Renovating our Home – Change orders

When Renovating our home each decision that we make affects something else.  Even with the best plans there are always changes that occur. Today we are talking about some of the decisions and changes that we have had to make since we started the renovation.  Specifically, the basement, master bath and closet, the new Attic Space, and great room.

The Basement Steps 

In our design of the house we had a new unfinished basement which we thought was going to be awesome.  Getting a basement that we could use for additional space was great.  I would have a workshop and a place for my kids as well.  We do have a basement but it will be strictly for storage and a workshop.

What we found out is that there was not enough ceiling height from the floor on the main level to the floor in the basement.  It left us with a little under seven foot ceilings.  To short for anything except a workshop and great storage.  Due to the lower height ceilings we could not put stairs, to the basement, inside the house.  This is due to not enough clearance for the stairs going down to the basement.  The basement stairs were to be put next to the master bedroom.  Since there are no stairs we gained an additional five feet of room in the master bedroom.  That is great, but we don’t need that much space in the master and I would have like to have that extra space somewhere else.

Master Bathroom and Closet

We had designed a master bath and closet with windows off the back for lots of light.  When we look at the placement of both of those, the builder felt it would be better to switch them for light and functionality.  We talked about it and agreed.  When we did that we had to redesign the bathroom from what we had originally planned.  This lead to different placements for the window, vanity, water closets, doors, etc.  Here are the changes in the bathroom that we had to decide on.

• Type of doors for master bath – We went from french doors opening into the master bath to sliding barn doors.  Since we changed the floor plan of the bathroom it changed placement of the light switches and outlets.  We could not open the doors in because the switches would be behind the door.
• Window type and placement – Our windows went from standard one-over-one window to four three foot transom windows.   They are going to be on each corner of the master bath and closet. I actually like it better than the original.
• Vanity type and placement – The vanities went from one big cabinet and two sinks to two individual cabinets on different sides of the bathroom.  That is not a huge issue – my wife loves that because she thinks I am messy.
• Water closet placement – The water closet was angled instead of a rectangle and not in the same place as the original design
• Placement of master closet door – We had the door to the closet in the master bath, but because of space and where the water closet is we could not have it there.  The door is now in the master bedroom like any normal closet you would see.

This is a complete redesign of the bathroom and I think the changes are great but we had to start from scratch and it does not look like anything we had in the original design.

New Attic Space and Great Room Changes 

When we had to tear the roof off and reframe it – it created a great huge attic space that can be finished off.  This created a few issues that we had to make decisions about.

• Finishing off the attic space – This means adding insulation, drywall, electrical, HVAC system, painting, etc.  You get the idea. Not finishing it off means that we cannot use that space – that was not an option – it is a huge space that the kids can have to play, hang out, and have friends over.
• The placement of the door to the attic space – We had a choice to have the door upstairs or at the bottom of the stairs.  We decided to go with an open staircase with the door at the top.  That changed the window placement in the attic.
• Window Placement – We had two windows, one at the front of the house and one at other end. They a were both the same size and shape.  Where the door is going to be in the attic space, it will be in the middle of the window.  We have to change the window to two windows instead of one.  It is still symmetrical to the back of the house so it will look good.
• Stair placement on the main level – We were originally not supposed to have stairs.  Once the stairs we built, we had to reconfigure the great room.
• The great room wall with bookshelves and fireplace – We originally had two bookshelves and the fire place in between them.  That is still the same but the placement and design changed some.  These were originally on the left side of the great room.  Since the stairs were going to be there we had to move them to the rights side.  Once we moved them to the right side of the room that changed the height of the book shelves.  The right side of the room had two transom windows at the top of the wall and we could not have floor to ceiling book shelves.  The final changes were book cases with two free standing shelves above the bookcases.

As you can see, while renovating our home we had to make a few design changes and decisions. One change leads to another.  Most of the changes are good but there are a few that I wish I could change.  The best thing is that none of the changes that I do not like are going to be an issue.  The basement not having stairs inside the house is not great, but I never had steps to begin with so it will be fine. There are more changes to come and decisions to be made.  Other decision, while renovating our home, that I will be talking about in a later post will be:

• My kids bedrooms
• Gas line
• Walk in pantry
• Second bath
• Island

More About Renovating our Home

• We are renovating Step 1:  A step-by-step guide to renovating your home
• Renovating Step 2:  Hiring the right architect
• Renovating Step 3:  Hiring the right contractor
• Renovating Hiccups:  Tearing off the roof

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