First Floor Plans: An Overview

NOTES:

A- A wall is erected just to the side of the front door in the enclosed front porch.  This creates an additional room and makes use of the awkward two entrances that lead into the house from the porch.  In effect this makes the space more usable.  To the left, enough room remains for a nice entrance and even a rocking chair and bench for that ‘enclosed porch’ feel.  To the right, the new room can be used as a library, office or play room, with an abundance of sunshine from the outer wall of windows.

B- The wall gets open up from the front hallway into the front room, creating a nice flow.  In opening up the walls, we found that there was once a door in the location that we had opened up the wall (the previous owners confirmed this).  This minimizes the actual hallway, which is still a nice size and maximizes the amount of space for the front room.  The wall had to moved over a bit towards the staircase due to some structural issues.

C-  We got ride of the giant hallway closet, that was a huge space guzzler.  We built a smaller closet adjacent to the new powder room.

D- The old powder room was tucked away just under the stairs.  Everything was mini- a mini toilet and a mini sink.  We closed off the door into the kitchen and were able to extend the powder room up against the new closet.   We kept the toilet under the stairs, put in a small window where the sink/mirror used to be (against the outer wall), and moved the vanity to be centered with the door.  The door now is parallel to front door.

E- We this door that lead from the front hallway into the kitchen.   This gave us the space to build a larger powder room and additional space in the kitchen for cabinets, etc.

F- We added a window to the powder room for some natural light.

G- We moved the kitchen windows over to accommodate a built in corner hutch, and so that the windows would be centered with the kitchen sink.  The size of the windows remains the same.

H- We opened up the pantry to create more space in the kitchen.  We removed the wall that would have separated the pantry from the stairs and landing that lead to the back entrance.  The wall will be replaced with a railing (the pantry is level with the kitchen, the stairs go down to a landing for the back entrance that is about 4 feet down).   In what was once the pantry will be the ice box (ie refrigerator) and a wall of cabinets.  We took out the door that once stood at the top of the stairs, entering the kitchen and between the wall to the right and the pantry to the left.  This all makes the kitchen seem larger as the eye can “borrow scenery” from the space of the stairs and the landing.  Once the family room addition is built, one would be able to look down upon the room as well.  The notion of the panty still remains in the choice of cabinets, etc, keeping the origins of the home in mind.

I- The wall between kitchen and dining room has been moved over a few feet.  Part of this decision was based on some structural issues, but it adds space to the kitchen which is a happy coincidence.  The space of the doorway has been opened up to add to the floor of the home.  There is still a clear division of dinning room and kitchen which nods to the origins of the home.

J- A family room will be added onto the back of the home (a later phase in the project).  This will have an entrance (probably with French doors mirroring the French doors that lead into the office in the front of the home) in from the dining room, as well as, an entrance from the landing off of the kitchen stairs, the basement stairs and the back door.  The family room is set flush to the ground, saving money on foundation work and allowing for higher ceilings (probably 12-13ft?).  I also think it a nice and cozy to actually step down into a den or family room.

K- The family room will share a fireplace chimney that will extend to the second floor master bedroom, built on top of the family room.