1898 House - The Floor Plan

Now that you've seen the exterior, here is the interior floor plan.  As I mentioned in my previous post, the basic layout of the house isn't changing much.  But because of all the structural issues we've found, we're going to be gutting a lot more of the house than we had originally planned.  And you know what happens when you open up walls - you find hidden surprises.  So until we know what those are, here is the renovation plan.

What's changed?  Well a lot.... and not so much.  The layout is very similar to the original plan.  But we are taking out walls in the kitchen (shocking I know!) to make it seem much larger.  We will also be opening up the kitchen ceilings, to get a big cathedral ceiling throughout the space. (want to see the original floor plan?  Click here)

We have agonized over the size of the mudroom and the location of the laundry.  And after lots of discussion about the mudroom, we've finally agreed to just figure it out when we start framing that space.  

For the laundry, we really wanted it up on the 2nd floor, but every option we tried had a compromise involved and we finally gave up.  If it has to be on the first floor, we had a couple of options (you guessed it - hubby and I can't agree 😂)  So we let our plumber made the decision, based on where we can access water supply and drains.  It will go in the current first floor bathroom.  Not our preferred location, but we can live with it.  And that's what always happens when you renovate an old house.  You can't always have exactly what you want due to all kinds of structural, code and financial limitations.  So you learn to adapt!

The bathroom used to have two doors - one into the office and one into the kitchen.  We will eliminate the door to the kitchen, which gives us more space for kitchen cabinets and makes bathroom layout a bit simpler.

The other big changes include fixing all of the structural issues, padding out the walls to give us more space for insulation and  updating finishes. 

The second floor gets bigger changes.  With the addition of the new shed dormer, we gain about 8 feet of space across the back of the house.  It's not an enormous amount of room, but it gives us some additional space to let us 1) create a bunk room for the grandkids and 2) create a primary suite with bathroom and 3) add an extra bedroom.  Having a second bathroom upstairs was a huge 'must have' for us, so we're glad we could make that happen.

Now that the leaves are off the trees, we're really starting to appreciate the water views.  The front right bedroom will have a glimpse of the Portland Head Light - which is a pretty sweet view no matter what the season. (if the kids all come to visit at once, it will be interesting to see who gets the best guest room! 😂)

The Primary Suite has views of Casco Bay, Cushing  and Peaks Island.  We're looking forward to seeing that view as the sun comes up in the morning!

Of course we're dying to get started!  All the permits applications are in and we're hoping to move forward soon.  

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