
Coming into this big project we knew wanted three things for sure:
- Fix any structural issues (the floors doubled as trampolines)
- Update the aesthetic of the house to make it more modern and bring in more light
- Open up the main living space by taking down the separating walls. (See the original floor plans in my previous post).
What we didn’t know was if we were going to stick with the current two bedrooms in the house or try to add a third. The existing footprint was only about 1200 sqft so it would have been pretty tough to get an additional bedroom and bathroom in without expanding the footprint. Getting a permit to expand the footprint could prove to be an issue since the house is quite close to the stream.
We looked at a few options for keeping it a two bed one bath and improving the access to the screened in porch (in the original layout, you can only get to it through the bedrooms) but it seemed like a bummer to not have more space for friends at a weekend house and a lot of work to put into a place that was only 2 bed/1 bath.

Determined to get more space, we started looking at enclosing the screened in porch, which would give us another 280 square feet without technically expanding the footprint. Since the porch had a roof, it was considered part of the existing footprint and was therefore grandfathered in. Apparently, it’s the runoff from a roof that they don’t want getting any closer to the water. The roof rule also made it clear that we could not only enclose the existing deck but add a new one off the back as long as it didn’t have a roof and allowed for water to pass through.

The architect worked up some plans that added a bedroom in the basement and another that had three smaller bedrooms all on the main floor. Since the idea of a bedroom in a basement just bums me out, we decided to just stick with 3 smaller bedrooms on the main floor.

There was still quite a bit of developing of the plan to do at this point — this was a very rough idea. Next step was the elevations. I was so flippin excited when I got these elevations. There was basically no one I didn’t show them to.


I mean, look how much cuter this place looks! That new roofline! The new window placement! Changing the horrible siding! I was prettttty excited about these. There were a few things that didn’t quite work for me though:
- The front elevation (west facing/top left) was a little wonky. I liked all the glass but I didn’t love all those panes that don’t open with only that one tiny door. We decided to try a different layout that included some sliders.
- The “awning” window in the south elevation (top right) looked cool, but I didn’t think I would be able to see out of it. I think they are great for spaces where you want light but are worried about privacy. This house is in the middle of nowhere so privacy is really not a concern. We changed this window to be full size.
- Changing the roofline where the old screened in porch used to be meant the east side of the house would be under a new roof. A new roof meant more easily lofted ceilings. We wanted to loft the ceiling in the old part of the house but after several experts told us this would totally blow our budget I resolved to be happy with the ceilings as they were. In this new part though, we could easily open them up which meant transom windows.
- We also added some windows to the basement and moved the access to the north side of the house.
A few other tweaks and this is where we ended up:

