Planning the Expansion

Owning an old home is great, that is if you like always having a project. And in a home that is over 160 years old there is usually more than one project going at a time. Over the past twelve years we've done several do it yourself projects, including refinishing floors, adding a bathroom, remodeling a bathroom, repairing leaky roofs and more. This old house has seen a lot of changes since we moved in. Some of the changes have happened simply because a house this old needs a lot of ongoing maintenance, but most of the changes happen because we were adapting the house to accommodate how we live.

To be honest, in a house with 13 inch solid brick walls from the cellar to the attic you aren't going to dramatically change the structure of the house. You won't be knocking down a wall to open up a space or add a closet. The layout of the house hasn't changed much at all in 160 years. Originally the house probably didn't have an indoor kitchen. Today the kitchen is tucked away in the back of the house, far away from the main entertaining area of the house. And while we have painted, wallpapered, repaired plaster, refinished the floors, etc., we have never been able to fix the fact that the house was laid out for a very different style of living. So about two or three years ago Horace and I started dreaming about an addition. Every now again, usually after a family gathering or a party we would casually discuss what we imagined an addition look like.

The living room and dining room are in the original double parlors off of a large main hall. With over a 1000 square feet of space there is certainly enough room for entertaining. Unfortunately, everyone wants to be in the kitchen that barely has 250 square feet. The house is build on an L design and an addition was put on probably sometime in the 1940's. That side addition was once a large open area with a side door that served as the main entrance to the house. Over the past twelve years we have divided the space to accommodate the laundry area, a pantry closet, junk room and a slightly upgraded entrance area. The only problem is the area has old windows, a roof that won't stop leaking and rotten siding. At some point it needs to be torn down and replaced. And that's where the vision for the addition started.

If we tore the already deteriorated area down and replaced it with an addition that squared up the house we could have a modern great room. A modern great room with modern (interpret that to mean new and working) features. Wow! This would change everything. Certainly the existing house at 4500 square feet has plenty of space, but a new kitchen with enough space to allow for modern entertaining would be my greatest dream for this house.

So now and again, Horace and I would start talking about how we would lay this new room out and what we would want if we could start from scratch. The best part about tearing the 1940's addition off and basically squaring up the L section of the house is that it would be a straight shot into the existing dining room and living room. All we would have to do is take out two windows and create double doors into the area. It was a simple idea. And sometimes those are the best.