The floor is built!

Previously the back part of the house was two steps down from the main part – it was a garage so it makes sense.
We debated a little about leaving it or leveling it. Leaving it would mean a few extra feet of vertical space for storage if we wanted.
Leveling it won out due to our “keep it simple” philosophy. That plus I couldn’t really figure out what we would do with more vertical space – nice in theory but not sure it would actually get utilized.
Plus, ultimately, I really want this room to not be reminiscent of the garage it once was…

In other news, there’s been a slight modification to the floor plan. We decided that by moving the hot water heater two feet and lining up a new wall with an existing, the tv room loses a corner but the dining room shape will be less eccentric and give us more space. So more walls came down and the water heater moved. Progress!!

Next is getting ready to install the French doors. Because we are closing up the previous door from the (old) laundry room to the tv room, we needed to be creative with a new entrance. It was Louie’s brilliant idea and I quickly agreed: French doors from the living room. And the wall came down – well, part of it!

Next up: fireplace facade demo!

The overall plan

Here are our floor plans – before and after.
When we bought the house 10 years ago (this month!), we talked a lot about our big plans for remodeling. A family business, 2 teenagers and now a baby later, life truly did get in the way. But together we realized that we didn’t need to conquer all of it at once and will be phasing the remodel over hopefully a not TOO long a period of time.
Without further ado – the before and (hopefully someday) after plans!
BEFORE:

And “SOMEDAY” 🙂

And so it begins…

We are starting slowly. Big plans means big budget. But we only pay cash. So we will be doing this remodel in phases and a lot of the labor will be done by us!! Our house was built in 1953. It’s been through a lot of changes until we bought it in 2004. We bought it filling intending to do a remodel and in fact we have an entire bathroom ready to be installed sitting in our garage….for over 8 years now.

Phase 1 – the laundry room. Currently the laundry room is merely the back third of what used to be the one car garage (the tv room is the other 2/3). It’s also the “junk room” for stuff that doesn’t have anyplace else to go. In clearing it out today there was very thing from stuffed animals to sports equipment, 3 bikes and a bike trailer, model cars to my first set of skis, and most interestingly: Louie’s whirleygig. Most of it will not be going back into my shrinking laundry room. The laundry room will now be an actual laundry room will only laundry related things. My inspiration picture:

We are a long way away from that. Here are progress pictures. Including pictures of the tv room (which will be turned into the media room/man cave). Please, ignore the mess, I was unpacking and purging the closets…

Left side – that widow will get moved to the far end and lowered.

Freezer will stay but everything else will go!! Simplicity will be the name of the game.

All these cabinets are history!! Say goodbye…

See! While the toddler napped, mom demolished all that plywood and lumber – it’s all gone. Sheetrock is next…

Louie got home from work in time for the really fun stuff: sheet rock demo!!

Next he took the dividing wall down to studs. That wall will stay but because the tv will get hung from it and components need to be wired through that wall – the Sheetrock needed to go. Plus the door is being removed and the cupboards around the water heater are also history.

The cabinets are all gone – the water heater will get replaced by and instant hot water heater when we convert to gas and replace major appliances in phase 2.