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| River House before the addition |
Phase 2 of the River House project is going strong!
(Phase 1 was completing the basement over the summer, and now our female intern is comfortably living there... woohoo!)
Phase 2 is the addition on the side of the house. There was no stairway connecting the main house to the basement, and the previous owners had poured a concrete foundation to build an elevator shaft (!!!). So in order to be smart with our design (and our wallet), we decided to use that space meant for an elevator to be our stairwell addition.
From the back of the house (remember that windows aren't cut out yet-- that'll come in Phase 3), you can see the addition begins on the ground floor with a door that will lead into a "mud room" area.
Here's the mudroom area from inside. There's a door on the right (you can't see in this pic) that leads into the basement area where Audrey is currently living. We love that by keeping the basement area separate, we have the option to use it in the future as an Air BnB or private guest space. And the rest of the time, it can be the kids' playroom.
The staircase will connect the main floor of the house with the basement, and we'll have a storage rom underneath the staircase.
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| the addition before windows and doors |
When you walk up the stairs, the addition opens up into what will be the open Great Room, dining, and kitchen.
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| view of addition from the kitchen |
With the large window and french door installed, all the natural light flooding in makes me happy. Nevermind that little temporary railing in the picture- that's to keep the inspector happy until we get real railings one day.
So where does that french door off the Great Room lead, you ask? We designed it to open up onto a small deck. (which will also one day have railings too, ha ha...) Here's what we're thinking... see the large deck up top off of the master bedroom? That's where you've got the beautiful river view. But as it stood before this addition, there was no way for guests to get to the top deck without traipsing through my BEDROOM!
So envision this.... you come out that french door onto the small deck, there's our grill right off the kitchen. And ALSO on that deck is a SPIRAL STAIRCASE leading you up to the top deck for lounging!!! Yes! I just gave away our big secret for the addition!! It's going to be incredible.
You may notice that the addition has another floor above the main floor. We decided to keep going up another floor with it because on the top floor, there will be a new walk-in master closet with a washer & dryer in the closet! (we installed a little window so I can look at the river while I do laundry in there...) Y'all. It's so exciting. I can't wait to see what's only been in my head thus far become a reality.
Speaking of exciting, THIS is where it's at for a little boy. The construction crew suddenly came to patch the road where the gas company installed our new gas line. "Mom, I could watch this all day," Jameson said keeping his eyes fixed on that digger.
Also exciting was when Mr. Larry, our great contractor, stopped for a few minutes to throw big rocks with him.
Back to the basement for a few more updates...
Last time I told you the crazy story of building the deck off the basement, and here's how it turned out.
And instead of framing in a closet in the bedroom, I scored this beauty off our local craigslist and it's the perfect rustic "loft"-style closet with lots of open storage.
So there you have it! This week we're hoping to complete the framing of the addition so we can move on to the exterior siding, roof, gutters, etc. to get the exterior all ready and protected for the winter. Then we can head indoors for Phase 3... the longest and costliest phase of them all... working on the main house! But at the end of that phase, our family gets a beautiful new space to live, so that gives us the motivation to keep going.
To be continued!...
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