Friday, January 22, 2010

Concept drawings for our Ottawa renovation

With much anticipation, we met with our architect this afternoon and she showed us two sets of concept drawings for the renovation of our Ottawa bungalow. Generally, we are pretty pleased with what she has shown us. I think we are leaning toward the main floor of design one, while liking the lower floor of design two. We have suggested a few changes already, but we have some time to mull things over and get back to her. We'd sure like to hear what others think. Feel free to give us comments on the designs.

We will be getting pdf versions of the drawings soon, but in the meantime, I have these lower quality images to look at.

First, here's what it currently looks like inside.






Below is design one:




Below is design two:



4 comments:

  1. Someone sent me some comments by email, so I am posting them here for you to read.

    You asked for input..I give you input -
    There are really only a few minor thoughts I have - kitchens being my thing - the kitchen in plan #1 is very functional, being galley style, but not great for a family to work together in it. And the sink is using up all the island space, which is normally used for spreading out on. A prep sink is nice, too, and generally takes up less room so you can spread &/or use as a seating place for onlookers. Everyone always wants to be where the action is! And If you do dishes by hand a lot, it's nice to see something while you work (window, fireplace, tv, guests). I tend to pile dishes as I work, so island sinks aren't good for me for example.

    I noticed that the kitchen in plan #2 is far from the patio, which could be a negative if you bbq a lot. It has a nice roomie layout and the island is quite functional. It also doesn't give you a good view of the back yard.. can you see your kids fist fighting over the swing set?? hmm?

    I like the mudroom off the garage (btw, don't they believe in double garages in Ontario?) but where is the storage for all those Christmas decorations, kids clothes, skis, camping gear, chaffing dishes, costco sized things.. A storage room would be mighty handy. And where do you keep the gardening stuff - do you have a shed too?

    And (are you asleep yet?) do the kids use the backyard at all? Do they come in from it via the playroom downstairs? If so, wouldn't a little mud room or 'staging area' be handy there. Lord knows I'd like a dollar for every time I swore about not having a seating area at an entry door (especially for snow suit removal, mud removal, dog paw wiping, etc).. I like the front entrance on #2, that's my kinda entrance!

    Oh, and I do like the master suite in #1. But why is the toilet in the ensuite beside the door? I do know that Murphy's Law states that the minute a woman wants to do her eye makeup, her husband wants to warm up the toilet seat.. Double sink = good. Toilet beside it = inconvenient.

    And the layout for the bedrooms in #2 looks nice. I like the bathroom between the kids rooms, especially as they get older..although, I'm all for putting as much distance between their rooms and ours..

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  2. Here's another commetn I received by email:

    I prefer design no 1 but would recommend the following...A) do away with the guest bathroom on the first floor and replace it with either 1) a pantry (you don't seem to have a lot of cupboard space) or 2) the laundry room - move it upstairs...life's too short you have FOUR bathroo...ms to clean in that house....I repeat FOUR... B) In order to make your 2nd bedroom a little bigger, you may want to remove the bath from the ensuite and simply leave a shower...otherwise, it looks like there are many windows and that's good

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  3. I received two new votes for Option 2. Thanks for the feedback. Keep it coming.

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