ᐅ Renovation of an Older Building (1966): Two-Family House – Floor Plan Sketch
Created on: 30 Jul 2018 13:39
H
HappyDee45
Hello everyone,
We are currently planning a renovation of an older house built in 1966. Over the years, the house has been extended and remodeled several times. It has previously served as a two-family home. We are taking over the house now and do not want any "stranger" tenants living in it. This means we want/need to live in the house ourselves as a single-family home for the next 1-2 decades at least.
So, we have the challenge—or luxury—of being able to plan a lot of space.
You can find our first draft attached.
Basement:
We do not want to make any changes here for the most part. Only the electricity meter and related equipment need to be removed from the stairwell as part of the electrical upgrade. We have discussed with the electrician to create an “electrical room” in the workshop for this purpose. Everything else will remain as is.
Ground Floor:
On the ground floor, we plan to remove three walls to create a large open living and dining area including the kitchen. The pantry will be prepared as a potential bathroom (water supply and drainage will be renewed). We might want to add a bathroom there in about 10 years. A full guest bedroom is essential for us, due to family circumstances. The office will serve as a home or remote work space for both of us. The “home theater” will probably remain an unused room for now until we have more budget to invest there.
Upper Floor:
On the upper floor, we plan to move the door to the terrace (currently located in the "children’s room") and relocate the wardrobe wall to create a new hallway with access to the terrace. In the bedroom, we will add a wall to create a second bathroom on the upper floor (currently, there is a kitchen in that space).
Attic:
The attic will remain an unheated area and will remain unused or serve as an attic storage space.
This is roughly our current plan. A structural engineer has already reviewed the walls. Most of the work will be done by ourselves. But here, we want to focus on the floor plan.
We are open to all ideas. Please share any constructive feedback.
Thanks and best regards
We are currently planning a renovation of an older house built in 1966. Over the years, the house has been extended and remodeled several times. It has previously served as a two-family home. We are taking over the house now and do not want any "stranger" tenants living in it. This means we want/need to live in the house ourselves as a single-family home for the next 1-2 decades at least.
So, we have the challenge—or luxury—of being able to plan a lot of space.
You can find our first draft attached.
Basement:
We do not want to make any changes here for the most part. Only the electricity meter and related equipment need to be removed from the stairwell as part of the electrical upgrade. We have discussed with the electrician to create an “electrical room” in the workshop for this purpose. Everything else will remain as is.
Ground Floor:
On the ground floor, we plan to remove three walls to create a large open living and dining area including the kitchen. The pantry will be prepared as a potential bathroom (water supply and drainage will be renewed). We might want to add a bathroom there in about 10 years. A full guest bedroom is essential for us, due to family circumstances. The office will serve as a home or remote work space for both of us. The “home theater” will probably remain an unused room for now until we have more budget to invest there.
Upper Floor:
On the upper floor, we plan to move the door to the terrace (currently located in the "children’s room") and relocate the wardrobe wall to create a new hallway with access to the terrace. In the bedroom, we will add a wall to create a second bathroom on the upper floor (currently, there is a kitchen in that space).
Attic:
The attic will remain an unheated area and will remain unused or serve as an attic storage space.
This is roughly our current plan. A structural engineer has already reviewed the walls. Most of the work will be done by ourselves. But here, we want to focus on the floor plan.
We are open to all ideas. Please share any constructive feedback.
Thanks and best regards
HappyDee45 schrieb:
The terrace is just huge and really suitable for larger barbecue gatherings – that’s why we naturally wanted to keep that option open. Man! I was already planning a lounge area here with armchairs, a fireplace, and a bar! Forget the nursery! 😀
The terrace might be large. Barbecue parties for more than 10 people.
Everything from the grill to drinks and even forks has to be carried up and down.
Baby or children are sleeping, so the party can’t continue upstairs.
Children grow into teenagers who suddenly hang out on the terrace at night with their friends or step outside briefly to smoke.
By the way, toddlers and children spend a lot of time outdoors.
I would rather invest the money intended for the hallway into the garden access.
Everything from the grill to drinks and even forks has to be carried up and down.
Baby or children are sleeping, so the party can’t continue upstairs.
Children grow into teenagers who suddenly hang out on the terrace at night with their friends or step outside briefly to smoke.
By the way, toddlers and children spend a lot of time outdoors.
I would rather invest the money intended for the hallway into the garden access.
You don’t even know what kind of parties we’re talking about here; maybe proximity to the bedroom is important? ;-P
No, seriously. You don’t really think you’re going to haul the grill gear from the ground floor upstairs and then go back down for every beer, do you? Forget it. As I said before: it’s better to create access to the garden from the balcony below (or the home theater room) and set up a comfortable grilling area there. You can have smaller meals on a small table on the balcony, but a long Sunday breakfast or a barbecue party with friends should definitely be held out there.
The upstairs terrace is basically just for a cigarette afterward or to put the baby outside (my nephew, as a baby, slept best outdoors, even when it was freezing cold).
I forgot which way was north. One idea would be to give this luxury terrace to the children and move the bedroom with dressing room to the top right of the plan, swap the children’s bathroom with the master bath, and allow at least two children’s rooms direct access to the terrace. That would also eliminate the long, unattractive hallway.
Additionally, you might consider adding a staircase from this terrace to the garden.
But I would never, ever carry all the grilling stuff upstairs and then back down! And then there’s a nursery and children’s rooms. If the kids are still small, do you really want to party right next to their rooms?
Forget that quickly!
I currently live in an apartment with a terrace at the level of the basement, while the kitchen is upstairs on the ground floor. We hardly ever use the actually very nice terrace because it’s just too inconvenient. Upstairs there’s only a very small terrace, barely enough for a chair—no dining area. Most of the time we grill there (we have a gas grill) and eat inside with the terrace door open. Not ideal!
We’re already looking forward to our house where the terrace is directly accessible from the kitchen with no stairs in between.
No, seriously. You don’t really think you’re going to haul the grill gear from the ground floor upstairs and then go back down for every beer, do you? Forget it. As I said before: it’s better to create access to the garden from the balcony below (or the home theater room) and set up a comfortable grilling area there. You can have smaller meals on a small table on the balcony, but a long Sunday breakfast or a barbecue party with friends should definitely be held out there.
The upstairs terrace is basically just for a cigarette afterward or to put the baby outside (my nephew, as a baby, slept best outdoors, even when it was freezing cold).
I forgot which way was north. One idea would be to give this luxury terrace to the children and move the bedroom with dressing room to the top right of the plan, swap the children’s bathroom with the master bath, and allow at least two children’s rooms direct access to the terrace. That would also eliminate the long, unattractive hallway.
Additionally, you might consider adding a staircase from this terrace to the garden.
But I would never, ever carry all the grilling stuff upstairs and then back down! And then there’s a nursery and children’s rooms. If the kids are still small, do you really want to party right next to their rooms?
Forget that quickly!
I currently live in an apartment with a terrace at the level of the basement, while the kitchen is upstairs on the ground floor. We hardly ever use the actually very nice terrace because it’s just too inconvenient. Upstairs there’s only a very small terrace, barely enough for a chair—no dining area. Most of the time we grill there (we have a gas grill) and eat inside with the terrace door open. Not ideal!
We’re already looking forward to our house where the terrace is directly accessible from the kitchen with no stairs in between.
HappyDee45 schrieb:
I don’t see the connection between the whole floor plan topic and our vacation plans, cars, etc. This was meant to give a tangible idea of the abstract figure called “additional costs.” If additional costs suddenly triple, for an average family (usually with about one and three-quarter average salaries combined), it means holidays outside the home country are off the table, and the car is definitely heading toward a historic vehicle registration. However, if you have a flood of money, then all of this is easy. Or if you only eat homemade bread and tomatoes from your own garden, knit every sweater yourself, and so on, then you can say: we don’t want any other hobbies than heating a huge house. If you’re that kind of person—fine, by all means. But for an average family, what I wanted to say is that spending that much money on one household expense means compromises elsewhere. So, it’s either heating costs like having the windows open all day in a normally sized apartment, or a yearly beach vacation.
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So, I printed out Kahos’ design and made some notes on it:
Rooms K1 and K2 have access to the terrace, while K3 has a private balcony but is somewhat smaller.
The master area has been shifted to the right; the narrow guest toilet was removed. Possibly, the area marked with the dashed line could be added to the bathroom—for example, to create a more spacious, comfortable shower!
A sauna could also be added depending on how large the walk-in closet needs to be. Using the entire former children’s room as a walk-in closet seems too large to me; I would rather enlarge the bathroom instead.
Access to the master area is only through one door; the bedroom can only be reached through the walk-in closet. If desired, the door to the former children’s room 2 can remain (but I would remove it).
Instead of a sauna, a utility room for laundry could be considered, although this would likely require more effort due to the necessary installations.
Rooms K1 and K2 have access to the terrace, while K3 has a private balcony but is somewhat smaller.
The master area has been shifted to the right; the narrow guest toilet was removed. Possibly, the area marked with the dashed line could be added to the bathroom—for example, to create a more spacious, comfortable shower!
A sauna could also be added depending on how large the walk-in closet needs to be. Using the entire former children’s room as a walk-in closet seems too large to me; I would rather enlarge the bathroom instead.
Access to the master area is only through one door; the bedroom can only be reached through the walk-in closet. If desired, the door to the former children’s room 2 can remain (but I would remove it).
Instead of a sauna, a utility room for laundry could be considered, although this would likely require more effort due to the necessary installations.
Oops, I just noticed: the door between K1 and K3 must of course be closed off.
It would also be possible to separate the entire children’s area with a door in the hallway.
I assume that the wall between the bedroom and the dressing room in my proposal is load-bearing; otherwise, I would reduce the size of the bedroom in favor of the dressing room, moving the wall accordingly—downward in the original plan, or to the left here. This way, you get a really spacious dressing room where you could even set up a small workspace or a vanity. Lots of possibilities!
The remaining wall with the door to the former children's room 1 should of course be removed as well.
It would also be possible to separate the entire children’s area with a door in the hallway.
I assume that the wall between the bedroom and the dressing room in my proposal is load-bearing; otherwise, I would reduce the size of the bedroom in favor of the dressing room, moving the wall accordingly—downward in the original plan, or to the left here. This way, you get a really spacious dressing room where you could even set up a small workspace or a vanity. Lots of possibilities!
The remaining wall with the door to the former children's room 1 should of course be removed as well.
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