Birds eye view…

I thought it may be interesting to look at our house remodel from a birds eye view.

It’ll explain what the hold up has been on anything photo worthy, getting done!

This is the original layout of the first floor (~950 square feet) of our house…

 

1. Front door             5. Laundry room
2. Front room            6. Bathroom
3. Living room           7. Kitchen
4. Master bedroom    8. Dining room

5 and 6 were originally a covered porch and were converted to indoor space
when the bathroom was added sometime in the 60’s.

(Floor planner is a free online program I used to design the house.)

While planning the remodel, I really wanted to stay true to some of the original design but we had to have an attached garage/shop, the small rooms had to go and I wanted as many windows as possible to capture the views.

So, I got creative!

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First, where to put the garage/shop?

We had a very narrow space to the north of our house, the east part of our land goes down steeply into the valley and our septic/water and views are to the south so the attached garage/shop had to located on the west side of the house, which meant in the front yard!

Between the house and the road!

Yep, that is correct. It went in the front yard!!

I don’t need to tell local people our address, I just tell them we’re the house that put the garage in the front yard and they nod and chuckle and say, “I know it.”

 

 

We put in a drive way and then an addition (dark gray) that connected the new garage to the house.

I finally had the footprint of the first floor (~1175 square feet).

I decided to make the front of the house face south.
It would allow a nice big porch and view of the road.

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Next: the small rooms had to go!

In order to fit in the floor plan I designed (see below) all but three interior walls had to come down, and unfortunately quite a few were load bearing. (Sorry Steve!)

 

That has been the hold up!

Ha ha no pun intended!!
(Didn’t catch that until the second proof read)

We had to hire a structural engineer to design a way to support the second floor. The plan included several new piers under the house and multiple new structural beams in the first floor ceiling.

In the middle of Steve carrying out this plan, he noted something the engineer missed. There was a two week delay to get a new plan and then new structural supports had to be ordered.

Lisa, at Sipe Lumber Company, has been amazing to work with and she got those supports in for us in just a few days.

Unfortunately there is quite a bit of work to re-do before we can move forward, so there will be more delays.

So many life lessons have been learned during this adventure but none more than patience!

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Last but not least: take advantage of the views to the east and south.

Easy!

I tucked the two bathrooms (2&3) and the utility room (4) out of the way on the northwest side of the house leaving a large area for the living room (6), kitchen (5) and guest room (7) all facing the south and east.

1. Garage (complete)             6. Living room
2. Bath #1 (complete)             7. Guest room (complete)
3. Bath #2 (complete)             8. Front entry with covered porch (porch complete)
4. Utility room (complete)
5. Kitchen

If you noticed there is a number 9.

SURPRISE…it’s a hallway leading to what will be our next addition!!!

Stay tuned!

Hoping for no more delays! Mama wants her kitchen!!!

As always keep it simple and do it with sass!

Kimberly

P.S. It’s motorcycle season so look twice and save a life —