The floorplan...updated

We had a meeting with our framer Friday evening at our house. I had quite a list of things I wanted to "tweak", but wasn't sure it they were all possible to be structurally supported and meet code. Our framer is David, who builds a lot of the houses that Matt's mom's company builds. Those houses list for $750,000 and up. Nice stuff. Very well made. Yeah, we want THAT guy. He's also used to very picky rich people, which is exactly how I am, minus the rich part.

Here's a refresher of our floor plan as it is written(click to enlarge):






















































Now here is my list of changes:
1. Add laundry room upstairs
2. Add half-bath in garage
3. Remove corner closet(we'll add later once we know where we want them)
4. Raise knee-walls 1 ft. to give us more usable wall. This raises the roof 1ft.
5. Bigger windows
6. Vaulted ceilings to make the space feel bigger
7. Move master bedroom over to make room for 2nd bedroom
8. Add a dormer window to both bedroom(increases light and usable space)
9. Create attic space somewhere.

Some of these are easy. The most difficult one was adding a laundry room and still having room for a tub. You wives and moms out there know how crucial it is to have a laundry room that you don't have to leave the house to get to!!

You'll notice that there is a huge amount of dead space behind the tub in the original plan. That's the space above where the stairs come up. After 2.5 hours of brain storming, we came up with a solution. It will end up cost $500-1,000 more(not including the bigger windows), but that's nothing in the grand scheme of this project and it will make the space SO much more livable.




















(the lines with numbers on them are not wall, just measurements)

Here's what's changed:
1. Moved the stairs to the other side of the garage wall downstairs.
2. Moved the bathroom to the other side of the hallway, making the hall more centered.
3. Moved master bedroom over and create one walk-in closet.
4. Created a washer/dryer closet in hallway.
5. Created a 2nd bedroom with pocket doors.
6. Added dormer windows to bedroom(not shown. just envision a big window sticking out of the big roof area in the very 1st picture)
7. Created half-bath in garage(not shown. just envision a toilet)

There is so much less wasted space in the new plan. The old plan had small closets all over the upstairs. We've consolidated it into one big closet. Yet, to be discussed is the attic space, which will go over the bathroom/hallway/closet area maybe with a drop down stairs access. The living room and bedroom will have no room for attic space because we are raising the ceilings.

Here's a representation of the ceilings in the original plan:










That's standard height for most homes, but most homes have more than two rooms and 800sq ft.

Here's a representation of the ceilings the way I want them:










Much better! We won't feel so closed in, in our tiny house!