Things we like, things we’d change…
Building a new living space is such a great opportunity. After a year of living in our current home, we’ve come to some realizations about what works and what doesn’t.
Here’s a few things we enjoy about our current home:
- Patio BBQs with friends
- Small dinner parties
- Drinking wine at the wine bar
- Great showers and high water pressure. A shower head that’s at least 6′6″ (we’re tall)
- Baths (our tub is way too small!)
- Fires
- Halogen lighting
- A mud room (a must-have with wet winters and dogs)
- Built-in storage for the bathroom (the storage is actually in the hallway, and works well. The drawers are deep too, which is great)
- An area in the laundry room to put folded/dirty/clean clothes. Very handy if the laundry room is far from the bedroom. I recently saw a design where they had the washer and drier right next to the bedroom and that seemed smart.
- Deep sink in the kitchen is great
- Marmoleum floors in the kitchen/dining area. Easy to keep clean, and good with pets.
Here’s a few photos of the house interior before we moved in:
Here’s a few things we’d change:
- Add a gas stove in the kitchen; a decent hood that actually captures smoke.
- More natural light! The sliding glass door and a small window are the only south-facing windows.
- Bigger bathtub/whirlpool tub. Raina and I have longed for a hot tub, but these seem like a lot of electricity and chemicals. A BIG whirlpool tub seems like a nice alternative (a luxury for sure, but after a week’s worth of competitive sports, my sore bones would appreciate a hot soak).
- Two shower heads
- A more open floor plan
- Halogen pendant lights for design accents
- More storage space (more room in the closet would be great; our current closet is 5′ x 2′ x 8′ and is a tad small for two adults)
- Stackable washer and dryer to save space
- Wood stove (more efficient than a fireplace)
- The main living space is too confined - the fireplace and tv compete to be the focal point in the room.
- Networking - tying the computer area to the media/tv area
- Get rid of our HUGE CRT tv and replace it with a wall-mounted flat screen.
- A murphy bed in the living area or office area instead of a second “guest” room that sits unused for much of the year.
- Dedicated office space in the art studio area (not in the main living area, like it currently is.).
- A more creative use of color and texture with exterior concrete (and interior, for the shop)
- An island for the kitchen stove….
Wild ideas: Some design concepts that might be worth considering:
- A bathtub that’s part of the bedroom design. Make the bathroom a highly functional, small space (something along the lines of our current bathroom - toilet, sink and shower stall).
- Open plan between the bedroom and living area, separated by sliding doors or translucent panels. Allow it to open up to create a sense of space and volume. Here’s some images from an earlier post as well as these.
- A glass roll-up door on the first floor for light in the winter.
Shop Design Considerations: My current “shop” is really too small to even be considered a workable space. It’s 240 sq. ft. and I’m lucky to be able to rip and cross cut. Here’s a few things I’d consider when designing a new shop:
- Dust, Dust Dust. It’s a huge issue with woodworking and I’d definitely want a dust control system. These suckers are big and noisy. Here’s an overview, but in general, I’d put the cyclone in a separate room with some noise insulation. Cyclones require a space of about 4′x’4. They require a way to vent air back into the shop. Here’s hat a traditional cyclone looks like:
and here’s a link to a shorter, but wider model. - Compressors. Air compressors are a real necessity. Placing them in an insulated “mechanical” room is a good idea as well. Large compressors require about 3′x3′ of space.
- Shop toilet and deep sink. A good idea - does not need to be enclosed.
- Shop Office - a clean area to work that can be shut off from the rest of the “dirty” shop.
- Lighting - Fluorescent lighting is the cheapest and easiest way to go, though I would probably put can lights in the office.
- Welding vs. Woodworking vs. Finishing: This is a big challenge. I work with wood, metal, plaster, and even clay. Some of these materials are compatible, while others don’t play nice. The main issue is wood and metal - metal working creates sparks, which can cause fires, especially if you don’t have good shop management. It might be worth considering a way to break up the shop space with TEMPORARY walls or sliding doors that would mitigate this very real danger. Similarly, there are many times when you want a clean environment to finish your work. A small spray room, with ventilation to the outside would be an amazing luxury.
- Using the outdoors: The roll-up door affords some great options and can expand the workspace. I’d suggest building some sort of patio for working outside in the summer months.
- Mess: Shops get messy. There needs to be a transition area so dust and stuff doesn’t get tracked upstairs, and so that people don’t have to walk through the dirty shop areas to get to the living space.
