Design Details

The rest of the week was mostly electrical wiring and inspections, though they did open up the ceiling even more.

I’d like to go into more details on the new design for our home, illustrating the changes that are being made, and some explanation as to why those changes are being made. I’ll start by showing how closet space is being redistributed.

Plan A for the bedroom and bathroom was the least expensive option and made the fewest changes to the existing space. It left the bedroom untouched, while removing hallway access to the bathroom in order to gain some closet space. As such, this illustration shows you what the original bedroom was like.

Instead of adding a closet to the bathroom, the new plan expands the existing closet into a walk-in closet, by taking over the closet from my office. You can see in this new plan, the interior closet wall is removed to join the two closets into one. The darker line shows where a wall is being created, eliminating the closet door into my office.

Now my office doesn’t have a closet, which is fine. It’s an office. It doesn’t need a closet. However, so that it can still be a bedroom at some time in the future after Martha and I are gone (hopefully a very distant future), a little more messing around gives it a smaller closet by taking over half the closet from Martha’s office.

If you’re having trouble understanding the floor plan, here are some pointers. First, the room in the upper left is my office, the one to the right of it is Martha’s office, and the room in the bottom left is the bedroom. Walls that are dark are new walls that are being created.

We also cut into the bathroom to give us some space for a dresser in the bedroom. That brings us to the bathroom, which lost a bathtub to give us that dresser space. No problem. Where Plan A was going to give us a a closet in the bathroom, we will be getting a good sized shower. You can see that it also leaves us room for some shelves next to the shower, and the cats’ litter box will go under those shelves. This floor plan is out of date, so what looks like an empty space behind the shelves will be another set of shelves opening into the hallway. Those shelves won’t be so much for storage as for displaying decorations and nicknacks.

Also because the floor plan is out of date, it doesn’t show that the door into the bathroom will actually be a pocket door. This has a number of advantages, not the least of which is that the cats won’t have to be fearful of swinging doors while entering and exiting the litter box.

On to the kitchen. A number of things are being shifted around. The dishwasher (DW) is moving to the right side of the sink, the refrigerator (R) is moving to where the pantry was, and the pantry (P) is moving to the opposite corner of the kitchen. What I’m calling the partition wall will become just a bit narrower, and will have a partial opening like a window cut into it, filled with decorative floating shelves. Also, it will have a new island (a peninsula really) extending from it, with one side of that acting as a sort of breakfast bar… or regular bar, depending on our mood.

Saying that these things are shifting around may give the wrong impression. All of that cabinetry has been removed and is being replaced with new stuff, and it’s going to be lovely, with new countertops, and the cabinets under the peninsula will expand our storage space in the kitchen.

There will be new lighting fixtures and ceiling fans and paint to make it all come together. I find it’s very important to keep all of that in mind while living in the basement. There are more details, but that’s all for today.