10.08.2013

31 days of building a home - Changing Your Floor Plan



I mentioned in Day 2 and in posts here and here about the changes we made to our floor plan. We made a few changes that made quite a big difference in the flow and usefulness of our house. 

Change #1 Kitchen/ Dining Room Layout
When we first walked in to our house after the framers got to work, we immediately knew that our dining room wall had to come down. The room was tiny and made everything feel very closed off. In addition to a small dining room the "breakfast area" would hardly fit a table. It is a bit hard to see how a house is going to be until the walls are up... unfortunately that is when it actually costs money to make changes. We debated the pros and cons and decided to make the change and have the framers take the wall down. They hated us I'm sure. 

Here is the 1st Floor Before
1st Floor After





Change #2 
After living with my parents all summer and seeing how hard it was to heat and cool their 2 story areas of the house, I wanted to do away with these if we could. They look really nice, but if we could change it and utilize that space, then I preferred the later. The areas above the foyer and living room were intended to be vaulted. Instead we had the framers close those areas in. The upstairs got a much larger bathroom with a window and the kids now have a playroom. These two changes added about 300 square feet to the upstairs. 

This is looking in from the front door through the foyer into the living room. You can see how we closed in the ceiling of both. 

Here is another view of the living room from the kitchen. 







Change #3
The upstairs bedrooms were planned to only include the areas that could have a flat 8ft ceiling. I like the way angled ceilings look, so we decided to expand into the attic space of the bedrooms and add more floor space. We also added dormer windows to each bedroom and will have build in storage in the attic areas instead of wasted space. I can't stand wasted space.


Change #4
Our master bathroom was very long and skinny (8'x13'). To break it up a bit, we shuffled things around. We made a recessed space for the tub, moved the toilet room to where the tub should have gone and gave the shower an extra 3 feetl. It is still long and skinny, but much more balanced. Unfortunately I dont have any photos of this change. 

Change #5
Our plans called for 9ft ceilings on the main floor and 8ft on the second floor. When taking away the vaulted areas, the 9 ft would have looked closed in. We decided to raise the ceilings to 10 feet. I think it is going to look great, but it is costing me an arm and two legs to buy enough fabric for drapes!

A view from the dining room looking in to the foyer. One of my favorite things about the whole house are those turned steps. I am seeing a great gallery wall going up the stairs. Below the steps will be open and finished leading down to the basement.The room you can see behind the steps is the guest room.

That is all for today!

4 comments:

I love hearing from you! Thanks for your comments!