The Maine house

Ok, played around a bit.  Added a second floor loft.  The intent is to only be there a few months of the year, but there was a ton of space above the center living area and heat rises, so I figured we might as well utilize an area that will be warm.  And it will give us a higher vantage point when looking out at the ocean and a better chance to spot whales.  I think I'll put some comfy chaises up there and a really good long distance set of binoculars.

Aside from that change, it's pretty much what I'd first done with it.  The original plan was a four bedroom two bath with no master.  At this point in my life, I'm not sharing a bathroom with anyone, like a teenaged kid still living at home in a house full of siblings.  So I converted two bedrooms into one and added a large master bath and walk in closet.  On the other side, since the living space was VERY cramped, I turned one bedroom into a den / study / dining room.  I'm sure the breakfast bar will get the most use, but having that formal dining area will be nice when we have company.  And we do definitely plan on having lots of company up there.  For grandkids for one thing will be taking turns coming up for a week or two at a time.  Then there are the kids, parents, cousins, and so many friends.  A two person breakfast bar just wasn't going to cut it.  So with this change, there's room for four to six people to sit and eat at the table, and if we're really full, put a couple kids at the bar too.  The bathroom and other bedroom were left as is.

Now that I'm thinking of the floor plan and visitors, I'm thinking perhaps in the loft should be a pull out couch.  If we have a pull out in the living room and a pull out in the loft and the bed in the bedroom, we could easily fit six adult visitors, and if we do two couples, we could fit three or four kids in the living space between the couch and pallets on the floor.  Heck, maybe I can even find a couple chairs that pull out into twin beds for the living room too!

With average daytime highs in the 70-80 degree range and lows in the mid 40s to upper 50s, I'm guessing we'll be spending a lot of time outdoors.  I'd love to walk the beach each day.  I'm sure John will be staying on the porch.  Walking isn't really a good idea for him anymore.  But even with company over, we could sit on that porch and enjoy coffee in the mornings and a glass of wine with our dinner each night.  On the nicer, cooler days we could spend all day out there.  We'll pop a couple firewood holders on the front porch and keep them wrapped in a tarp so the firewood stays dry.  A fire on the cooler evenings would be so relaxing!

So anyway, this is the plan that I've got for now.  Nothing big or fancy, but good enough for company to come enjoy and us to have enough room.

More house edits

The more I thought about it, the more I hated the idea of the dog's yard being off the guest room.  What if we have company?  Our dogs are up between five and six in the morning.  I don't want to wake company.  They also go out as late as 11 sometimes and don't want to disturb company.  I hate the garage door facing the front of the house and would much rather give it that guest house look, but when given the two options, I decided it will just have to look like a garage.

So the door that was in the guest room is gone and replaced with a window.  The door to the dog's yard is now off the dining room.  The two car garage and workshop portion of the garage has been spun back around and the gates have been moved.

Then we started talking about furniture.  We liked everything except the master suite.  By the time we put in a king size bed we were kind of limited where we could hang a television.  Because of John's health, he seldom leaves the bedroom, so a TV to keep him occupied is needed.  He also needs his recliner in there for when his legs are hurting really bad.  So add a king bed and a recliner and the need for both of them to face the TV and the room just wasn't functional.  I tried to change doors, windows, the opening to the WIC, etc and nothing else worked.  I finally gave up and decided to just add three feet to the room.  In doing so, the only way to keep the house 'balanced' was to add that much to the dining room as well.

I got that done, added the fencing for dogs and the new rails for the back porch.  Added the walls going off the back of the house to enclose the walled garden that leads to the pool house.  I also pulled the old flooplan from before the three feet was added to the master and the dining room, and I put in the electric outlets and light switches.  It will still need some work, but I went room by room deciding where I'd need outlets for most things in the house.  I tried to keep the number of outlets and switches to the minimum.  Since I want to have lots of can lighting as well as nightlights at floor level, we shouldn't need lamps.  That helped a lot.  The master study will definitely be the biggest challenge for electric, having to power two laptops, a desktop, the printer, etc all in one place.

Anyway, this is the new floor plan as well as the electric and light switch schematic.

Now that I've got this one done and seldom change anything, I think I'm going to start to focus on the plans for the Maine house and do those edits.  Then all I need is to get things organized so we can start to build!

More on building the house

Spent last night when I couldn't sleep looking for light fixtures, ceiling fans, and look at tons of kitchen cabinets.  I love those hickory cabinets but just couldn't see putting them in with the countertops I like.  And I like the countertops more than I liked the cabinets, so finding a new cabinet was the solution.

I settled on Aspen Beadboard cabinets.  A nice white so it will match the countertops very well and also keep the kitchen nice and bright.  I also like that they have so many options and such a great variety of cabinet sizes.  Varying heights of wall cabinets, varying depth of base cabinets, solid or glass doors, etc.  They also have the double wall oven cabinet and microwave cabinet that I liked.  I think the beadboard will go well with the overall look we're going for as well.  So, these are the cabinets:

For lighting, other than the can lighting, I picked out a matched set of lights for the foyer, dining room and pendant lights over the bar.  The foyer light will be the largest with five lights, and a smaller matched light with three lights for the dining room since it's a much smaller area.  

The pendant lights aren't an exact match.  I'd love to find the same fluted glass for the pendants if I can.  But if I can't, then it's at least close enough.  

Lastly, I picked ceiling fans.  In the house we have now, we've put them in just about all the rooms.  We use them a lot.  I'm thinking with a new home though that has plenty air flow and excellent insulation we shouldn't need them everywhere.  I've chosen to put them in the bedrooms and on the patio in the back.  Still unsure if I want them on the front patio.  I'm envisioning maybe one on each side, but still undecided.  These are the patio fans:

And the bedroom fans.  I like these but was a bit worried about the texture.  The fans we have now are smooth paddles but collect dust like crazy.  This one though has a special coating that they say deflects nearly 60% of dust.  Considering it's also going to be a new house which means much less dust than a very old home, I think the two things combined will keep it from getting too bad.  

So that's where we stand for now.  I also worked on a plan for a pool house out back.  I might have posted the photo before, but will post again along with the sketch.  It'll be a preformed in ground pool, just a rectangular shape with a small square addition on the top left corner that will be housed under a fake cave.  The area next to the 'cave' will house all of the pumps and filters and we'll put more fake stone around it to hide it from view.  Built in planters will be in the room as well as a mini kitchen and a bathroom / dressing room.  Windows along the top will be remotely operated to open and vent out any humid air, as well as having a dehumidifying system.  Between the bathroom and mini kitchen will be a fireplace for the cooler days.  

My original plan for this had been an efficiency apartment attached to the right, but I think I prefer it just the way it is.  Will make a wonderful little area to swim and get some exercise year round.  I've seen a lot of pre-set sized wood frame buildings that you can pick up fairly cheap.  Add in the pre-formed in ground pool and you've got a great little pool house for a fraction of what it would cost to do a custom build.