Before we jump straight into the demolition phase, we need to have a general idea of what is staying and what is going. In this case, almost everything is going besides the walls... some of them, that is.
To give you a feel for the flow of the home here is a basic sketch of the floor plan as it exists today.
Living Room
The front door, centered at the bottom of the page, opens up to a large living space. For this room, we plan to remove the far wall, thus opening up the hallway. A nice, large piece of artwork at the back of the room would make a great focal point as you walk into the home. Next, we hope to breakdown roughly a third of the fireplace, creating an asymmetrical look and adding a couple of feet of space to the current dining room area.
Dining Room and Kitchen
The current floor plan has the dining room located at the front of the house in a somewhat awkward nook off to the side. It also does not flow very well from the kitchen due to the walls separating the two spaces. Therefore, this space will not serve as a dining room in the new layout. Again, our plan is to remove those walls allowing us to elongate the kitchen on both ends.
Den
The den currently sits at the back of the house and gets some great natural sunlight due to the southern exposure. To capitalize on this, we will remove the wall separating the den and the kitchen, thus opening up the entire house and allowing the light to flow throughout. What is now the den will become the new dining area, and the current dining room will be turned into a library/bar nook. We will also add in a walk-in pantry in the front righthand corner of the home to give us extra storage and create a clutter-free kitchen.
Bedroom I
As the only bedroom with an ensuite bathroom, this bedroom technically serves as the master bedroom. However, the room is very small so it does not feel like a true master. To fix this, we will tear down the wall it shares with the den and move it over about two feet, giving the bedroom some extra square footage. Additionally, we will reconfigure the hallway at the other end of the house to utilize the wasted space, allowing us to create a larger master bath and closet.
Bedroom II & III
The way the second and third bedrooms and bath are configured now, there is a huge amount of wasted space at the end of the hallway. We will change the entrances into the bedrooms so we can build out the space to increase the size of the second bathroom, as well as the master bathroom and closet.
New Plans
If following along with everything I just said was a little difficult, here's a better visualization. I've added furniture in the plans to give a better idea of how the spaces would feel as functional rooms. Also, notice the build-out on the right side of the house... I'll touch on that later. For now, we're mostly concerned with the existing rooms in the house.
So, now that we have a better idea of how we want to transform the space, the next step is to meet with an architect who can draft final plans for us and get them approved by the town. We are scheduled to meet with a local architect next week, but in the meantime, we can start tearing out the carpet that covers nearly every room. Let the demo begin!