The Plan.

The pros who have been in have lavished praise on our planning and design. When asked about our plans, we sort of smirk and point to this, which until today was hanging from a stud by the kids’ bedroom door:
Behold, The Plan. Click for large view.

That’s it. We don’t even have it in file form… just this rendering I did with free software from the ‘net. It was the best thing we came up with after years of thinking about what we would do, and months of sketches and moving scale cut-outs of tubs and sinks on graph paper over coffee. We have done everything based on this sketch.

The existing house is to the left — the bottom door leads to our bedroom from the bathroom and the top left door leads to the kids’ room. The top right room is the porch/family room. The bottom room is what we are calling the study, although we designed it with the proper window type and closet to be called a 4th bedroom if necessary.

*** I should add that because of the small square footage of our house and addition (total under 2500 square feet) and one-story build, we only required a site survey/foundation plan and basic drawings. We joke that this is the “shot-gun double exemption” because most renovation plans require approved architectural plans. (Although if you’ve seen the ugly monster being built at the corner of Laurel and Arabella, one wonders how or who approves these designs in our historic neighborhoods.)