Floor plans for main floor

[gottawonder]

This is mainly for Ratty. This is the floor plan. We are sleeping in the current bedroom.

I see I forgot the tiny entryway that would be between the will-be mud room and the kitchen. Imagine it.

Our plan is to turn our current bedroom (which is small for a bed room, big for a bathroom) into the main bathroom. There will be a door between our new bedroom, and our current bed room.

This will be complicated, because we will have to move out of our current bedroom, likely into the basement bedroom, in order to be able to complete both the new bedroom and the bathroom because of needing to cut the doorway, insert a door, and get the fir flooring done correctly (it has to go into the newly cut doorway).

If we move into the basement bedroom, when it is done, it occurs to me that I won't be able to store the contents of the sea can in there. Argh.

No. I can't do any of this myself, and the contractor might be able to help with some of it, but not all of it, as it will be tedious and time-consuming, thus very expensive to have done by someone.

The current bathroom is a small, awkward room that also has a washer and dryer in it. We are thinking that it will just become the laundry room.

Comments

[cf2princessawnw]

I'm not too familiar with a mud room but would it have a place to wash up? Or would you have to track through your new bedroom to get to the bathroom to do so and shower etc?

Sounds like a nice floor plan though! Comfortable. :)

[gottawonder]

Sometimes it is called a porch.

In general, people who have animals and gardens have an area when you come into the house where you take off your muddy boots, hang up your chore coat, and so on. Ours will also have a sink and some cupboards so that there is a non-kitchen area to wash the vegetables, store animal related stuff, anything you wouldn't want to do in the space where you prepare food.

The mud room will be accessible from the kitchen, the back door will exit from there, and there will be a door to the bedroom, but we might not use that one much.

[ratunderpaper]

I just saw this plan today.

It'll have a very nice flow to it when it is done. I'm hopeful the principal bedroom can be done for you without much delay. The rest of the building will be less disruptive.

How nice to have a big bathroom, eventually. (There are three here, all very small. The house was turned into a rooming house some time in the thirties, so that's why the door casings - any things that could be banged around moving furniture, really - are in rough shape.)

[gottawonder]

I really want the bathroom to feel open and spacious. I have never enjoyed cramped bathrooms. Something about that feeling of having to be hunched up and trying to turn around while never being able to extend your arm to wrap a towel around you. Trying to use the commode and feeling like your knees are going to touch the tub.

In movies and magazines, you sometimes see these enormous bathrooms, and I LOVE that idea. We won't have the two separate counters/sinks, but what a nice idea.

When my husband is home, if I need something from the bathroom and he is in there, you just have to wait because it is too small for two people.

[ratunderpaper]

I enjoy seeing Martha Stewart-like bawthrooms, with vintage tile, a separate luxury shower, gooseneck faucets and the like.

I have always lived with tiny bawths - necessariums, I have called them. The main bawth here is both small and spacious at the same time, but it has a spa-like airiness.

If there are two people in a household, it makes sense to have two bawths, even though it may seen frivolous.

[gottawonder]

We will have one main bath on the main floor when we are done.

Our current bathroom will become a laundry room.

We will have a basement bathroom, which seems appropriate these days, and it will be there mainly as a guest bathroom, though we will also use it sometimes because there is an area that will be our "dirty" living room. I am hoping that the upstairs will be more like the area that you would sit down with people without having a big screen and piles of DVDs.

All of this is a little funny, given that we never entertain.

Some of this is my vision of what will make the house appealing, years from now when we will need to move. It would be best to get maximum $$$ when we need it, and we won't feel like adding features to it at that point.

MOST of what we are doing, is in the end, quite frivolous.

[ratunderpaper]

Do you anticipate a need to move in the future?

[gottawonder]

Not any time soon, but the reality is, we don't have kids. There will come a time when we find staying out here on an acreage to be too much work.

I am thinking 15-20 years from now, but we are doing all the building now, so might as well think in terms of what would make the house more appealing to sell. We won't want to have to do more building THEN.

It will also be for us, we'll use that second bathroom and guest room.

Out of curiosity, do so few people think about the future that it is weird to plan for it? Our contractor thought it was weird that I said "people like having bedrooms and bathrooms in the basement, so when we go to sell, it will be a feature".

We ARE going to use them ourselves, but it never hurts to think of things that will make the house appealing. Life is uncertain, and who knows if we can really stay here into our decrepitude or if life will change quickly and we will have to move. Might as well think of overall useful things to add, or to think of curb appeal, both because we will benefit, and future residents will appreciate our attention to detail.

I have always lived in preowned houses, and appreciated when things were built well, or little things made things convenient or more attractive. My husband and I often say "thanks to the people who built this, the doors are actually a convenient standard size" or "The previous owners really did us a solid by using such good quality shingles, we won't have to replace these for a while".

The people who bought our house in Rock Springs got a fantastic house, because we literally upgraded EVERYTHING to a very high standard, and added a bathroom and an office to the otherwise unfinished basement. We did landscaping, planted trees, knowing that we wouldn't be there to see them get big.

Those people shouldn't have to do hardly any work on that house for 20 years or more, just maybe some aesthetic stuff.

I guess I see it as stewardship?

[ratunderpaper]

If it's a well-made house and it isn't on the chopping block to make room for condos, then stewardship is inevitable.

This house was built between 1914 and 1917. It had many owners and at some time was divided up to be a rooming house. The years weren't kind to it. I think that everything that's done to it now (and the gardens) should be done to make it better. The house deserves to be brought back to its quiet nobility. It isn't a grand place, but it has a good presence.

The eccentric thing about this street is the number of older residents who have lived here for eons, alone or with beloved animals. It's not a street that's teeming with whelps.

No one can predict anything, but I'll do my best to stave off decrepitude. I like seeing really old people actively enjoying their homes and gardens. Aunt Doe lived down the road until she was 96; she walked to the local restaurant every day for spaghetti and wine. Mike from across the street lives with his dog Blackie - he's almost 100, but in fine fettle.

[gottawonder]

Your street must feel a bit like a time capsule. How lovely.

[ratunderpaper]

The street is a bit of an oddity as it has been given "heritage district", or "historic" designation. No one is permitted to alter or raze the exterior of any of the houses here. (Either you embrace old architecture, or you don't.)

[gottawonder]

The city we frequent has a historic area that hails back to nearly the origin of the city itself. We walk around there sometimes, just because it is so lovely.

I am not sure if it is all that convenient an area to live in (far from a grocery store and not easy public transit), but it is beautiful. Nice to see old homes that are all maintained with pride, not the ghetto usually associated with older homes.

[ratunderpaper]

True, there is old and graceful and then old and decrepit.

Recently, I visited an atelier that's part of an old Victorian rowhouse. I couldn't stop looking at the bad repairs and worse renovations, one after another after another. I didn't have any idea where I would start fixing it up if it were mine.