First Floor and Lower Level Plans

So here is where "CAD-ing" the soft drawings really showed how the aforementioned variance in feasibility from soft drawing to hard drawing. We found out that when this was being put into the more finite drawings, that we couldnt fit the pantry, stairs, and powder room all on the east wall. The good news is that Joe had plan, and a good one at that. If you look at the drawing above, you will see that we were able to move the powder room to the space between the living room and family room, and this will then clear the way for a butlers pantry on the west side of that space. Both Jen and I agree that this is the perfect way to use this space, and we actually like the new layout better this way! So this move then sets it up so the up and down staircases will be side by side, we will now have a built in something (yet to be determined) in front of the downstairs, and a double pocket door separating the dining room and family room.

The move of the stairs naturally meant there would be changes in the lower level as well. This also worked out to our advantage. With the stairs moving 4ft or so towards the front of the house, this pushed the guest bathroom further towards the front of the house as well. This move created an open space just outside of the mud room. So, we decided to extend the mud room and add a place that could have both the stand up washer/drier, and utility sink that can we be used for any number of things. Whats even better, is that Joe came up with the great idea of putting in clerestory windows between the mudroom and playroom to allow light to be shared by the two spaces. Here is a good example of a clerestory window setting. This is from a Frank Lloyd Wright home, so its not quite the same, but its the concept of windows at eye level. Further changes were made to the back of the house as well. Joe decided that it made sense to extend the foundation under the deck where the space wasnt going to be useful anyway. This was an idea that I had gotten early on from a friend, and it just didnt seem to make sense at the time. Now its looking more like this will be very useful storage space. We have two other storage spaces at the front of this level as well that we think we might turn into something else, but we have yet to come up with something we both think is necessary.