Before & After: Floorplans for our House

I loved that the house was both wide and shallow, allowing for lots of natural light to pass through and a meandering floorplan.  Even though the house is only a little over 2,000 square feet, the floor plan was confusing enough that it felt bigger.  I was surprised when it kept going and I found an additional living room area in the back of the house.  (There are 3 living areas in total- our living room, our loft, and the family room in the back.)  Those “surprise” rooms made it feel bigger to me.  You’d think a “confusing” floorplan would be something negative, but I’ve always loved them.  I love visiting houses where I don’t know what’s next.  It’s exciting.

It’s hard to describe our renovations without seeing the floorplans because we did a fair amount of rearranging.  Most of it entailed moving doorways and eliminating them, enlarging and adding windows, and both removing and adding walls, while basic rooms generally stayed where they were.

Here’s what our floorplan basically looked like before (not to scale at all and drawn by the lovely Meghan Short with the terrible handwriting done by me…  Hers looks like a font 😉

And here’s what it’s like now:

Here’s a list of most of our Floorplan changes:

Remove Wood-burning stove and replace with fireplace/chimney

Add 2 new large floor to ceiling windows in Living Room

Add 1 additional Breakfast Room Window

Replace steep, walled in, carpeted stairs with new wooden, more gradual stairs and iron railing.

Remove Wall between Kitchen & Living Room

Rearrange kitchen and take a couple feet from the dining room

Add Bar Room, The “Elevator” as we call it because it has doors on both sides, and close off family room

Create tiny Mudroom at Garage Entry by removing a closet

Add Powder Room off of Foyer an close off Master Bedroom front door entrance.

Trade Master Bedroom Closet and Bathroom Locations to get privacy and natural light (skylight) in Bathroom

Close of all Master Bedroom Entrances and create new one off of the dining room in the back of the house.  Make more private by adding a small entry room before you enter bedroom.

Replace small Master Bedroom Windows with full-width Sliding Glass Door.

Wall in courtyard between garage and master bedroom with 18′ high steel wall.

Add Flagstone Patio and garden beds to Master Courtyard/ Garden.

Add Outdoor Shower to Master Bedroom Private Garden.

Remove all existing built-ins in Loft and replace with library shelves and furniture

Replace two small windows with fifteen foot wide windows and window seat.

Our house is incredibly livable now.  Honestly, I’ve never had a house that lives this easily.  We’re a little low on closet storage space but I love it!!

From now on, I’ll be linking back to these little sketches when I’m posting before & afters about our house so things hopefully make more sense for you!!  Hope you enjoyed!!