After 5 Years Of Residing Right here – We’re Renovating!!
Cue the demo mud! After 5+ years of dwelling on this home, we’re embarking on a renovation! In fact over the vacations (as a result of we’re nothing if not constant). We’ve tackled some sizable tasks over the past 5 years right here, like including a pool in 2021, gutting & rebuilding our kitchen in 2022, and changing all of our home windows & doorways with hurricane grade ones two years in the past… however that is the primary time since we moved in that we’re eradicating partitions and altering rooms.
The chaos you see above is from early 2020, however truly a few of these partitions being open is a preview of the brand new view we’ll acquire from our kitchen and dwelling space downstairs! We’re VERY EXCITED.
So I’m simply going to share a bit of reno overview right here, since numerous that is already on Instagram (I’ve been sharing in IG Tales – so you possibly can see my Reno 2025 spotlight for that).
Why This Reno? And Why Now?
One of the best ways to explain the impetus for this reno is that once we moved in, we anticipated so as to add a second toilet as a result of we thought we couldn’t dwell with out one. Now it has been 5 years (the primary of which we had been all at house nearly on a regular basis because of at-home-learning in Covid) and someway all of us have been simply high quality with one toilet.
During the last 5 years of dwelling right here, two OTHER issues have nagged at us excess of having only one toilet (bear in mind we even have an outside bathe, which undoubtedly takes the stress off only one toilet inside).
The very first thing we now have all the time had in thoughts to replace sooner or later is that we all know our son will want an even bigger room as he grows (his was once a laundry room. It’s very cute however very small). He and a number of buddies can hand around in right here for hours, nevertheless it’s a decent match, and he gained’t be 11-years-old without end! So ever since we made this his bed room (he was 6 once we moved right here) we knew we’d ultimately wish to determine a method to give him more room in his tween/teen years.
The opposite factor that has nagged at us is that the pool feels very indifferent from the home. You go down a protracted hallway entry it, however can’t see it from any of our dwelling areas in any respect. It’s simply such a gorgeous view, and we want we may look out at it from the kitchen or sitting space and never really feel so disconnected from it.
We knew there needed to be a sensible reno transfer that might come to us over time that may make these two “that might be so good” concepts come collectively. And let me let you know, it took MANY YEARS of marinating.
Then one afternoon John was like “I’ve THE concept.” And inside about three hours of sketching it out on graph paper and taping issues out on the ground, we knew it will work. So we referred to as a contractor that one among our buddies has beloved working with, and he came visiting and labored up a quote for us.
We don’t share flooring plans of our home anymore, however basically all it takes to perform 1) a bigger room for our son and a couple of) a extra open dwelling area on the primary flooring that feels related to the pool is…
(drumroll please)
… ending the coated part of our entrance porch. Many different homes close to us have carried out that to realize further inside area, and as a lot as we like our coated entrance porch, we even have a coated facet porch, a large higher deck, and the uncovered space of this entrance porch that can stay. So we’re not missing in out of doors area (we even have our facet yard with the hammock and naturally our pool space with a firepit space and deck with a eating desk). And changing that coated porch into an inside room will basically take the home from this…
… to this (sure, I coloured that on Instagram Tales with the marker instrument):
It truly feels good and balanced for the entrance porch to be form of tucked into two completed areas (as an alternative of getting one facet that’s a completed bed room and one facet that’s an open porch). Additionally I do know that hole to the left of the second flooring railing appears to be like bizarre. That is an previous photograph and I now have a large fiddle leaf fig in there and all is correct with the world.
However again to changing the coated porch into an inside room. What that’ll get us is a bigger bed room for our son, a giant L formed kitchen and lounge space as an alternative of the i-shaped one which we now have that’s not overlooking the pool in any means… and it’s truly going to realize us an ensuite toilet, as a result of we determine whereas we’re making our home extra open and useful for our fam, it will be good to have a toilet hooked up to our bed room, simply because… much less strolling in the midst of the night time when I’ve to pee.
Plus let’s be actual, I get to choose some fairly toilet tile now. And I discovered the best sink self-importance! I’m even into the bathroom. It’s a complete thrilling factor for us.
How Precisely Will You Achieve A Larger Residing Space?
This was how the large concept got here to us… John actually mentioned “if we enclose the coated porch and transfer our daughter’s room there (it’ll be barely larger than her room now, however in any other case nearly precisely the identical), we may knock down the wall with the laundry closet that backs as much as her current room and make it one massive L-shaped kitchen and household room setup.” Actually we’d simply transfer her current home windows to her freshly constructed bed room and solely have to purchase a giant glass door resulting in the pool for the brand new lounge area.
Shifting her room over to the entrance porch space (and turning her previous room right into a household room/lounge that overlooks the pool and connects to our present kitchen) means the sitting space that’s within the nook of the kitchen now will be capable to shift into that new lounge space by the pool that we’re creating. So general this one transfer will acquire us a lot! Like:
- more room to share as a household on the primary flooring general
- a ton extra gentle streaming into the kitchen from the left facet of the room
- extra room for kitchen cabinetry (for the reason that kitchen will now not have a sitting space)
- extra chairs round a floating eating desk with a correct chandelier overhead
- possibly even a bit of work island
- sight traces to the pool from the kitchen
You’ll be able to see under how eradicating that complete wall will REALLY open issues up! The wall can actually be opened to the nook the place you see that man strolling under. It’s a few 10 foot expanse of wall that can come down, and all that gentle and the view of the pool will out of the blue be seen from the kitchen and even from the second you step within the entrance door.
Please get pleasure from that badly drawn glass sliding door (which I notice will likely be a lot larger). That can overlook the pool. And that hammer on the ground within the photograph above is the place you stand once you step within the entrance door, so that you’ll actually be capable to look straight and see a giant eating space and kitchen, and look left and see a vaulted light-filled lounge space.
The children are extremely into this reno, and each wish to have a TV within the new lounge space that we’re gaining (we at the moment simply have one upstairs) so we predict one facet of the room will seemingly have a media cupboard with a TV hanging over it on the wall – and the alternative wall can have a settee or a sectional for hanging out. It truly gained’t be too dissimilar to the structure of this front room from our first home – simply image a giant glass french door overlooking a pool the place the fireside is. And the ceiling will likely be vaulted!
It’s laborious to indicate you simply how open and nice the brand new L formed room goes to be as a typical space for all of us to hang around in, however the photograph under form of helps you think about how good it will be to have a complete room to the left of the area (behind that wall of frames and laundry closet).
How Does Your Son’s Room Get Larger?
It’s extraordinarily laborious to indicate with no flooring plan, however as soon as issues get framed and moved, it’ll be simpler to know all the pieces. Basically his room will get to soak up this hallway to the pool (and the ceiling will get vaulted to match his room), and that door to the pool turns into a giant window. There may be additionally area behind this photograph (the place the particular person taking the photograph was standing) that turns into his room – and a few of a hidden closet that you may’t see from this angle or photograph. His room will get about 30% larger – and can nearly be the identical dimension as his sister’s room. It’ll be a very nice improve!
The place Will The Second Lavatory Go?
Our bed room is a pretty big L formed room, so we’re basically stealing a nook of it, which is able to flip our room right into a still-sizeable rectangle. And the nook that made it an L will grow to be the toilet. To plan the structure, we labored rigorously with our contractor to not solely sketch all the pieces out digitally in CAD (to make sure we meet codes) but in addition to tape off a flooring plan of the area too.
I gained’t go into the nitty gritty of it now (please maintain any questions in regards to the particular flooring plan and what every taped off object is). We’ll undoubtedly share extra about this down the road. The principle level I’m making an attempt to make is that this taping step was SO HELPFUL. It was like our personal bootleg (however free!) model of Stroll Your Plans.
It helped us make a few important changes that can make the room really feel larger than it’s. Don’t get me mistaken, it’ll nonetheless be cozy, however taping issues out unlocked a greater plan that earned us an even bigger wall-to-wall bathe and we didn’t need to lose any of our closet area (one has to maneuver over for the door to the bed room to shift). See, it’s so complicated to attempt to describe in phrases! However I promise you’ll completely get it as we go. My foremost level right here is: when unsure… tape stuff out and stroll round it.
The place Will The Laundry Go? (Or: I Have A Query About X!)
As we discovered when sharing a few of these particulars on IG tales, you’ll undoubtedly be left with some questions in regards to the flooring plan, the place the laundry room goes, and so on, and so on. Through the years we’ve discovered that some issues are far more simply proven and answered as soon as a venture is underway. So I promise, all shall be revealed. And in addition I promise we aren’t renovating with out remembering that we have to have a spot to do laundry.
How Will The Exterior Change By The Pool?
We wish to overplan each time we are able to, and we strive to consider actually all the pieces from each angle. For instance, when planning the window for our son’s expanded room, I needed to ensure it will look good from the pool, so I badly photoshopped this, simply to see the way it may look from exterior after our reno:
We deliberately selected a window proportion that ties into the window on the second flooring, which we predict goes to look very nice. And people badly photoshopped glass doorways on the appropriate will lead into the lounge/hangout area that’s open to the kitchen and eating space. Can’t wait!!
Why This Plan And Not X, Y, Z?
We’ve thought of dozens of potentialities over the past 5 years, from including rooms above our children rooms & redoing all the roofline, to ending the higher deck as enclosed rooms, and nothing got here near feeling prefer it made as a lot sense for our household and the way in which we dwell on this home.
Because of this I shared these two “issues that nagged at us” – within the hopes that it helps you once you’re debating attainable renovation choices. There are an infinite quantity of the way you possibly can renovate a home, so you could have to remember what YOU need it to do for YOUR FAMILY. Nothing else we thought of felt even remotely well worth the bother or like it will get us what we actually needed from a reno.
So we waited and didn’t settle. Simply saving up and contemplating increasingly more choices till we landed on the one which felt proper. This replace goes to be so good, feels comparatively easy (particularly in comparison with different issues we debated) and ticks three bins. The home will work higher for our household, and the quote got here in decrease than we anticipated – which by no means occurs!
What If It Takes Longer, Is Extra Costly, & Stuff Goes Flawed?
We’ve been doing this lengthy sufficient to know that it gained’t all be sunshine and roses – however we’re hopeful that the uncomfy center will likely be well worth the completed consequence. Will all of us get uninterested in this reno, particularly if it takes longer and prices extra with some sudden (however actually we count on them) curveballs? I’d guess $100 that we are going to.
Timeline points, budgets being blown, and sudden reno roadblocks are all the time doubtlessly within the combine, so we simply plan to do our greatest to deal with all the pieces because it comes. One tip for reducing down stress in regards to the funds is that we like to save lots of 20-30% greater than we predict we want earlier than beginning one thing like this, simply in case. It actually makes it much less nerve-racking to imagine it may occur and be ready for it. And it doesn’t harm that it took us years to provide you with this plan… so we had some time to save lots of whereas we waited for “The Concept” to strike.
Do All Huge Initiatives Really feel Scary At The Starting?
That’s completely regular. Particularly in case you are newer to renovating. It’s some huge cash and time and it’s your precise house you’re taking aside! So it’s actually understanable to have any vary of feelings (and doubtless a couple of on the identical time). Proper now, we’re stuffed with giddy enthusiasm and pleasure. I feel the start of a venture is a lot enjoyable since you’re dwelling within the “chance” stage – and it’s actually simply thrilling and stuffed with comfortable anticipation. However renovations are a marathon and and never a dash.
We undoubtedly had been able to be carried out after including the pool, gutting & rebuilding our kitchen, and once more after we changed all of our doorways and home windows 2 years in the past. So we’re completely anticipating for the thrill honeymoon to finish. However then once you’re carried out, there’s the “we’re completed” elation. So we’re comforted figuring out that’s forward of us too. And thank goodness we now have a completed kitchen and a completed toilet that we are able to use all through this whole course of. That’Il make this a lot simpler than another renovations of yore.
How Lengthy Will It Take?
Our contractor has estimated 3-4 months (there may also be some breaks for the vacations, and so on) however numerous the work will likely be ending the entrance porch, which could be carried out complely from exterior till they be part of it to our current home. We undoubtedly assume if it’s carried out (and even principally carried out) by my birthday (March nineteenth) that might be an enormous win. However we predict it’ll seemingly be extra like the top of April after you issue within the vacation break, varied curveballs we count on will pop up, and so on.
How Will Your Residence’s Sq. Footage Change?
Our home is at the moment round 1,400 sq. toes and it’ll be round 1,500 sq. toes once we convert the coated porch to livable inside sq. footage.
For reference, our final home was 3150 sq. toes, however dwelling in the pink seashore home for the summer time (which was 1,900 sq. toes, proven under) taught us that we didn’t want something almost as massive – particularly if there’s useful out of doors area, good climate for many of the yr, and walkability.
After we noticed this home at 1,400 sq. toes, we knew it was even smaller than something we initially imagined getting… however the location is PERFECT for us. So we went for it. And for the final 5 years it has been nice.
Including just a bit more room feels prefer it’ll nonetheless be simple to scrub and look after, whereas gaining extra perform for our children as they develop and for us to all get pleasure from these shared areas togehter. A home that’s 1,500 sq. toes nonetheless seems like a large downsize from the three,150 sq. foot home we used to have! However I’m going to need to get used to cleansing two bathrooms (solely cleansing one has been nothing wanting wonderful).
When Does It Begin?
We needs to be getting our allow any day now, and are advised that it’ll hopefully begin the week after Thanksgiving. Right here’s hoping! You realize we’ll preserve you posted. The most effective spot to see updates is certainly Instagram Tales, after which issues will ultimately make it to the weblog in a extra thorough and simply digestible format. Thanks for coming alongside on this journey with us.
Different Posts You Would possibly Take pleasure in
If you wish to learn extra about our journey with this home, try a few of these posts under:
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