Update on my house plans

In case you missed my previous mentions of what's going on at my house, we're planning some rather large additions to what we have discovered is a house FAR too small for 2 people (especially when one likes to collect furniture and lamps) and 7 cats. At the beginning of February I blogged about some initial plans we had gotten from our architect. We had discussed simply adding on a section to the side of the house (luckily we have a rather large lot for a house in the heart of the city) and replacing the old addition at the back of the house that has crappy insulation. This seemed the most feasible because dealing with construction when you have 7 cats is a nightmare. So we were going to live in the old part of the house while the work was happening. Before we left on vacation to Mexico, I received an email from the fabulous folks of local design firm Vok Design Group (Dylan and Thu) who wanted to help with the exterior plans. When we met with Dylan and Thu they also expressed interest in coming up with suggestions for the interior and we were SO game. We met Friday so they could show us their interior ideas before they delved into the exterior. We were rendered completely speechless. It turned out to be WAY more work than we were anticipating but it makes SO much sense and will make this house incredible.

Let me show you what they came up with for the main floor.

Here is a photo of the initial plans from the architect with a couple minor changes made by me. The existing house is marked off in red.

And this is what Dylan and Thu came up with (sorry the measurements aren't clear because I had to photograph it):

{Now, we have no idea how much this is going to cost, and I'm frankly afraid to find out. Which means at this point we're not even sure if this can happen. And, to make matters worse, the plans for the upstairs (as you'll see in a moment) means we're in serious trouble if we plan to live here, with the cats, while the work happens. Not an ideal situation but we REALLY want this to work out.}

We absolutely adore their ideas for the main floor. The new entrance is open to the upper level, which makes the house finally feel sort of grand. And OMG there's a FOYER. Right now you walk into the house and you're standing in the living room. And if you want to put your coat somewhere you had to walk all the way to the back of the house and hang it on some hooks we installed next to the back door. Right there is also a new staircase to the second floor. The new plans have the old staircase (currently in the living room) being removed. Which creates a very large dining room. :-) Love the powder room being off the foyer and more out of the way. This all shrinks the new living room a bit but I think it's worth it - and 13'x17' and some change is a decent size. Most of the back wall will be doors to the backyard and windows so the light coming in will be awesome. Dylan and Thu suggested moving the fridge to the left of the kitchen so the opening to the back of the house will be in line with the windows at the back. Since these plans eliminated my new pantry (a bit of a bummer), I now instead need to do something on the wall with the fridge to incorporate the storage I was looking for.

Now for the second floor. HUGE changes up there. Initially we were going to create a huge master suite with a bathroom, and a laundry room, and that was pretty much it.

The new plans have a complete redesign of the upstairs, with only the current master bedroom at the front of the house staying relatively the same.

I don't even know what to say about this it's so different. We'll now have 3 normal sized bedrooms, because the current second bedroom which I use as dressing room, is only 7' wide. And the existing hallway is reeeeally narrow. These plans include a big laundry room - SO EXCITING. After doing laundry in a dingy basement for over 3 years passing puddles and litter boxes to get to the washer dryer, to a proper laundry near the bedrooms with a SINK and a WINDOW and some storage makes me so giddy. Since we don't have kids and only really need 1 guest room, I'll make bedroom #2 a dressing room and my hubby can have the walk-in closet.

That, my friends, is hopefully my future home. I am going to be saying alot of prayers over the next little while, because after seeing these plans, I don't know how we could do anything less and be as happy about it. Perhaps I should start a Kim's House fund. Or get a third job. (Too bad cats can't work). While I'm on this subject, now would be a good time to mention if anyone wants to donate or give us a really good price on products we'd need for this project (flooring, sinks, toilets, fireplace, exterior materials etc.) we'd totally appreciate it and it would not go unmentioned here on the blog I assure you... :-) (I'm not very good at begging).

Comments

[jessica define]

fingers crossed for you---I loved seeing your kitchen transform so this would be a hell-of-a-lot of awesome posts.