The 'After' Floorplans

It took a few drafts and sketches (and standing in the house with our hands on our hips) to come up with the new floorplans for the main and second floor of the house.

Main floor:

The big difference in this new plan is the kitchen -- it's being made larger (the old, tiny galley kitchen before was pretty sad). The original family room had a horrible flow and wasn't really working for us. Placing a long and large kitchen island in that area makes much more sense, and we'll have seating at the island so you can take in the view out the new set of glass doors.

Second floor:

This floor had the most changes with shifting both the bedroom closets and the linen closet to their new home. The main bath was extended, and the original walk-in closet made smaller (I'd rather have a bigger bathroom than closet!). One thing you can't see in this plan is a small area of extra storage leading from the master bedroom in between the two dormer windows -- a nice bonus for unused space.

We also replaced the windows in the bathroom and bedroom next to it with larger ones, and boarded over the walk-in closet window (who needs a window in there?). And the master now has two windows instead of one -- and the new one faces out to the duck pond.*

*Minor note here: Apparently it's the start of mating season, so it's a bit of an R-rated view out that window right now. Dirty ducks.

The 'Before' Floorplans

It seems that I've missed filling all of you in on the actual layout of the house...a must when you're envisioning what it's like (and not slogging through it every day like us).

Here's the main floor:

This floor is home to a poorly laid out kitchen area, with an odd family room placement at the end. There's a glass sliding door that leads out to the rotting deck, but you can overlook it by staring out at the ravine view instead. (The yellow window I highlighted is actually a bay window shape, and not straight as shown above.)

The second floor:

Three bedrooms are up on the second floor. The walk-in closet off the master was originally home to a teetering wall of dog crates (smelly!). The closet situation in the two smaller bedrooms are not so great -- too long and a mishmash of shelves were inside.

Tomorrow I'll post our new plans, so you can see our grand ideas!