Accessibility isn’t just about older people. We’ve been thankful for a one story home and workable bathrooms when we’ve had knee surgeries requiring wheelchairs and broken ankles requiring knee scooters. It’s smart for everyone.

The interiors are so good! Gave me lots of inspiration for my own 1880s cottage.

I agree with all of this! Wanted to make a comment to express this but then saw that Alex already did. Thank you, Alex!

Same, we live with three people in 1300 square feet and that feels very generous (but then again, we live in Europe and it’s not the first time I notice big differences in whether rooms are perceived as small or big). That main room is about as big as our living room + dining room + kitchen (we have about 30 square feet more), so yes, that amount of space is definitely big enough for that and nope, our kitchen doesn’t feel “small”, it’s just normal sized 😉

To be honest, I’m still a bit confused what functions this cottage needs to fulfill: is it more for retreats for external people (meaning you don’t want to have them in the main house and you probably want as many bedrooms as possible – and in that case: do you want to offer single rooms or more of a bunk room-arrangement; depending on the kind of retreat one or the other might be more attractive). Or is it really more meant for family / friends, who are staying over? In that case:
– does it need a separate tv room, don’t you watch tv with your guests in the main house?
– what happens with the guest room in the main house: does that become a closed off office for Emily instead of having to sit in the open sun room?
Or is it meant to be the office of Emily, which then of course would have totally different needs (I would then prefer a desk with a bigger screen instead of having to – not so ergonomically – work at my laptop all day). Etc. etc.

And general question: it doesn’t seem to be insulated or anything? Is that the plan? Is it livable otherwise (too cold in winter, too hot in summer)? How is it going to be heated? On the first floor, if you need to redo the foundation, you can probably do floor heating (so roughly foundation + floor heating + flooring, which of course might impact doors and ceiling height, unless you’re able to go a bit deeper than today so the flooring ends up at the same height as today), but what is planned for the second floor? I’d also be interested (both for this cottage as for the main house) if things like solar panels are considered? I definitely get trying not to change anything about the plumbing, but if this cottage is meant to be a guest house for elderly people as well (meaning there needs to be a bathroom on the first floor), it might be unavoidable to do some plumbing work. We probably just don’t have all the info yet, but seems to me that already doing the foundation is a bit tricky if the layout isn’t thought out yet. Same with door openings etc., if the old prop room is going to be a bedroom, I’d close off the direct entrance from the outside, take out the chimney a put the bed on that side of the room. If you want a lot of sleeping space, you could even divide that room up (with closets like the one you have now or with a wall), put a bigger bed on the side where the chimney is now and a bunk bed for kids on the other side. In that case I’d also close off the door to the outside and change the window to a second door. Aah so many questions and possibilities, the fun part of the design process where everything still seems to be possible! 🙂

Put windows and a door behind the barn door and make that the entry point. Leave the kitchen under the stairs and build the bathroom in the corner where the cabinets are. Build a nook in the new bathroom wall for the fridge and add an island. Add a big farmhouse table in the living space.

The canning room becomes a large rumpus and TV room. Add some built-in seating that can convert to beds for a crowd.

Keep the roof to the garden room but open up (some/all?) the walls and make into a covered deck. Add windows and doors between the canning and garden rooms.

Upstairs keep the sink where it is. Also keep the shower functionality upstairs,  but I don’t like the stall-type doors, so either close each one off properly or put the two items in their own room. As someone else said add a door to the little closet to access it from this area.

In the upstairs room, just don’t use the little closet door, rather than removing it. The ceiling line is quirky, but would annoy me over time, so I would ‘square’ the room by putting something along the wall opposite the big closet, ie storage to the ceiling or ‘closet style’ single beds end to end. (And covering the little closet door) Nothing that will permanently change the celings or walls though, because they are gorgeous and need to be preserved as is.

Gorgeous little house!

But it’s not going to be a large room, isn’t it? Not sure what the winters in Oregon look like, but here in the UK we have a wet room for my disabled partner, about 8 x 6 ft. The only heating comes from a towel rail (a big one), and it is warm enough.