The design stage of our remodel comes up against its first big challenge.
Energy and persistence conquer all things.
— Benjamin Franklin
When we purchased our first home, we planned to fix it up, sell it in three years, and move into a home better suited for a growing family. But life had other plans for us. Sixteen years later, with two kids, two dogs, a home-based business, and a homeschool for our kids, we knew the time was right to make a big change, a change that would benefit the entire family.
We started house hunting, but in our area, what we could afford would be a fixer-upper. And because we liked our location and our block was full of great neighbors and our kids’ friends, we committed to staying put and fixing up where we were. The first big decision was behind us.
Thinking big, digging deep
We had ideas of what we wanted in a “new” home: a minimum of three bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs. We wanted all the bedrooms on the same floor, including a primary bedroom with an ensuite bathroom. Looking at comparable properties in our area, we noted a big price jump between three- and four-bedroom houses, so we felt it would make financial sense to build a house with four bedrooms if possible.
In the initial design, we could only squeeze three bedrooms out of the existing footprint, with a small primary bedroom, if we built over the three-season porch. But would the porch, added off the kitchen in 1927, bear the weight of a second story? Digging a test hole revealed an insufficient foundation under the old addition. That option was a no-go.
So, before this project could proceed, we would need to shore up the original foundation and lay an entirely new foundation for any addition built off the back of the house.
Should we go big to go home?
With the expense of this significant foundation work, we were looking at a much larger project than we originally envisioned. Since part of the budget would now be allocated to foundation work, we could have decided to dial back the project’s overall scope. Instead, we chose to expand on the original plan, knowing that, if needed, finishing the basement interior could wait until a later date.
Freed from the original porch’s small dimensions, we increased the addition size to incorporate a new family room on the first floor and a more spacious primary bedroom suite above. Design improvements fell into place, and we checked off other items from our wishlist: a better kitchen location, a larger entryway, and a mudroom, to name a few.
After years of arranging our financing and design, we were ready to begin our home remodel with a bigger and better plan.
Next up in the series Our Little House Grows Up: A Peek Inside a 100-Year-Old Home Addition – Design: Take 2.
