Still haven’t torn any walls down yet

Since we received the initial design concepts from Sid about a month ago, we’ve “mixed and matched” several ideas from all three drawings and came to a final conclusion on what we’d ultimately like our house to look like. Sid came back with a composite drawing — and a preliminary budget estimate which indicated that, of course, we could only afford half of what we really wanted! So, in the spirit of compromise, I gave up “my” remodeled bathroom in favor of some of the other items on our wish list. (Roger’s quote: “I can poop in a $10,000 bathroom as easily as a $30,000 bathroom.” Nice.) So, here’s what we’ll be doing:

• Remodeling the kitchen: This will involve pushing a wall about 18 inches into our living room to create more working space, and lots of wonderful cabinets and drawers. We’ll also get a new walk-in pantry and a counter-top height eating space.
• Creating a mudroom: We’ll put up a 4′6″ wall in the family room to create a mudroom-like entrance with (we hope) a bench, shelves, hooks and storage for shoes and bags. We’re also taking out the fireplace (which we don’t use).
• Reconfiguring the family room: While we’ll actually be making this room a bit smaller to get rid of its existing “bowling alley”-like feel, we’ll knock down another wall to open up the space.
• Making the living room “livable”: This space, which we currently never use, will become a multipurpose space for dining, entertaining, playing piano, reading in a comfy nook and more.
• Finishing parts of the basement: We’ll demo the office to create a new workout room for Roger, and also finish the main area to become a rec room, with his and her office-like space. The storage area and laundry room will remain unfinished.

Yesterday we met Sid to go over the blueprints, elevations (drawings of what the different walls, cabinets, etc. look like), and the electrical plan. Sid has also promised a “flythrough” of the space, which, if the technology gods allow, I’ll try to add to the web site this week.

The biggest stressor right now is trying to figure out what to do with all our “stuff” in the next month before the remodel begins. We’ve decided that most everything (kitchen supplies, furniture, books, etc.) can get stored in our garage, but figuring out how we’ll watch TV or fix lunch over the next three months might get interesting.

Posted on June 7th, 2008 by Lynsey in Remodel