Correction...

That orange beam referred to in the previous post is NOT the beam supporting the bathroom, but it is a load bearing beam! The beam supporting the ramp which will connect the addition to our sunken family room was put in yesterday and the bathroom supporting beam will probably be put up with the rest of the floor joists today. 

Sunken family rooms were so very common in houses built around the time of ours (late 70's) and for a good long time after. We love our family room, and it truly IS the room in which we live, gather, listen to the stereo, post blog posts(!), etc. But it has been one of  the most challenging things to work around in making this house accessible and designing the addition.