First pass at changes to new plan

Leading up to our next meeting on Friday Feb 5th we had put together a 3-page (yes...3 pages) bullet point list of all the things we wanted to discuss. And with Heather and the Sams there we went through it all. Here's the bulk of what we discussed:

1) Front porch: We talked about extending it so that the front entry door is centered. Heather pointed out that would require an additional shed roof over that section, blocking some of the view of the main entrance room/beams/etc. We will have to decide which we prefer.

2) Deck/Porch. Want to change stairs from upper to lower deck to be more open (no railing). Push the screen porch down the house to open up more window viewing from inside house (corner bedroom would lose big window on that side...move to other wall).

3) Living room: talked about how we could get built-ins on each side of the fireplace, but it just doesn't work.

4) Kitchen: Need to figure out how to accommodate a non-corner sink, keep the window, and make sure enough room for big side by side fridge/freezer and desk. Heather suggested pushing the mud room wall down and using a little more space on the wall adjacent to the boys' rooms. To make up the space lost in the mud room area, the garage would move a couple feet more away form the house. Here's a rough sketch of what we are thinking:

5) Downstairs: this required a lot of work as we needed to accommodate the built-in shelving that will hold TVs, speakers, AV equipment, video games and who know what else. I wanted about 15 feet of length to play with for that. However, locating it in the central portion of the house (where we had planned) was a problem...would cause you to have a really convoluted entrance to the rest of the floor. We tossed around some ideas and Christina suggested just moving it to the east (left on the sheet) outer wall. I'd lose my thought of having a nice "closet" access to the back of the equipment, but it really helps the rest of the puzzle fit into place. Here's what we are thinking right now:

This allows us to push the bathroom more down toward the other end of the floor, closer to the guest bedroom. Also down there should be room for Christina's office, Pat's "boys town", exercise room, and mechanical room.

6) Garage: Considering making the workshop portion 4 feet wider. Once you get a tractor/bobcat in there along with shelving, workbenches, saws and other garden equipment, it will get full fast.

Those are the big things. We discussed a ton of other smaller things not worth posting. Heather says she should be able to get revised plans back to review by Tuesday or so. Christina leaves Wednesday for a week-long trip to Orlando (board exam study course). So we will be crunched for time together to review the changes. But we are getting close! Once we finalize (or close to it) Mark should be able to get us a revised bid and we will be very close to signing a contract!