house wherever that needs to happen, as well as exterior windows.

The hand-drawn floor-plan of the new house is pretty crude. I don't have a professional one at the moment. I've attached the survey, though it is also old. There is a "camelback" or loft that that been added to the new house (which isn't on the floorplan but can be seen in the pictures). At the moment it is very small and we would probably want to expand it to go the length of the house, or possibly flow over to our current house- possible connecting to the existing attic space. We are open to a new front door entrance as well.

We are looking to get at least 2 more bedrooms, a new laundry room, a "playroom", a covered carport to the right of the added house, a large screened-in porch connecting the two houses on the back (with enough room for entertaining) and maybe an office and/or art studio. I'm not looking for furniture at this stage, just a floor-plan that combines these two spaces. With the temperate climate in New Orleans, we want to take advantage of the outdoor appeal but screen away the bugs.

It's a pretty open ended project, and I'm sure that there will be a number of iterations on the winning draft and potentially more work to come. If you need anything else please let me know. I will try to update with a floorplan of the new house soon.

Thanks for taking the time.

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