An aside on stairs, two stories, and light

The idea of having main daily functions on one floor merits some discussion on how to use the view from the NE corner.   Here are the constraints.

The main daily functions of bringing things in and out (food, documents, jackets, etc.) are grouped on one floor.

• Arrival from work to office space
• Groceries to kitchen
• Friends to talk
• Cook to eat

We have an idea of keeping a portion of the ground floor open to the floor above; making a semi-loft.  Then how to go up and down?

This is from a site named bookshelfporn that dedicates its bits to books and how to store them
[This was voted down--it is dated] 

An Italian house. Needs different wall treatments but the split level is interesting, as are the interior windows.

Both the above from this site.  (Hopefully, it does not cobweb...)

Some notes--We have to think about some functions that do not complete on one floor:

• Home to trip  (do you drag luggage?  how?)
• Bike ride, jog, cross country, etc.  to home and shower and change  (the path to the magic stairway needs to be dirt resistant.)