For the final two days, I’ve not been in a position to focus on something aside from the brand new plan for our home. After canceling our addition that we’ve been planning for years now and deciding to primarily work inside the footprint of our present house, including on only one room, my thoughts has been in overdrive. I’ve been at my laptop for hours shifting issues round on the ground plan to provide you with the proper association for every thing that we want. I’ve been strolling round the home with a tape measure in hand, measuring nearly each wall and opening in the home. So I gained’t hold you in suspense. We’re constructing a kitchen addition!
It took me a number of tries, a lot of consideration about our particular wants (particularly Matt’s wants), and plenty of shifting issues round and tweaking totally different concepts, however I’ve the ultimate ground plan. Right here it’s.
Essentially the most thrilling half is that the brand new plan is clearly the kitchen addition, however fairly actually, I’m so enthusiastic about all of it!!! So let me clarify my thought processes for all of those selections, and I’ll get to the rationale why I made a decision to make that new room within the kitchen.
First, let’s begin in the master bedroom. Since we have already got the grasp lavatory accomplished, it simply is sensible to show the bed room subsequent to it into the main bedroom. As soon as the remaining partitions left over from the closet, areas are taken down, this room will probably be fairly a bit bigger than the room we’re in now. And we desperately want a bigger bed room, so this can work out completely. It’s undoubtedly not as massive because the one we had deliberate for our authentic addition, however this one will probably be spacious sufficient to maneuver Matt’s Hoyer raise round with out me always operating into it, hitting my head on it as I attempt to stroll previous it, or tripping over it, that are all frequent occurrences in our present bed room.
Since there is no such thing as a room contained in the precise bed room for a closet (a closet in that room would make that room the identical dimension because the bed room we’re in now, and that’s simply not doable for the long-haul), I’m going to be turning the present visitor bed room into an enormous walk-in closet/train space/storage space for Matt’s gear. I’ll lastly have the ability to use IKEA Pax wardrobes and have an enormous, stunning, organized closet on one aspect of that space. And because it’s actually the scale of a bed room (as a result of it’s a bed room) and I don’t have almost that many garments or footwear, there will probably be loads of room for the important train gear that we need to hold, in addition to loads of ground house within the center to maintain mats gear (Hoyer raise, bathe wheelchair, and so forth.) when he’s not utilizing them.
It is going to be the proper massive, open house that we want for all of these issues. I will probably be closing that room off to the hallway, however I additionally determined to depart the present door in place (it’s a pocket door) and simply drywall over it. That method, if a future proprietor needs to show this again right into a bed room, it is going to be so simple as drywalling over one doorway, and eradicating the drywall from one other doorway, after which, identical to that, it’s a bed room once more. And it’ll have already got a door.
Now let’s discuss concerning the music room. Each single time I deliver up ground plan concepts, most individuals appear to need to put the music room on the chopping block. However I actually can not stress this sufficient. The music room can’t be modified, can not have furnishings added to it, and can’t be utilized in every other method. Whereas it’s not used as an precise music room (sadly, I simply don’t have time to play the piano proper now), this room is at present one of the used rooms in our home, and it’s a room that we can not reside with out.
Initially, simply from a visible standpoint, I actually just like the view from the entrance door by way of the again of the music room. I actually don’t need to put something in there to hinder that view.
However even when I wished to vary that room and do one thing else, like flip it right into a eating room, that might simply be unattainable. That might make life so tough for Matt as a result of that is probably the most excessive visitors room in our home all through the day. With Matt in a wheelchair, I frequently have to consider visitors stream and never placing issues in his method in order that he can get by way of the primary areas and to all the exits in the home. And as you’ll be able to see, with the music room proper in the midst of the home, it will get a lot a lot through-traffic that the present association is probably the most good strategy to make that room look fairly, and completed, and purposeful, whereas additionally holding it open for Matt to get by way of simply. I simply couldn’t even think about what hardship I might create if I attempted to show that room into the rest.
That can also be the realm the place I switch Matt to and from his wheelchair utilizing the Hoyer raise. It’s the one room in our home that has sufficient house for me to place his wheelchair simply the precise method, after which pull a Hoyer raise proper as much as it. So if I had been to go and put a eating desk or the rest like that, in that room, it will destroy its very helpful performance for us. So whereas the identify “music room” is a bit deceiving, this is without doubt one of the most functionally helpful rooms in the home simply as it’s. There’s no method I might change something concerning the music room format.
Now let’s discuss concerning the enjoyable stuff! The brand new kitchen addition! I thought-about so many choices for that space together with making the brand new room a eating room, making the brand new room a laundry room, and even making the brand new room a TV room. So why did I resolve to lastly make that space a brand new kitchen? Due to the potential of home windows and pure gentle straight within the kitchen!
One in every of my least favourite issues about our home is that the present kitchen is true within the center, and has no home windows with direct daylight really within the kitchen. I’ve opened it up in order that it might get daylight from the adjoining rooms, however I might love a kitchen with a lot of home windows and pure gentle.
So once I was making an attempt to show that space right into a laundry room, and including all these great home windows, it dawned on me that that needs to be the kitchen! I may simply think about having a sink with broad home windows over the countertop. That’s the start of a dream kitchen for me! And within the final 24 hours, I’ve checked out so many stunning and inspirational galley kitchens that my thoughts is spinning! I’m so enthusiastic about having a light-filled galley kitchen!
As soon as I spotted that the brand new room was an ideal place for a brand new kitchen addition, every thing else sort of fell into place. If the brand new room goes to be a kitchen, then the location of the present pantry doesn’t make any sense. Plus, this new kitchen will probably be greater than my present kitchen, which just about eliminates the necessity for a pantry anyway. So if I alter the place of the doorway into that room, that’s the good place for a laundry room/utility room!
After which, with the doorway into the present pantry/future laundry room moved, that stable wall can now be the TV wall in what’s now the TV room. I didn’t notice till yesterday, as I used to be strolling round and measuring every thing, that the present sitting room is just about the very same dimension as the realm of the entrance room that we use as the lounge. However what makes the sitting room really feel so small is the association of the furnishings as a result of I’ve to depart that stroll method by way of the room open. However with the present doorway to the pantry closed off, and with turning that wall into the TV wall, the rearrangement of the furnishings will make that room really feel a lot greater. Plus, there’ll now not be a kitchen peninsula making that room really feel so closed in.
After which that leaves the proper room for a eating room. With the brand new kitchen addition, that implies that the present kitchen will grow to be my eating room. It’s the proper place for a eating space, proper between the kitchen and the TV room and the lounge. It’s prefer it was meant to be! And I can have a desk and chairs in there with out blocking the visitors sample by way of the room.
I’ve given this a lot thought, and a lot time, and I’m feeling virtually 100% assured that that is what we’ll find yourself with. The truth is, I really feel so assured that I’m able to get began instantly! Which brings up the problem of timeline.
The primary precedence is to maneuver into the larger bed room. So with that objective in thoughts, we have to get that bed room prepared. Meaning demolishing the ground and the subfloor, putting in new subfloor and flooring, eradicating the remaining closet partitions, and making a doorway from the brand new bed room into the present visitor bed room. Our present breaker field is true the place the brand new doorway must go, so that may should be moved additionally. As soon as that’s accomplished, I’ll shut up the doorway from the present visitor bed room into the hallway and start turning that into the closet and train space.
After that finish of the home is completed, then we are going to begin on the kitchen addition, in addition to turning the pantry into the laundry room. I’m actually hoping I will reuse most, if not all, of the present cupboards that I constructed for that room.
So I don’t know precisely once we will begin on the brand new kitchen, however that’s the order by which we need to do issues. And Matt has additionally stated that he needs to construct my woodworking workshop on the identical time we’re doing the kitchen. So we’ll see how that goes.
I’ve determined that I’m going to let different individuals do the work within the bed room for me, as a result of whereas they’re doing that, I need to end up my studio and studio lavatory. And I additionally hoped to do the makeover on the hallway lavatory earlier than getting began on the key stuff. But when I don’t get to the hallway lavatory earlier than the bed room, I do no less than need to end up within the studio and the studio lavatory earlier than shifting on to one thing else.
That’s the plan! Over the past week, I’ve gone from offended, to unhappy, to disenchanted, to intrigued, to excited, to utterly giddy. 🤣 It’s been a heckuva week!
Right here’s yet one more comparability. Right here’s what we’ve got now…
Right here was the unique addition plan..
And right here’s the brand new, a lot smaller plan with only a kitchen addition…
Notice: Y’all, I’m so sorry for all the typos, incorrect phrases, plentiful use of random commas, and so forth., on this authentic submit. I feel I’ve all of it fastened now. I wrote about two sentences on this submit and the keyboard on my laptop computer stopped working. Simply stopped! It’s been giving me hassle for the final couple of months (the W and L keys don’t work, so I’ve to actually copy and paste any time I need to use these letters), however now it has stop working fully. (I HATE getting new computer systems and having to switch/replace every thing, so I put it off so long as potential.) So I ended up having to jot down this submit on my telephone. And since I didn’t need to kind all of it out on a tiny display screen, I used voice recognition. Effectively, not solely does voice recognition not perceive my Texas accent at instances, however it additionally loves commas greater than I do! 🤣 Anyway, all that to say that I feel it’s all fastened and readable now. I hope. And I assume I want to go out this afternoon and get a brand new laptop computer. Ugh.
Addicted 2 Adorning is the place I share my DIY and adorning journey as I transform and enhance the 1948 fixer higher that my husband, Matt, and I purchased in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do bodily work, so I do the vast majority of the work on the home on my own. You can learn more about me here.
