We finished up Phase 1 in December 2013. We had gutted our home to the studs and built it back from there. But there is still so much more work to do. After our two year "break" from hard core renovating, Michael and I are ready to jump back on the saddle and slap this horse on the behind and giddy up!
It's time for Phase 2: the garage and mudroom.
To refresh your memory, here is what we started with:
So for the last two years now, ever since we re-sided our house, our home has looked like it had a great big white appendage sticking out of it.
I haven't really talked much about it here on the blog because I've been waiting until we had more of a plan set.
So here's the plan:
1. Build a three car garage onto the front of our home.
We have gotten a lot of advice from various people who have recommended that we go big... and that we won't regret it! It is also going to have a second floor with plenty of room for one bedroom and lots-o-storage.
Here is are the plans for the garage. It will connect to the house on the right through the mudroom.
And yes, my husband is awesome and drafted this whole thing out on Cad. And yes, he measured everything out that we plan to store in the garage and worked it into the plan.
2. Tear down the current garage and build the mudroom, powder room, and laundry room.
This space is going to be so important for us as a family. Currently, when people are over, the only suitable bathroom to offer guests is in our master bathroom. It doesn't bother us, but it does make some people feel weird having to go into our room to get to the bathroom. Further, having a mudroom will mean having coat storage (which we currently do not have) and a floor that will act as a more durable place to track mud and dirt onto - instead of my pretty hardwood floors!
Originally we were not planning to build a laundry room in this space. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt like we would regret it later if we didn't make it happen now. I have always done laundry in a basement, so I wasn't really against our previous plans of keeping the laundry in the basement. But then I had a baby and our laundry increased substantially. And it is only going to increase as more babies come. And these babies are going to be on the second floor of the house. So, I'm sure you can see how having laundry on the main level might be nice. Additionally, we are adding a very large storage closet, which I'm SO
excited about. When we renovated, we eliminated a lot of small closets
in order to make more space for our master suite. I don't regret that
decision but it has left us with very little closet space on the first
floor. This closet will make up for it! It will be large enough to act
as a broom closet/pantry. I can't wait!!!2. Build a second level above the garage and mudroom.
We decided to add a second level to the garage, you know, because, why not?! The second floor of our home currently is unfinished space. Eventually, with this addition, the second floor will include 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, a playroom/family room above the main house. Then, above the mudroom and garage, there will be an additional 1 bedroom and large storage room. The area above the mudroom will be a hallway but I think it will actually be large enough to give it more of a function than just a hallway. I'll figure that out later. But what I do know is that it will have a laundry shoot from the 2nd floor to the laundry room. Score!
The picture below is of our plans for the space above the mudroom and the garage. The doorway all the way to the right leads to the space above the main house.
4. Re-Roof the entire home.
Our roof is over 20 years old and shingles are starting to blow off. Since we will need to roof the new addition, it seems like the obvious time to reroof the whole house.
5. Landscaping
Michael and I have done very little in the way of landscaping, unless you count cutting down lots of Walnut trees, then we have been VERY active! We wanted to wait until after the garage is added before we put any time, energy, and money into landscaping.
6. Postpone the front porch addition
Super sad, but we decided that this addition really was not going to gain us enough functionally to have it so high up on the priority list. So now, the porch will likely come after everything else we'd like to do (finishing the 2nd floor and basement).
Michael and I started demo by taking off the remaining siding a couple weekends ago. And now, excavation and foundation work to started this week. EEEK! So excited!
I posted a video of the garage tear down on Instagram if you are interested!
Can't wait to share more about the details and process as we go along!
