Remodeling Log

"As Built"

This is the "As Built" floor plan. This is pretty much the way we found the house when we moved here.

When we bought the house, we also bought a pool table and, for the first year (before we occupied the house) it was the only piece of furniture. The pool table is in the Living Room and the plan is to keep it there and build the rest of the house around it.

At this point the house is about 1,472 ft. sq.

Joe's office is camped out in the Living Room with the pool table and the TV. Candy is using the smaller of the two bed rooms as an office and as a place to work on her quilts. Well, there and in the living room on the pool table.

Though the house is pretty comfortable, it's missing storage space, a place for about 60' of books Joe has collected over the years. Beyond that, there's very little wall space for all the paintings and prints.

Click HERE to read our Comments to the Architect.

First Cut at a Plan (August 6, 2003)

This proposal attaches what is currently a detached workshop and one-car car port - making them into an  Entry Way, a Library, a storage area and a closet off the Library. The Entry Way leads into a new Living Room. Above the New Living Room, on a second level, is the Study or Joe's office (see the inset at the upper left of the blueprint).

There is a balcony off the Study which looks out over the Catalina Mountains just north of Tucson. Stairs connect Joe's office with the new Entry Way. The proposal calls for an open, cathedral ceiling in the Study.

Candy plans to take over the nook in the newly designated "Family Room" with her quilting - sharing the area with the pool table. The Library will house the books and, this plan leaves plenty of room to hang paintings and prints.

We're also considering running a trellised walk way from the new Living Room to the Southwest corner of the house.

By incorporating what was the car port and the workshop into the living area, we should be able to increase the living space from 1,472 sq. ft. to about 2,270 sq. ft. by adding only 274 sq. ft. of new slab and roof - keeping us close to what the architect initially suggested was a very optimistic budget.

The First Significant Change (August, 12, 2003)

Further research into the building codes in this area yields that the set back from the street for a one story structure is significantly different from the requirements for a two story structure. This will require a major re-design of the addition.

(See the re-design in the floor plan below. Note how the :Living Room / with the upper story Study [shaded area] block have been moved back from the northern wall. The stairs now turn to the left as opposed to the original proposal that had them turning to the right)

In the meantime, Joe and the architect reviewed the list of issues and concerns listed in the Comments to the Architect. The necessity to re-design the addition have, of course, rendered some of the points moot - but the list on paper helped to move the process along by eliminating a review meeting.

The Final Layout (September 15, 2003)

I think we finally have a plan we can "run" with.

The shaded area shows where we plan to go up to a second level for an office area that takes advantage of the view of the Catalina Mountains to the North. The stairs leading up to the office originate in the Entry Area near the Library.

The ground floor area beneath the (shaded) Office area is the new Living Room and will contain the shrine to Modern Culture; the TV.

The original main entry to the house is now blocked off with a window and a window seat.

We've also made some significant changes to the kitchen and dining room - adding an "L" shaped counter to the former and expanding the latter.

This new layout represents about 2,400 square feet of living space - not a huge house by any stretch of then imagination - but about 500 square feet bigger than the house we had in Pennsylvania.

The Elevations Arrive (10/18/2003)

We got the elevations from the architect the other day. I immediately ran outside and took a picture of the front of the house and then a picture of the front elevations so I could merge them in PhotoShop and get some idea of what the house is going to look like.

Here's the result.

I'd mentioned to Bailey (the architect) that I had a great admiration for Frank Lloyd Wright. That comment is reflected in some of the details of the new structure; the horizontal lines that tie the new addition and the existing structure together visually, the treatment of the center staircase leading to the second story and the cornices over the windows and doors (hard to see in this view - but they're there).

Compare this photograph to the one at the bottom of the opening page.