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lundee_gw

your opinions on my addition plan

Lundee
9 years ago

I am planning this addition the coming summer. A little back story; It is me and my wife and a little one on the way, plus we would like to plan on another 2 kids, we have a mid sized dog that share the space but is only inside when raining or nights.

We have an existing older farm house that we are added onto. The gray part on the top half. Upstairs there is 3 bedrooms, and that is it nothing changing up there other then one window. Utility type basement under the east(right) half of existing house. unattached garage is about 20' east of existing entry. we are located about 150' from gravel township road on 4 acres.
This is what the floor plan it will look like after it is all done.
Sorry, I forgot to label a few things, the room in the addition behind the stove is the office(wife has side business), Rectangle thing on south wall is a fireplace.

Please, if you have any questions or comments I would greatly like you input.

Comments (6)

  • annkh_nd
    9 years ago

    Congrats on the new baby!

    Where is your kitchen now? Where will Baby sleep, until he/she is old enough to sleep alone in an upstairs bedroom?

    What is happening to the existing entry? Will guests enter from the end of the covered porch, into the dining room? That seems a little awkward to me. If you're turning the existing entry into a nursery, I think the new entry should be where you show "lower cabinets".

    Master bedroom: what's the enclosed space between bath and closet? It doesn't look big enough for walk-in closet. The little hallway to the MB is wasted space. I would flip the bath and closets so you could have a window in the bath, and the door could be closer to the kitchen.

    Now, about the kitchen. There are two huge issues: first, the island blocks the flow between range, sink, and fridge. Second, the range is so far from the sink. Imagine lugging a pot of boiling water and pasta from the stove to the sink, with a 4-yr-old running from the living room to the bathroom!

    I would flip the kitchen, so the range is on the outside wall, and put windows on each side of it. Sink/DW on the peninsula. I would put the fridge on the other side (backed against the office), along with pantry storage. The down side is that I can't figure out where you'll put your dishes, unless you can squeeze the island back in and have dish drawers.

  • Lundee
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    First, Thanks we are really excited for the little one!

    Existing Kitchen is in the location where the master bathroom and room where it says lower cabinets. We want to move it out of this location due to if we are updating the kitchen it is easier in the new part cuase of level floor and straight walls.

    we are thinking of having a playpen/baskenette thing in our room temporarly.

    Basiclly everyone will still use the existing entry to enter becuase it is closest to the parking slab. New entry will be alittle akward opening into the dining. but I see that getting used very little. Plus will need some type of egress/ingress for safety in new addition.

    Walk in closet in Mstr Bd will be 7' long 6' Wide.
    It will be hard to flip the bathroom and Closet since there isn't a basement under that portion of the house. Only a very short (8") crawlspace.

    About the Kitchen; I Totally agree with you, I have looked at that a lot; with pros and cons in any configuration.
    I really didn't want the range on that exterior wall becuase of the traffic going from Living room or dinning to bathroom or upstairs. That route in the kithen will be heavly used and would become smaller when cooking and opening oven door.
    I have thought about adding a Pot Filler by the stove but not sure.

    Thanks for the Imput, I'll Show the wife tonight.

  • kirkhall
    9 years ago

    The kitchen is the disaster in this plan. (sorry to say). Whoever is the cook will not find this kitchen to be comfortable to cook in.

    It would be best to take this plan WITH DIMENSIONS and post it on the kitchen forum. They will find a solution that works well. This is far from working well (again, sorry, but truth).

    Where are you planning the "entry" to be? Into the DR? Or Existing entry?

    Does the covered porch exist now (with roof/foundation?)?

    Can you post what you currently have too, so we can work with that?

  • annkh_nd
    9 years ago

    I think the range could be OK on the outside wall, if the peninsula comes out from that wall as well. That moves the traffic flow away from the range, just like it is now.

    A pot filler solves half the problem - getting a pot of water to the stove - but doesn't help with the pot of hot water from the stove. Putting the stove and sink closer together solves both problems.

    I don't think the door to the dining room is bad at all as a secondary entrance.

    We had our twins in a crib in our bedroom until they were 6 months old, then we moved them to their own room. Our house has two bedrooms on one level and one on the other level; until the boys were about 5, our bedrooms were on the same level. After that, they each had a bedroom downstairs, and we moved upstairs. I think I'd be a little hesitant to put a little one in a bedroom upstairs alone.

    Can your office area be a bedroom, and the office moved upstairs? Then Junior could be closer to you at night, at least for a few years. Or longer, if you plan to have more kids. Up a flight of stairs can be a long way, if your baby is crying in the middle of the night! Or if your toddler wakes up and comes looking for you.

  • Lundee
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Hopefully this will help show what I am Currently living with.

    I like the idea of making the office toddler room for now

    Sorry it rotated it

  • pixie_lou
    9 years ago

    What if you swapped the kitchen and the living in your plan. Make the kitchen on the back corner. You could utilize the 3 walls for counters cabinets, etc. Then out an island to separate the kitchen and dining. You still get the combined dining/living, but you also get a kitchen that interacts more with the dining area. That also has the mbr leading off the living room, as opposed to leading off the kitchen. Instead of a door from the porch into the dining room, you could put sliders from the living room into the porch which expands the living space during nice weather.