I thought that there had already been a thread like this some time ago but I searched and couldn’t find it.
Dh and I are in escrow to buy an 1700 square foot home in a community by the beach. The house is 50 years old and we’ll need to redo both bathrooms and the kitchen completely. We want to add a powder room and move a wall to create a great room with the kitchen which would include an island. An outdoor built in BBQ, replacing the hardwood floor, raising part of the ceiling and a few other things are on the list. We’ll find out next month if we’re permitted to bump out the back wall a bit and, if so, will think about how we could best use the extra space.
If you’ve remodeled, what’s worked well and what did you do that hasn’t ended up working out as intended or maybe wasn’t worth the investment?
We’re very much in the brainstorming/fantasy stage. We’ll stay in the house awhile before making any final decisions and will ultimately work with an architect prior to engaging a contractor but I’d love to hear from anyone who’s given this thought.
This is a vacation home for now and while I did say “ideal” in the title, the sky really is not the limit. However, during this early stage, it’s fun to think about what might be.
Since it’s by the beach, an outdoor shower! Also, don’t know what you think of this, but it could be nice to have the half bath accessible from the outside too.
I love the idea of outdoor shower. We consider that quite a perk when we rent vacation homes in beach areas.
If there is a good place for the gang to shed their beach shoes, towels etc that’s great too. At our house, we do have coat hooks behind the door that comes in from the garage … but it would have been nice to have more of a mudroom entry.
Not sure if it rains in this area or not… if it does, then a covered patio (preferably with a gas line to the middle so a firetable can be installed) is a must!
I’m not a fan of Jack N Jills because I think there is less privacy than a hall bath.
I had an overhead heat lamp in my D’s bathroom (typical hall bath) and it worked great!
I had electric wires under my bathroom floor so I could have heated floors. It wasn’t installed correctly so they needed to be pulled up. I heard that this can be a common problem.
I have a steam shower & love it!
For a bathtub I had an air bubble rather than a water bubble. Bubbles weren’t as strong, but we never had ook in our lines/tub.
Easily accessible laundry room for beach towels and such.
Storage!
We live within walking distance of the beach and one of my favorite things about this house is that I have a place to leave my beach chair, towel, and fear ready to grab and go. No packing bags every time. (Highly recommend a backpack beach chair with storage pockets).
What state is the beach? Is it hot/warm year round? Outdoor shower would be a must. Being able to cook outdoors would be great to keep the heat outside.
The nicest beach houses I’ve stayed in had an open floor, at least in the middle. Easy to open windows and let the breeze flow through the house.
A place to store bikes, kayaks would also be a must. Any outside storage for towels would be nice so you don’t have people running in and out of the house.
No carpeting, rugs, or grout. Easy to sweep floors is best.
Laundry on same floor as bedrooms
Screen porch - I hate mosquitoes
Powder room on main floor (I’ve lived in a lot of older houses…)
Curbless showers
Agree outdoor shower in a beach house is a must.
My preferences are taking advantage of all outside options - even like a little porch/cubby outside of a master bedroom - including bringing the outside in by using lots of windows.
Scratch any dining room, just give me space in a kitchen eating area that has room for a table that seats 6-8.
I still like “rooms” to a degree. Scratch the full open concept. Two relaxing living areas - they don’t have to be large, but two separate areas.
For me bedrooms including master just need to be functional and simply nice- I don’t need a bedroom haven.
A nice treat is a bathroom with a big skylight or a high window (not sure of the name - but almost like a window that lifts up and out to open) to feel like you’re showering in the fresh air!
@collage1 what type of beach climate? Calif? East coast? Pacific Northwest? Florida?
We live in a water community (bay, not ocean); most of what I would have suggested have already been mentioned, like screened porch, nice outdoor living space, outdoor shower. Is the home walking distance to beach such that people would be walking back to house to use the toilet? If so, since you are planning to add a powder room, I would try to locate the bathroom where it can be accessed adjacent to an exterior door, or at least close enough that people are not traipsing through the house wet/sandy to get to the toilet (even if there is outdoor shower). That is one of my regrets with our home, esp when kids were younger.
In terms of open concept living, I don’t mind having kitchen and family as part of one open space, however, it is distracting if someone is trying to watch tv and there is someone in the kitchen making noise (washing dishes, emptying dishwasher, running a blender or mixer, etc). I know “great rooms” were all the rage for a while, but I don’t like how noise carries, esp in the two story family rooms. I have an L-shaped open concept kitchen/family room (kitchen is partially obstructed from family room) but not vaulted ceilings. It’s fine, but I’d only do it again if we also had a study/den for reading or secondary tv watching. I’d also make sure in an open concept space that the tv is positioned so the noise doesn’t carry to the bedrooms. My parents’ beach house is a smallish, one level home and the sound of the tv goes right from the open/vaulted ceiling living room down the hall to the bedrooms.
If you are thinking about Luxury Vinyl Tiles for your flooring, be careful to get good quality ones. I’ve been in my new condo for a month now, and I have already put a lot of scratches in the new builder grade ones here, even though I don’t drag stuff on the floor etc.
Rather than extending an outside wall, if you live in a temperate area, I might look at a covered patio/pergola. There are also different screening options if insects or inclimate weather are issues.
When we redid the kitchen several years ago we did all drawers in the lower cabinets (except for under the sink and in a corner). Best decision we made in the whole remodel. The bottom drawers are deep enough that even the biggest skillets and roasting pans can stand on edge between dividers. We also love our instant hot tap.
I agree about the outdoor space/ screened porch being critical at the beach.
ETA - we have a big island with a butcher block top that we sized for comfortable dining. Turns out that I hate perching on a stool for a meal. I like normal height tables where my feet are on the ground. I do love the island, just glad we kept room for a table and real chairs.
I love the idea of kitchen drawers instead of lower cabinets!
When I first saw tall dining tables years ago, I thought I’d hate perching on a stool for a meal. But now that it is just me and hubby at home, we often eat at our very large breakfast bar in center of kitchen. (We still also eat a lot at the kitchen table and the dining room table and the backyard picnic table… it is nice that we have so many choices, especially during covid isolation). We also seem to bring our laptops to the breakfast bar a lot.
Funny…I just opened this thread to mention lower cabinet drawers instead of regular cabinets. I definitely would want those.
No formal living room or dining room. I would repurpose those spaces for something else.
I’d put in a remote control gas fireplace in the main room to take off the chill on chilly days.
I saw a vacuum thing…where there is an opening in the floor baseboard and you sweep the debris in there. Goes into something like a central vac thingy. I’d love one if those.
I’d want porcelain tile floors throughout. One of our family’s homes in FL had terrazzo and it was so much easier to clean than wood, vinyl or carpet, but few people know how to do old school poured terrazzo these days. Large format porcelain tiles are on my wish list for the next house.
Consider the damage that salt air can do to finishes, especially outdoors. Be sure to read the fine print on the warranty of any stainless steel items, such as grills. Ours wasn’t marine grade stainless steel and was not warranted if placed near a beach or even a pool with a salt water chlorine generator.
Another vote for an outside accessible bathroom, or at least a powder room.
Really need to know where you are. Florida salt air will kill your outdoor grill if you are really beach side. Better to have a great patio area with a separate grill which can be covered.
An outdoor shower space be it a shower or a hose spot (on a post) to shower off is great as others have mentioned.
About to get killed here but I’ve never been a kitchen island fan to be honest. I feel like a hamster in a wheel. It needs to be a fairly huge kitchen or a pretty small island (wheels is best) to make it really workable. For a 1700 sq ft house I’d go for a U-shape and get a good dedicated pantry area worked in. Perfect with stepped bar counter open to living space. Tons of space with no running around an island.
They have some great luxury vinyl plank flooring which is waterproof. Not 24 hour water resistant but waterproof. It’s really carefree. Not cheap but easy maintenance.
I’ve had drawers instead of doors in the lower cabinets for so long, I’ve forgotten that some people might not know how great they are!
Back when I had a small kitchen (about 12’ x 12’) I had our eat-in table on the opposite wall from the U-shape of the cabinets. It acted like an island or extra-counter space when I needed it.
