We’ve made a couple of changes to our first floor plan. The first change came about because of stair planning, which moved the landing further back to accommodate required headroom. It also meant the space behind it that was supposed to contain both a pantry cabinet and a coat closet was not big enough. Instead we’ve modified the plan to have a larger cabinet that we’re hoping can still hold the same stuff (in separate cupboards).
New cabinet next to landing
The second change is a bit more significant. The original plan (as shown above) has a den at the top, the half bathroom in the middle, and an office with closet at the bottom. In the drawing they look decent-sized, but when I marked the future walls on the floor and Sarah and I walked around it, the rooms all seemed small. We decided that with an open plan we’d still have the same functional spaces (sitting area and desks for work) but each space would feel bigger by not being closed off.
Revised plan
The disadvantage to doing it this way is we lose the closet and the ability to close off the office. We’d considered using the office as a bedroom while we work on the second floor, but it wasn’t big enough for a queen bed and we didn’t want to leave either of the kids on the first floor by themselves. It also puts the window at the bottom very close to the corner, which is more an aesthetic issue, but we may compensate for that with shelving on the other side. If I get really ambitious, I may add a built-in desk and shelf, which would also help make up for the lost closet.
The powder room changes shape and moves but is roughly the same size and is still on the wet wall, so there’s no significant difference in plumbing. We may also need to figure out a new plan for how our radiant lines will be run, because we’d planned to put a panel at the back of the closet to reach the manifold.
Overall we like this plan better. It’s not a very big space that we need a lot from, and making it more open and pushing the bathroom to the corner makes it more functional. I started putting up the walls so we can get rolling on plumbing and electrical, but I’ll get into that in a separate post.
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