PITTSBURGH - Kate and Chris Eyerman didn't get a new dining room just for Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners, but it certainly helps when gatherings outgrow the granite-topped bar where they and their two daughters eat most meals.

"We usually have 12 people for holidays," Kate Eyerman said.

That doesn't feel like a crowd in this 18- by-15-foot space with a 15-foot cathedral ceiling, and there is plenty of elbow room at the nearly 10- by-41/2-foot table.

The cherry Arhaus table arrived just a few days before Christmas 2012, the final piece of a nearly four-month project that also included a kitchen expansion and the addition of a bathroom, bedroom and large mudroom.

But the biggest piece of eye candy was the dining room addition, whose exposed white oak timber frame extends outside to the new covered patio. Architect Larry Stephens of RLS Associates Architects and kitchen designer Louise Pascale of Willow Design Group "worked together seamlessly" and closely with contractor Jerry Horn Construction, Kate said.

Stephens actually started working on the design in 2007, six years after the couple bought the nearly 90-year-old stone Tudor. A nearby resident who was already familiar with this house, Stephens designed a larger family room/dining room addition that covered the entire back of the house. But its big price tag and the economy helped convince the homeowners to instead close in a side porch and make other improvements. Chris Eyerman said it ended up better this way.

"It gave us time to be more thoughtful about the space. It's a better fit for the house."

Stephens said 99 percent of his work is residential. "It's my preference. I like the intimate scale."

He and Pascale strived to maintain a sense of openness in the new and old spaces.

"Louise said to think about sightlines from different vantage points," Chris Eyerman recalled. As a result, visitors can see what's in glass-fronted kitchen cabinets from the living room, and someone standing at the kitchen sink has lovely views in every direction.

Other nice touches in the kitchen include the Napolitano Gold granite counter tops with a textured leather finish from Mont Granite, a subway tile backsplash with bronze accents, and an original stained-glass window that was saved and reused in the new dining room. An upstairs window was also reused high in the gable of the dining room.

Atlantic Timber Frame created all of the room's oak trusses, which are decorative in the interior but structural on the outside. Stephens also dressed up the patio with tapered columns that are more Craftsman than Tudor, but the two styles work well together. Sandstone used throughout the house, including a new fireplace mantel in the living room, came from the same Columbus, Ohio, quarry that supplied the home's original builders.

Some of that stone surrounds the covered patio, which was a late addition to the project but a welcome one, the Eyermans said. Where they previously had no back door, they now have two Pella French doors that bring in sunlight and views of their 21/4 acres of grass and apple and pear trees. And they got a bonus - an outdoor living space just steps away from a beautiful indoor living space.

"We eat out there quite a bit, and we entertain there," Kate said.

Her husband agreed, saying that they hope to add an outdoor fireplace and extend the patio even more into the yard.

"It's like an outdoor living room," he said.