House of Glass

Time for an update on the master suite. As a refresher, we landed on a design that re-figured the top floor to make it more of a suite.  While it keeps a second small bedroom, the third floor will be built around the master bedroom, including expanding the master bed and building out a closet and bathroom. So where there used to be a bathroom and hallway, there will now be a large walk-through closet, with a study or nursery and master bath in the rear of the house. See below: 

The plan calls for walling off the currently open stairwell/hallway so that you come up the stairs and through a doorway into the suite. We are super excited about the design, but in thinking more about it we didn't like the idea of losing the sightline into the stairwell and losing the light that filters from the central skylight.

While preparing our interior elevations, Hill & Hurtt proposed an awesome solution to this dilemma - a glass wall. The bottom half would be an actual wall to keep the third floor visually separate from people coming up the stairs (it will be our closet, we need to have some privacy) but the top half of the wall will be glass.

I really like the idea because, while we are closing the space off, it will stay true to the original design of the house by creating a feeling of openness to the central stairwell without the danger factor (the railings are not to code by about 8 inches and it is a long way down).

What do you guys think? Do you love it or hate it? We are still exploring what the ultimate wall will look like (and if we can afford it - fingers crossed!!!) but I've included some images we have found from Pinterest below. Enjoy!

How Suite It Is

Last week we solicited your opinion on what to do with our third floor - suite or study? No need to tally the responses - not a single person was on team study; everyone was on team #treatyoself.

We sincerely appreciated the input -- it was especially helpful hearing from parents (thanks Emily and Abby!) who all seemed gung-ho about placing children about as far away from the master bedroom as one can get away with short of violating child endangerment laws (how early is too early to start free-ranging your kids??). 

Having heard your opinions, we sat down last week and thought through the options and considered whether there were any good compromises. We think we came up with a solution that splits the baby, as they say. Take a look at this: 

In the spirit of making a master suite, we are taking over the entire hallway between the two rooms and making it into a closet. You'll come up the stairs and immediately be in the Master suite - all of it will be our space. The vestibule area will be a walk in closet, but think wardrobes or built-in's - you won't be walking straight into clothing. This should hopefully fix the lack of closet space that was a problem with the more conservative option design we showed you last week.

Importantly, this design also lets us get a full bathroom AND still allow for a small room where we can store a baby or desk (or expand to a comically large closet space at a later date). There may be a tweak or two left, but this is essentially the final design. We are pretty excited about it, but what do you think? 

- J&K 

Master Suite or Study? We need your advice!

Hello hello, after a little break we are back. What can we say, summer arrived and Shaw is too much fun - who wants to be inside blogging when there are so many places where you can get a drink outside (shout out to our neighbors at Dacha)? The temptation has been too strong. Also, let's be real, not a ton has happened on the house front since we last checked in. 

Well, there have been some developments. For example - our contractor backed out of the project!! While it was disappointing, ultimately, we are in the early stages of the renovation process, so all is not lost. We are now going to work with our architects to bid the project out and see what happens. 

Speaking of architects, we are close to finalizing a concept design!! We will reveal all later on, but for now, we are soliciting opinions on what to do with the third floor. We have four bedrooms in the house, two on the second floor and two on the third floor and we're planning to have our master bedroom on the third floor. For the past month we have been convinced that we wanted to take a more conservative approach to the third floor by taking over only some of the second bedroom as a bathroom while maintaining a large-ish bedroom, but over the last week we've started to ask ourselves if we should make the third floor a full on master suite. 

For your consideration:

The Conservative Option

As you can see, this design leaves a fairly large second bedroom on the third floor (the "study"). It puts a closet where the bathroom is currently and moves the bathroom down to take up some of what is currently the second bedroom, while maintaining a good sized study (or, by some stroke of misfortune, nursery (jk jk)). 

Pros: 

• Maintains a second bedroom, which means our house stays a 4 bedroom home.
• Gives us a place to put a baby should one make it's way into our home.
• Gives us a place to have a study if we end up with both bedrooms on the second floor occupied (either by children or due to future issues with hoarding).

Cons

• The bathroom will be small and future buyers may expect more from a master bathroom (those jerks).
• The toilet does not have it's own water closet, which is something a few friends, family, and other assorted germaphobes have mentioned is a must. 
• The closet is small. 
• There are a lot of doors.  Like, a lot. 

The Luxurious Options

These designs would mean that the entire third floor would be our little oasis.

Pros:

• Master suites are pretty... sweet (get it?).
• It would feel luxurious and give us lots of closet space.

Cons:

• Having a master suite would mean that we would be making our 4 bedroom home into a 3 bedroom home, which could affect its resale value. (On the other hand, what buyer can resist a master suite?).
• If a child made its way into our home, it might have to sleep below us on the second floor when it is very young.  It is our understanding that young children are fragile and need supervision. 
• If the second floor bedrooms end up occupied by kids or mementos we cannot bear to let go (see above re: hoarding), we may be left without a place to put a desk or have an office.

Simply put, the future is a big mysterious thing - it's hard to anticipate what it may hold.  Trying to finalize a design that captures the myriad of possibilities is difficult.

We need a little bit more time to assess these designs and see what else we can come up with. In the meantime, what are your thoughts? Master suite or study? Can we live without a luxurious closet? Are we hurting resale value by getting rid of a bedroom? Is there some middle ground? 

Check back next week and we'll let you know where we end up! - J&K

Architect Update

Big news for all the rowhouserevival heads out there - we have design concepts from our architects!  We met with Eric from Hill & Hurtt on Saturday and walked through a number of different concepts for each floor of the house as well as the backyard.  As you can see from the picture above, lot's of choices left to be made but we could not be more excited to decide on a plan! Right now we are thinking through all the options that H&H have shown us and then will go back to them with our thoughts. They will then put together another version of the design based on our input - the end result will likely be a composite of the designs you see above.

In terms of design, we are facing two big questions. First, we are considering extending the house about 10 feet, which all of our neighbors have done. This would mean a longer permitting process and require a bigger construction budget.

Second, the bigger question we're still facing is whether to remove the stairs to the basement and make the basement a stand alone unit.  On the one hand, it would likely allow us to squeeze in a powder room on the first floor and create a wholly separate rental unit downstairs.  On the other hand, it would involve some additional work and expense (you have to separate out all utilities, include fire separation, and maybe install sprinklers), expose us even more to the whims of the permitting process, and keep that space out of reach if we wanted to reclaim it in the future.  We have been going around and around on what's best - do we think we want a playroom in the future, or do we think it's best put to use to help pay our mortgage? Input welcome!

- J & K

We Have Architects!

Once we purchased our house the magnitude of the renovation quickly became clear. This is no DIY project -- we needed professional help.

In addition to getting help to think through the design and layout of the home, we want to make sure we are true to the history of the house. While we like modern design, this house calls for a marriage between traditional and contemporary (putting a glass staircase in the center of this house would be a travesty). We aren't planning on entirely stripping out the interior, but we need help thinking through how to make the space feel more modern, while also acknowledging its Victorian-ness.

With that in mind, we talked to a few architects and ultimately hired Hill & Hurtt, a young, local firm that focuses on renovating rowhomes. We met with Eric and Josh for a few hours in February to discuss the project and immediately felt like they understood our vision and priorities. 

Hill & Hurtt provide an array of architectural services that help drive renovations from concept through permitting and then beyond permitting by helping with interior finishing choices and project management. For now we have engaged them to help us through the permitting stage and we could not be more excited to work with them. 

Last week, we kicked off the design process when Eric and Josh came over to measure the house from top to bottom. They spent about 4 hours at the house - Josh with a measuring tape and Eric sketching the house and capturing all the information with a red pen.

While we wanted to leave them to their work, it was hard not to listen to them discuss the house and its quirks. Needless to say, even this initial step has us excited. It was so cool to see our house's floor plan captured on paper and to have some of our questions answered, like, how tall are our ceilings? (11.5 feet!)

In a few weeks, Hill & Hurtt will come back to us with concept drawings for each floor that show options for how we could re-design the home. Check back here for updates ;P - J & K