Wednesday, January 11, 2017

The Ugly Duckling - The Plan to Become a Swan

Since this house was already gutted when we bought it, it gave us lots of flexibility on defining a new floor plan.  There aren't a lot of things in our way!  But to figure out what we want to include, I've been reading lots of articles and listening to buyers/realtors, to come up with a list of 'wants' for the house.  There are a LOT of 'wants':

The trick is to see if we can incorporate them all into our floorplan!

Current Plot Plan
Of course figuring out a floor plan, when you're connecting to an existing old house, is tricky.  It's like a giant geometry problem.  Not only do we need to connect with the existing structure, we have lots of building code requirements we need to meet.  For example, we can only build on 25% of the lot.  That limits the size for an addition.  And any new construction needs to meet setback requirements, in our case 20 feet from the street.  So that adds some additional complexity that needs to be considered.  But we're lucky, since the house sits so far to the right, a new addition will 'balance' the house on the lot.

We played with several iterations, but finally settled on this design (note: when working on an old house, plans are a good starting point, but the final configuration will probably be a bit different!  There are always some surprises).  We're going to do a big addition.  The original house only had 1200 square feet of living space.  Our finished project will be 75% bigger - 2100 square feet of living space, plus the garage.

First Floor:


So our starting point was as basic as you can get.  3 rooms with a big brick flue going through the middle of the house (it looks like there might have been a wood stove in the living room at some point).
The new design - adds a new dining room across the back of the house.  That gives lots of room for a big table and a crowd at Thanksgiving.  There is also a large kitchen which is great for entertaining big groups or small!  And the living room will boast a gas fireplace, with built in bookcases on either side.  Adjacent to the living spaces are utilitarian rooms.  There's a large mudroom that lets you shed coats and boots as the owners come in from the garage (this is Maine after all!).  And there is a convenient half bath, off to the rear.

Remember the scary staircase from the before photos?  We will rebuild it, to meet code requirements, and are leaving it open above, to allow additional sunlight to flood the rooms.  That's the southeast corner of the lot and will be sunny from morning through afternoon!  Oh, and the staircase change moved the front door to the center of the house - and we really think it looks better that way.  

The second floor also has lots of changes!  The original floor plan was pretty compact - 3 bedrooms and a bathroom.  We've made quite a few changes and will now have 3 bedrooms in the main house and a master suite in the new addition.  We have also included a laundry room since most of the laundry is on the 2nd floor!  Who wants to drag everything down to the basement, if you don't have to??

See that hallway, leading to the back of the house?  That will go to a doorway, that will take you up to the 3rd floor deck, with our great views!  Check them out here

But just as important as getting the interior right, we wanted to get the exterior right.  I so love the graceful curve of the original gambrel roofline.  So we will highlight that on the new addition as well.    And we're installing all new windows (in most cases in new locations) to make the house as light and bright as we can!
For some reason, the 3rd floor deck didn't appear in this 3D CAD representation, but you can see the platform for it.
Quite a change, don't you think?  Is this a house that will appeal to a future buyer?  


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14 comments:

  1. Love the layout, the addition, the gambrel roof!

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    1. I swoon every time I look at the 'swoops' (still don't know the architectural term for them) on the original gambrel roof!!

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  2. You are All amazing. knew you'd spin your magic.

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    1. Ha ha - lets hold off on amazing comments until we actually get it done!! Lots of challenges in this one!

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  3. so fun to see what you do here. it's late, and i am feeling brave, so here is a question and a comment: have you considered putting a exterior door in place of the window in the front of the mudroom? and, the closet in the upstairs front bedroom: if i were buying this house, i'd rather have a longer closet on the wall adjacent the staircase or two closets on either side of the side window w/ a small window seat connecting the two. more closet, a more "square room. again, love seeing how you transform these houses into homes!

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    1. Great minds think alike - I ordered an exterior door for the mudroom this week! I'm still concerned that there are a lot of doorways in that space, but that door will be really functional for the future owner.

      Regarding the front bedroom, the closet has been a bit of a challenge. I loved the idea of closets on either side of the small window and a window seat, but what you can't tell from the plans is that's a sloping ceiling (from the gambrel roofline). So if we put closets there, you could only have one low bar for hanging clothes and there wouldn't be any space at the top, because of the ceiling slope. So not a lot of functionality! And there isn't room on the stairway wall, because it would interfere with the window. So that's how we ended up with the closet location!

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    2. I had the exact same thought about a mudroom entrance. I even wondered if it would make sense, since you are moving the front door anyway, to make this entry more prominent and really the "front door" of the house? Instead of the front door leading right into the living room with no coat closet, etc.

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    3. Ha ha - in Maine that will automatically become the primary entrance! No one uses the front door!!!

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    4. Right when I hit send I thought about the pitch in the roof and assumed that is why you didn't put the closets there. How far out would you have to come to make it doable? Creating a deep area by the window might make for a super cozy (although super deep) window seat or even a nice under-window floating desk. And the eaves in the closet behind the hanger could be good for tucked away storage. Can you tell that I really like to square things off? :)

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    5. It would have to come out so far, it would really make the room awkward! And the angled walls add a lot of charm to the room. I'd hate to hide that in the back of a closet!

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    6. I love angled walls, too! Looking forward to seeing the finished product :)

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  4. The addition looks really well thought of, especially with the gambrel roof line. Love the third floor deck!That was such a neat idea. Please forgive one very stupid question: Just curious about how the snow on the deck is managed? Does it have to be shoveled or can it just stay there until it melts?

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    1. That's a great question, when a house is in a climate like Maine!! And there are a surprising number of flat roofs here. On our project, the structural engineers took that into account when they did the design work. So the deck structure is made of engineered beams that can handle a massive snow load. But as someone that has a 3rd floor deck on my own house - we do shovel on the rare occasions when it gets really crazy up there!

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  5. Nice presentation and house design layout. The staircase transformation decision is right, it always looks better in the front of the doors. Energy efficient doors & windows are very beneficial for new build property.

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