Whole Home Renovation Plans - Please Critique!

[froggy76]

I know some of you enjoy looking at house plans as much as I do! We are planning a 1st floor renovation and exterior renovation for next year. Also considering a 2nd floor expansion since our master bedroom is tiny and we only have 3 bedrooms. We probably will decide not to do the 2nd floor because it's a lower priority and would put us over our desired budget.

The big "porch" on the side of the house currently is actually a solarium/conservatory. It's all glass and really beautiful, but completely impractical. The porch on the back of the house is a screened-in porch that we use all the time. I'd love for this to be bigger. We also have a large brick patio off the screened-in porch.

Current house:



Possible 1st floor options (I want the second):


   

I'll post the 2nd floor options and exterior in the next post.

[froggy76]

Possible 2nd floor options (first one is most likely- no real change from current plan except the roof is higher over the master bedroom so the closets don't need to be as deep and we gain 3ft of floor space. Room is still really narrow at 10'6"):


Exterior options (various options with and without additions - could do front porch all the way across or not, but you get the point. I think it's a huge improvement from the current look of the exterior.):

[froggy76]

Here's a current pic of the house:

[lessel]

Wooh fun! I definitely like the kitchen space in option 2 better. And, if your budget permits, I think the 2nd floor addition makes a lot of sense too.

Random suggestion... on the 2nd option for the first floor, I wonder about closing off the hall off the dining room into a room itself, adding a closet to that room, which technically makes it an extra bedroom and might help property value.

In your exterior options, I like the right one on the second row.

[froggy76]

Aug 26, 2020 9:20:35 GMT -5 lessel said:

Wooh fun! I definitely like the kitchen space in option 2 better. And, if your budget permits, I think the 2nd floor addition makes a lot of sense too.

Random suggestion... on the 2nd option for the first floor, I wonder about closing off the hall off the dining room into a room itself, adding a closet to that room, which technically makes it an extra bedroom and might help property value.

In your exterior options, I like the right one on the second row.

Thanks! I was thinking the same about the new office on the 1st floor. It's almost 10x10 so technically big enough to be called a bedroom if we add a closet in that hall. I'm definitely planning to try to squeeze guests in there in the future, assuming we don't add a 4th bedroom upstairs!

[woowoo]

Not sure your backyard situation - I think losing a view from the main living space into the backyard/new beautiful porch is the only thing you might be possibly disappointed with after a while. Is there any way to bump out the kitchen while it's on the back of the house?

You may have a really pretty view from the front of your house though - I do not.

[froggy76]

woowoo , that's a really good point. I was just thinking about that yesterday, especially since kitchens are usually in the back of the house. We have a detached garage behind the house, so the view out the back is mainly the patio and garage (which is cute with a little porch) - a lot of the yard is out of sight of the current kitchen windows. We have an ok view out the front- we live on kind of a main road, but with lots of trees so it's very pretty now. In the winter, we're basically looking across into the parking lot of the school across the street. I'd plan to have plantation shutters on the front kitchen windows. We'd have a really nice view of the yard out the side and out of that one window in the back of the bigger kitchen option - and then hopefully we'll also be able to see fairly easily through the mudroom to the back door (was thinking an all glass door maybe). I'll have to give it some more thought but I think the trade-off in kitchen size will be worth it.

ETA: we could bump the kitchen out the back, but it seems to be much more expensive that working within the existing footprint of the house, even with converting the solarium to a real room.

[lightbulbsun]

I like the second downstairs option as well. I love having a large mudroom with storage, and the extra kitchen space open into the dining room will be really nice. The only thing that I would be concerned about if you're planning to use the office as a guest room is access to the bathroom. It might be weird for guests to have to go through the main part of the house to get to the toilet. But if you only have guest a couple of times a year it probably isn't that big of a deal.

[woowoo]

froggy76, whatever you decide to do, I hope you keep us updated with a ridiculous amount of photos through the entire process so we can all enjoy the excitement!

[froggy76]

Aug 27, 2020 8:24:23 GMT -5 lightbulbsun said:

I like the second downstairs option as well. I love having a large mudroom with storage, and the extra kitchen space open into the dining room will be really nice. The only thing that I would be concerned about if you're planning to use the office as a guest room is access to the bathroom. It might be weird for guests to have to go through the main part of the house to get to the toilet. But if you only have guest a couple of times a year it probably isn't that big of a deal.

Yeah, I keep debating where the office door should be. I could give up some of the storage in the mudroom and have the office entrance over there- that way the bathroom would be right outside the door, which would be better for guests.

[cosmowife]

I think the order of the plans is messed up on my app but I like the plan without the big porch on the side. I think you would get annoyed with the other plan that would require you to cut through a different space to bring food from the kitchen to the dining room.

[froggy76]

cosmowife, I think so too. I don't want to walk through the family room to get from the kitchen to the dining room!

[lightbulbsun]

Aug 27, 2020 9:40:50 GMT -5 froggy76 said:

Aug 27, 2020 8:24:23 GMT -5 lightbulbsun said:

I like the second downstairs option as well. I love having a large mudroom with storage, and the extra kitchen space open into the dining room will be really nice. The only thing that I would be concerned about if you're planning to use the office as a guest room is access to the bathroom. It might be weird for guests to have to go through the main part of the house to get to the toilet. But if you only have guest a couple of times a year it probably isn't that big of a deal.

Yeah, I keep debating where the office door should be. I could give up some of the storage in the mudroom and have the office entrance over there- that way the bathroom would be right outside the door, which would be better for guests.

Would it be possible to try and merge the two options, and keep the mudroom/powder room where it is in the first option, but move the kitchen like the second option, and then make the existing kitchen into the office? It would provide more room for a closet in the office to make it an official bedroom, and you could have two doors, one to the kitchen and one to the mud room for easy access to the powder room. Although you would be taking a chunk out of the mud room for that. I guess it really depends what your priorities are. It's completely OK not to prioritize guests that might only be staying with you a couple of weeks a year! 

[froggy76]

Aug 27, 2020 11:21:42 GMT -5 lightbulbsun said:

Aug 27, 2020 9:40:50 GMT -5 froggy76 said:

Yeah, I keep debating where the office door should be. I could give up some of the storage in the mudroom and have the office entrance over there- that way the bathroom would be right outside the door, which would be better for guests.

Would it be possible to try and merge the two options, and keep the mudroom/powder room where it is in the first option, but move the kitchen like the second option, and then make the existing kitchen into the office? It would provide more room for a closet in the office to make it an official bedroom, and you could have two doors, one to the kitchen and one to the mud room for easy access to the powder room. Although you would be taking a chunk out of the mud room for that. I guess it really depends what your priorities are. It's completely OK not to prioritize guests that might only be staying with you a couple of weeks a year! 

Yeah, I had this other option, which is great except that going from the kitchen to the back deck/patio is much more of a pain. And I think that's a much bigger day-to-day problem. It makes for a nice, private little guest area, though! Every change I make seems to have pros and cons.
 

[froggy76]

This option solves two problems - office door is near the powder room (for guests who sleep in that room), and the room now has a closet so it could be considered a real bedroom. We just lose a little wall space for hanging coats in the mudroom, but I think there's still enough and I've added a coat closet in the mudroom. We could also use the office closet for overflow coat/bag storage, if needed. And visitors could dump their coats and stuff in the office when they come in. Right now everyone leaves their stuff all over (purses on the kitchen floor, coats over a dining room chair, etc.) and it drives me nuts.

[mrsukyankee]

froggy76, I like this final version a lot.

[aprilsails]

Oh yes. Do that last one if you can.

If there are cost issues, I would personally prioritize the master bedroom extension over the additional bedroom addition on the second floor. Same thing with the extended front porch. While it looks nice in the elevations, it’s really not necessary, and likely costly for limited benefit. I’m all about function over form though, especially when it comes to budget limitations.

[cuadrado]

Are you planning on selling this house anytime in the future or do you want to stay long-term?

The reason I’m asking is because with the addition of the closet onto the office where it could be considered a bedroom, I would try to put a shower in that downstairs bathroom for resale value. We renovated our house last year and did something very similar, and the contractor and the architect both encouraged us to do that. We made the powder room a little bigger and put in a small standing shower with a glass door. I love the way it turned out, and now it is considered a full bathroom - a guest could shower there if they sleep in the downstairs office. Just an additional thought!

[froggy76]

cuadrado, we're planning to stay long-term, but I'd also like to be able to live in this home in my old age! I'm not sure how to squeeze in a shower without giving up space elsewhere, but it would be really great for guests now and for us later in life if we're still here and need to move downstairs.

[froggy76]

Aug 29, 2020 6:35:50 GMT -5 aprilsails said:

Oh yes. Do that last one if you can.

If there are cost issues, I would personally prioritize the master bedroom extension over the additional bedroom addition on the second floor. Same thing with the extended front porch. While it looks nice in the elevations, it’s really not necessary, and likely costly for limited benefit. I’m all about function over form though, especially when it comes to budget limitations.

Thanks! Totally agree on the extended front porch. I love the look but would not give up other aspects of the renovation to pay for it! We'd never sit out there, anyway. We live on a busy road and we have a really nice back patio.