Our contractor visited today and answered all my questions and we found wonderful solutions for everything we wanted to do. This is the site of the new second full bathroom! Yes it is in the studio, or Dave's new bedroom, but I am willing to give up my studio here, and move it to the loft, so no worries. Dave will have a real bathroom, with a shower/tub combo, sink and toilet in a 5'x8' space with a door, fan, lighting, the works. His bedroom will be on this end of the studio space and the other side by the fireplace and tv will remain our family room. He will have a private entrance to the driveway where his garage and toolshed are. It will be just like an apartment. And the studio will finally get ductwork for central air and heat, which it never had, since the whole space was an afterthought from the former owners.
The Jacuzzi is going away, as is that partition wall and cabinet, and the whole thing will be structured as a walk-in closet. A large bright place to store quilts, paintings and winter coats, shoes etc.
The loft consists of two rooms, and a storage space, with two doors, a Juliet balcony and the other side is wide open, with a half bath. My new studio space will have improved lighting, my sewing machines and work table and the adjacent room will have the couch, the twin bed and the tv, so I can take my nap, but sleep downstairs for the night. I'll stay up there when we have guests, and the guest can have the downstairs room with the queen size bed.
This is an old picture of the soon to be studio space. Small but efficient. The wall with the quilts will be my design wall, and I have lots of outlets for machines and irons and my painting easel. Since I mostly fuse, I don't have to have my shelves of fabric at my fingertips. And the wall of yarn...that will also have to go somewhere else. It will all be figured out. But the best I have left for last. We will get new floors that match. No more six different floor coverings. Yay!
Your wonderful email suggestions have been taken into account and I spent a good deal of time yesterday considering the idea of making our living room my new studio space, since we rarely use it. But I decided against that idea because the lighting couldn't be construed in a way that made it work. I can easily get better lighting in the loft for my needs than I could from the slanting cathedral ceiling of the living room.
Another suggestion from a reader was to make a wheel chair accessible bath. If Dave (or I!) were in a wheel chair, we would already have had to move from this property, as that situation would make it very difficult to maintain our 5.1 acres. So we are doing a regular shower/bath combo in the new Dave Room, and that will work for us and anyone who buys this home someday.
Nothing will change in our current bathroom with the exception of the flooring. I thought I had that chosen but my mind was changed by our contractor. So now I am back on the hunt for the floor I want. Stay tuned.
Sounds like you've got a great plan in place and I hope the construction goes quickly and smoothly. You know, I like to move furniture, but you've got me beat. I've never known anyone who moves stuff around as much as you have. Good on you.
ReplyDeleteIs there a floor plan of your house? As a devoted reader-I am sometimes confused as to how many rooms you actually have--it seems like the house is very large--and with all the changes--well, a floor plan would help. I know--can't have everything!!!!
ReplyDeleteSounding lovely, Melody. Your dilemmas have been solved and it looks like you'll have an even greater place when the work is done. I'll be looking forward to progress pics.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great plan, but I sure don't envy you having to live in all the construction mess!
ReplyDeleteWe put in Luxury vinyl planking in my studio and then also in living room/kitchen. Great for wheels, moisture, dogs. We used Karndeen Art Select and it looks like hand-hewn wood. Gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteHow exciting! I love rehabs and have lived through several. The excitement will carry you through the chaos.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great plan! Can't wait to see the updates of the work as it being done and after it is finished.
ReplyDeleteHealth can quickly change but selling a house could take time and you could be stuck needing a wide access walk in shower.
So if you or Dave needs a wide access walk in shower due to any type of health issue then you still have the one in the big bathroom on the lower level. The doors on it could always be changed in a day or two to a frameless swing out for a wider access area to get into it if needed. A small temporary ramp could be put in front of that shower if needed. (that shower appears to be deep enough to provide for a roll in shower chair if one is ever needed)
Even more now due to your new plan I believe that house would sell to a family with one or two bathtub size young kids (and up to college bound age or new empty nesters, or early aged retirees). I could see that studio having a master closet go in and now with the bath on one end and HVAC it could easily be the master bedroom suite with sitting area in that house.
I think your plan will actually increase the value of your home and you just opened it up to a wider market by making that slab add on family room more into a easily converted master bedroom. (too bad they did not put radient heat in the concrete slab after they poured it)
Now you will have a tub to wash those dogs in! (Psst... easier if you use a shower curtain rod on that new tub/shower instead of doors) - hey you can always put doors on it in one day at a later date if you must have doors on it. :)
I think many of us are confused on how the bathroom downstairs is laid out. The more I look at it, it appears the huge corner tub and linen closet is in a small room with a window in it which is off the side of the bedroom? But where is the large walk in shower and toilet? Is it in another room on the other side of the bedroom?
ReplyDeleteI would not do a full diagram of your house floor plan and post it due to security issues, but maybe you can explain where the above mentioned are laid out.
Wow, big changes! I know I wouldn't have the patience for it all, even though its going to be worth it in the end.
ReplyDeleteLove the photo with the dogs--in the last photo. They look completely bored with all these exciting plans behind discussed.
ReplyDeleteSounds like exciting changes. In my studio on the coast I took over one of the bedrooms....we put in a Murphy bed, what a space saver. We also put in cork floors, which I am absolutely in love with. They are not quite so hard to stand on, aren't cold, extremely easy to care for and look fabulous....just a thought.
ReplyDeleteI notice wheels on the shelves holding your yarns. Did it come with them or just something you added yourself? Looking forward to your remodeling. I enjoy your daily pictures for yard, dogs and quilts. It is just too hot to get out in yard to work here in central South Carolina. I do manage to keep the plants watered. Happy quilting and gardening.
ReplyDeleteHey Melody, you said "Since I mostly fuse, I don't have to have my shelves of fabric at my fingertips."
ReplyDeleteI don't do that much fusing. Why is that a fuser doesn't need immediate access to her fabrics?