Or at least I hope my plans are final at this point. Probably have to change things after the structural engineer does a review. It has been a very interesting learning process. I did all of the drawing myself (based off draftsman’s accurate As Is drawing, he created a shell drawing on Velum for me to use) with ruler, calculations, and a pencil with a big eraser:) Many hours spent pouring over these drawings.
Met with OBR Architect this afternoon and he had some really great ideas. He confirmed that we are French Normandy architecture (well, at least as close as you get around here) and he confirmed that I am raising the 2nd story at just the right spot to preserve as much of the architecture as possible. One of the key things is that he looked at roof structure and I will be able to open up the dining room and living room walls without needing a post in the corner between foyer/dining room/living room in order to preserve the coved ceilings in the foyer and the dining room. He confirmed the structure in the kitchen to do the vaulting that I want to do.
Then we went down into the garage and he suggested that I could do columns in the old garage to support the load needed for 2nd story wall. This is a brilliant idea because I can place them where it won’t compromise parking a 3rd car, if needed, and it will allow storage around the columns. It eliminates having to tear down/mess with the garage back wall for a new footing or underpin. The issue is… to vault the kitchen ceiling we cannot start 2nd story until northerly kitchen wall. Also, the roof architecture suggests starting 2nd story at the north end of kitchen. If you view the plans, the old garage back wall (with deep footing and support) actually is about 3 ft back under the kitchen (which makes no sense to me… have no idea how it is supporting load all the way to the roof, but what do I know??). So, to put in support for 2nd story, we have to have support about 2/3 back in the old garage.
And, to solve the issue of the stairs going up to 2nd story being in the hall away from the kitchen… we removed the coat closet (we don’t need them here in San Diego anyways) and created a hallway between kitchen and the bedroom wing hallway. It’s a brilliant solution… I love it!
Back and forth about the dumbwaiter. My agent is insisting it is a huge selling point, he thought it was not necessary (but he is young and lives in a house with stairs up to front door!). The dumbwaiter was causing a big problem with location down in the garage. We were not going to be able to meet building code requirements for parking space inside the garage. He recommended the least costly solution was to bump out the staircase into the yard. It will be an inside staircase, but just a bump out from the main footprint
And, best of all… he refused to let me pay him for 1 1/2 hour consultation!!! He is a friend of my agent. I will definitely need to find some kind of generous gift card to give him.
I really like the changes to the kitchen and entryway. The closet and/or bathroom there bothered me and the island was an obstacle. It is much more spacious now. It now seems to capture the charm and spaciousness of the original living room, but better!
One thought about the master bath - rotate the toilet room 90 degrees so it butts up against the shower. This lets the two sinks be next to each each, instead of the second sink being jammed in between the shower and toilet room, and I think will make the bathroom feel more open.
I like that idea. The smaller sink, wedged between the shower and toilet wall, has been bugging me. I was thinking you could also move the wall over and take a foot of space away from the closet to make the bathroom feel more open and to make that sink space larger.
Also, make the linen cabinet door face towards the family room rather than facing in towards the master bedroom. This will give them a nice size wall to put a piece of furniture against.
I played around with that and it might work. The issue is that the toilet water closet has to be 36" inside, plus the framing around it. That makes for about 40 1/2" with drywall and it will stick out further than shower is currently designed. Legally you only need 15" on centerline of toilet for each side and that works if you have visual/elbow space around the toilet. But inside an enclosure the 30" just seems too tight so I would like to give it 36". But, if I fudge the freestanding tub as close to the entry wall as possible and change shape of shower it just might work. The shower glass door will have to be attached to that toilet room corner and be at a diagonal (like it is now) to work and the door size of shower might have to be 24" which is normal, but I prefer shower doors a little bigger. I will have two sides with glass, hopefully that will brighten up the shower enclosure.
Current configuration has a 36" His vanity and a 48" Hers vanity. Changing the location of toilet will probably only leave a 6’ long vanity with two sinks (possibly larger, but it is impossible to find a vanity that is 6 1/2’ long). This could all be solved if I didn’t have to have a ‘room’ for the toilet. Possibly I could build a pony wall on side of toilet and side of shower but my agent is insisting on a separate enclosure for toilet.
FWIW, I agree with your agent about a separate water closet. There are things I don’t care to share with dh. Also, the interior should be at least 36" as you mentioned, not just the minimum of 30".
Love the changes you’ve made. What a wonderfully generous architect. So glad he was able to meet with you.
I just analyzed taking 1’ of space from closet. That makes the closet only 7’ wide by 8’ long. Length is OK, but 7’ wide is tight. That means there is 36" walking space between hanging clothes, but it is doable. It becomes a question of which is more important… spacious bathroom with smaller closet space. Or closet space over bathroom space. I’d take closet space any day… but to sell a house the bathroom probably needs to look spacious. Buyers will not notice how tight a closet is until they cram it full of stuff
Today we are getting up in the attic and diagramming the entire framing structure. I need to bring that to the draftsman so that it can be available for the structural engineer.
In the large bedroom in the bedroom wing we are going to change the closet configuration. It has a small 24" door with 6’ of closet but it is left/right. I’m going to open up the entire wall across the closet and put in sliding doors so that the closet is a better configuration with easier access. The closets in this house have the original metal box ‘shoe holders’ which are kind of cute. Going to try to keep the one that is in this closet just for kicks.
Well, it appears that someone (Me!!) erroneously marked 9x9 for closet. It was 8x8. Long talk with my agent and she wants to keep closet at 8x8. I have been able to reconfigure toilet 90degrees and get a long 72" vanity with two sinks along to the right wall. But the shower will need a little adjustment and I’m worried about whether the glass door might bang against the tub when it is opened up. But, these things can be reconfigured during construction. I just cannot finalize bathroom design until the shell is built and I can lay things out on the floor. City building inspector doesn’t really care exactly where everything goes - he just wants to inspect the plumbing before things get built into place.
I can even steal from closet later if I have to. As long as that wall between bath and closet is not totally load bearing… they don’t care if it is moved a bit.
If you want to keep the diagonal shower, can you cut the corner of the toilet room and angle it back to meet the corner of the diagonal shower? The door to the toilet room would then be on the diagonal part, at a right angle to the shower door.
Hope this makes sense, I wish I could draw a picture.
I real like @notrichenough ideal angling the toilet would keep the symmetry of the bathroom and I’d much rather a regular door there than a pocket door.
We’ll hope the prospective buyers are all Kon-Mari adherents who understand the value of only keeping the clothes they really love and so who will not mind a slightly smaller closet.
Good choices!!!