First Things First: The First Floor

At the end of February, we packed 1,300 square feet of belongings into a U-Haul, said goodbye to our sweet home, and moved to a temporary living situation. A few days later we finally had the keys to our new home and we were anxious to get to work.

From the get-go, we recognized we couldn’t renovate all 3,000+ square feet before we moved in. We’re crazy, but not that crazy! To save money, we’re doing most of the work ourselves when I’m not at my corporate marketing job and Daniel’s not on the road as a touring musician. Even with my dad’s help—which we’re so incredibly thankful for—we’re mostly limited to nights and weekends.

Given the timeline, we decided to first focus on the first floor. It’s larger than our entire previous house, so realistically, once we’re done we can live solely on the first floor and tackle the second floor when we’re ready.

The first floor is nearly 1,600 square feet and comprises a cluster of compartmentalized rooms. Hello 1970s. The entry foyer is relatively small, with a doorway to the formal dining room on the left, a cased opening into the formal living room on the right, and a doorway into the kitchen directly ahead. Wander into the kitchen and you’ll immediately notice the awkward ceiling, which is nearly a foot lower than the adjacent rooms. The kitchen is separated from the den on the right by a non-load bearing wall, and the den and formal living room are divided horizontally by a load-bearing wall. Off the den is a large bonus room, which has a closet and half-bath.

While the first floor has plenty of space, it needs a more efficient, open layout. To achieve that, we’re taking down the dividing wall between the kitchen and den, and we’re also creating a cased opening in the wall that currently divides the formal living room and den. We’re also ditching the formal dining room and turning the space into a laundry/mudroom and a pantry.

While those changes are big and will completely transform the space, perhaps the biggest change of all is that we’re turning the large, 20’ x 20’ bonus room into our primary suite, which will add a full bathroom and bedroom to the house and enable first floor living. And, since that means we’ll lose the guest bathroom that’s currently located in that space, we’re adding a half bath to the main living area so that our guests have easy access.

In addition to taking down walls and reconfiguring the floorplan, we’re updating everything else. That includes refinishing the popcorn ceilings, replacing all the carpet with hardwoods, removing wallpaper and paneling, reconfiguring the lighting plan, replacing windows, and more.

I said it before, but I’ll say it again—we may be a little crazy. But we’re already having so much fun transforming this house, which has already given one family lots of love for the past 60 years, into a fun, functional space that we can call home for years to come.

Let us know what you think about the new floorplan in the comments!