The Plan

After several months working with our architect through several iterations, we finally ended up with this plan.

Here is the original layout of the house.  The area highlighted in pink is the area that is being gutted, walls removed, roof taken off, rooms reconfigured and where the second story will be added.  The room just inside the entry is the current dining room which is really a bit small  To the right is the kitchen whose shortcomings were noted in an earlier post.  Connected to the back of the kitchen is the breakfast room and to the left of that is a sunroom that used to be a back porch that was enclosed before we bought the house.  The wall between the dining room and the sunroom has windows as well as the wall between the sunroom and the breakfast room.  Looks really weird for an "indoors" sunroom to have outdoor walls and windows. In the "U" is the current "party patio".  No more!!

The "old" house

 

 

Here is the plan for the new downstairs.  Now the entry way leads into a foyer with the staircase where the old dining room used to be.  The dining room is now where the old sunroom used to be.  The kitchen has been enlarged to include the old breakfast room and is open to the new dining room.  The old patio is enclosed becoming the new sunroom which is open to both the new dining room and the new kitchen resulting in a nice open concept great room.  The old office is now a media room which is a fancy word for where our big screen TV and some comfy sofas will be... and where we will likely spend a good bit of time in front of the ole' boob tube.

New downstairs

The second story will have a nook at the top of the stairs.  It is labeled "scrapbook nook" which is the original idea of Monica using it for scrapbooking.  However the new office should be large enough for both of us so we most likely will put the treadmill and elliptical up there and add on a home gym sometime in the future.  There is also a nice-sized storage room there as well.  Then the ultimate prize is the 300 sq ft office space overlooking the pool. Dat's what I'm talking bout.

New upstairs

From the front of the house the change probably won't be very apparent.  However, from the back (and the sides), the elevation changes dramatically.  Here is how it should look in a couple of months.

New back elevation