Every project has it’s own life. Some go down the road you expect for them. Some take a turn and you have to follow them in the direction they need to go.
This project took a turn shortly after we started. The owner’s circumstances took a turn and we had to modify our course to accommodate the new circumstances. In the case of this project, that meant doing less design and accelerating the schedule. So while I had originally scheduled our applying for a permit at the end of this week, we actually ended up applying for two permits – a window replacement permit in early March and a remodeling permit at the end of March. The owner reported back to me that every person at the City who reviewed the documents I prepared remarked on how clear and complete they were. Just want you want when you apply for a permit!
The construction has been underway for over a month now.
During the early, Schematic Design, phase, I drew up three different options:
- The original idea, shifting the kitchen about 8 feet closer to the front and making the new master bedroom behind it.
- An idea where we left the kitchen where it was but opened it up to both the living room and the back yard.
- An idea where we moved the kitchen into what was the front bedroom, turning the existing kitchen space into a master suite.
We ended up going with the third idea. We are able to do this relatively easily because the house has a 5 foot high “crawl space-basement” and all of the plumbing can be pretty easily relocated. By shifting the kitchen forward into what had been a bedroom, and opening it up to the living room we ended up with a much more cohesive “public” room very distinct from the “private” bedrooms at the back. It also meant that the kitchen could have more sunlight throughout the day.
One of the other significant things that we are doing is increasing the amount of closet space from roughly 24 square feet to 64 square feet, and that doesn’t include the new 6 square foot pantry in the kitchen or the new 10 square foot laundry closet. By finding ways to add in closets we are bringing this 104 year old house right into the 21st century!
The owner has been very keen on using quality salvaged materials and purchased all of the windows (modern, double paned, wood windows in a style appropriate to the house. The new windows are a vast improvement over the original, rattling, single paned windows. He chose to make all of the finish decisions himself. I’m looking forward to seeing how this project develops. I will be dropping by the house next week to see how things are progressing.
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