Thursday, August 18, 2016

Gracious Gambrel - The Floor Plan

The floor plan has been a head scratcher, but after lots of tweaks and changes - we'll have 4 bedrooms, 2 full and 2 half baths.  Plus a man-cave ready (or playroom ready) basement!

Like most of our projects, we started with a floor plan we liked, but as we opened up the house, we found some surprises and some new ideas - that resulted in a lot of tweaks.  At this point I won't declare total victory - but I think we are close to the final design!  But we went through multiple iterations to get here.

As always, we started with a list of must haves:  open floor plan, first floor powder room, lots of storage space, big kitchen, etc.  And each iteration of the plan gets us closer to our goal.

So, let's start with the first floor.   Here's the before floor plan.  It has a pretty typical flow for a center hall colonial.  The foyer is a nice size and the rooms are all generously sized. And of course a wood burning fireplace is always a plus.
The only thing that's a bit unusual is the sunken family room.  With 4 steps down, it feels separate from the rest of the house.  So I really want to change that (and you have to be really tall to open the windows!  I'm almost 6 feet tall and I can barely reach the window locks).  I'm also not a fan of a tile floor in the family room.  We have cold winters in Maine and a wood floor feels much warmer.


With all that in mind, we created the 'to be' floor plan.  We've tried to open up the floor plan as much as possible.  The doorway to the kitchen has more than doubled in size.  We've created a formal dining room and the sunken family room has been raised quite a bit and will only have two steps to the new floor level.  There will be a powder room on the first floor.  And lots of new storage with a big closet and a pantry.

Think the first floor saw a lot of changes?  The second floor saw even more!
Our original plan was to keep the second floor pretty much the same - with just some additions to create a master suite.  But as we got into the planning, our plumber Dominic suggested moving the bathroom so it's over the newly created powder room (much easier from a plumbing standpoint).  That gave us the opportunity to make this a 4 bedroom house!  This could provide a lot of flexibility for future homeowners that might want an extra room for a home office, craft room, etc.  So I dashed over to the City Planning Office and got a second permit, to add a 4th bedroom.  Of course it requires a lot more demolition (and rebuilding), but in the long run, we think it's worth it.
And as we get the walls gutted, we're already pretty thrilled with the changes.  Opening up the wall between the Passageway and the master bedroom (as well as raising the ceiling), is creating a pretty dramatic change to the master bedroom.  Can you believe the difference?

Finished Basement - Before
And last (but not least), we will gut the former finished basement (I know it doesn't look like much, but it will be much nicer with new LED lighting, white walls and ceiling!).
 It's rare to have a dry basement in this area and we really want to make it living space.  So we'll be updating the existing half bath and will do the basics to make it ready for a future owner's needs.  Want a man cave?  It could be perfect.  Need a playroom for the kids?  Want a home office or craft room?  It could work for whatever they want!

Is this the 'final' floor plan?  Who knows?  We may still run into some challenges, or some more great ideas.  But this lets us get moving in a good direction.  Because it's time to start putting this place back together!!




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9 comments:

  1. Love the new floor plans. Can you tell me the rough square footage for each floor? Thank much, Teresa PS. I love watching your projects, so much fun.

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    1. Glad you enjoy watching our progress!! Each floor is roughly 1100 square feet. This is much bigger than our usual projects :-)

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  2. I'm sure this will be fabulous, as are all your houses! Thanks for giving the reasons for the changes, sure helps us understand all the decisions you go through!

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    1. In a project like this, there are so many decisions to be made!!! And just when you think you have a plan, you discover something new and need to make a change. It's never a dull moment around here :-)

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  3. Another fun one to watch as you transform it. Thanks for sharing all your details as you finalize the plans.

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  4. I'm curious. What do you plan to do with the sunken living room's chimney? Paint it?

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    1. I'm still trying to decide! There will be a funky looking spot, where we repair the hole created by the old wood stove. So paint might be the best camouflage!

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  5. This is mesmerizing. You have made awesome changes and I love that you appear to be constructing the floor plans yourself. What software do you use?

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    1. I use a simple Mac app called Live Interior 3D Standard. It was cheap and lets me quickly pull something together. At some point, I'd like to learn AutoCad, but this has worked well so far!

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