Here we are, 2nd week into my newest renovation and things are moving fast! I even think my client has been really surprised! Contractors are showing up when they say, and things are moving right along. Only 1 unexpected plumbing surprise, don't you love those? But needless to say, it's all coming together!
Let me catch you up to speed with the planning process that we spent the first 3 months doing, and what we were dealing with. A very large home with a great footprint, but a lot of wasted space in today's society. House had a small kitchen, small dining, small pantry, decent size family room and a HUGE formal living room! But of course that's just not how families use their home today. We all want the huge kitchen with a large eat in, which opens to a family room , creating the Great Room!! And personally, I'd rather have a large dining room, even for just those handful of times when we all want to gather around that large table with family and friends (probably more of what we should all be doing, and yes, I'm making a mental note of more family things I'd love to implement at home). And if I'm entertaining more, I gotta have that Butler's Pantry!! Yes, it's a trend, and a convenient one at that...we all need that pass through with extra storage for hosting and serving in the dining room...and if you don't have one, then no, you have no idea what you're missing! This is where my real estate background comes into play, I see the wants and needs all the time, the trends, and if you go to sell your home, I know what your future buyers will expect! However to achieve this, we need to borrow from Peter to pay Paul...the giant formal living room just doesn't get used...and my client was totally fine with it going away :) Lastly on her wishlist, was a dedicated home office, centrally located near the kitchen and the rest of the house. She had space on the other side of the home, but almost too much space, and currently her budget didn't involve that side of the home getting renovated (really interesting home, was the model/ spec home for the builder back in the 80's...it contained their sales office, which typically today is the garage in the home, and when it is sold they convert it back into a garage....but not this builder, they left the sales office intact, and added on a garage in the back of the home...really interesting and added a lot more square footage).
Some before pictures to share so you get an idea of what I'm talking about...
