Our house is a pre-1900 Victorian. At its inception, it was nothing more than 4 rooms. Over the years, many additions have been made, starting with the area that is now the kitchen, followed by the area that is now the family room, and most recently, the lower level of the home which includes 2 bedrooms, a playroom, a bathroom, and a garage. Although the house is now quite spacious, it is clear that different people created each addition in different points in time without much thought given to the connection to the other parts of the home. For example, the stairs to the lower level were added to the very back of the house, such that to get from a room in the front of the house to the room directly beneath it, one has to walk quite a ways (in fact, it would be faster to just go outside and enter through the garage door).
There are also several aspects to the floorplan that feel disjointed and inefficient. For example, the original living room is at the front of the house, as soon as you enter the front door. However, the more-recently-added family room is all the way at the back of the house, separated by the dining room and kitchen. The previous owners used the front room as a "formal living room" or sitting room. However, this room serves no purpose for us and has remained an unfurnished "staging area" the entire time we've lived here, giving all guests the appearance that we've just moved in.
Another example of wasted space is the master bedroom, which is just off of the living room and dining room. We do not use the master bedroom as our bedroom for several reasons: 1) I don't like the location of it being literally in the middle of the living space. 2) We prefer for our bedroom to be on the same level as Ruby's bedroom. 3) It has the only bathroom on the upstairs level, meaning that all guests would have to go through our bedroom to use the bathroom. 4) This is the closet:
No, it does not go in deeper on either side (it is flanked by the bathroom and a window). For these reasons, we use the master bedroom as a guest room and as the room that share care buddy Ian naps in.
One of the best aspects of our house is the backyard, which is right off of Ruby's playroom.
On the rare occasions that the fog lifts, we have enjoyed some nice barbeques on the patio. However, there is no direct way to access the backyard from the kitchen. And we clearly did not consider when we installed the white carpet that access to the backyard would need to be gained from the playroom. In fact, every 2 weeks when our gardeners come, they have to carry all of their lawnmowers, weedwackers, treesaws, trash can full of leaves, etc. through the playroom over the white carpet.
It was all of these issues that led us to the decision to remodel. Shortly after we moved in, I contacted an architect who had designed the home of Ruby's little boyfriend Julien. I was so impressed by the design of their home that I knew I had to work with their architect, John Lum. In addition to having exceptional taste, he is also a super nice guy. In one of our first meetings, he was out in our backyard in his socks, helping Steve put together Ruby's play structure. He took our needs and his own vision and created a design for our home that I could have never conceived of in a million years.
Here are the highlights:
-The current living room will become a playroom/guestroom. It will have sliding doors that meet at the corner, so when opened it will appear that the room is a part of the rest of the living space, and I will be able to see Ruby playing from the kitchen. When closed, it can function as a guestroom for visitors. There will be access to a closet and bathroom from both within the room and from the outer living space.
-The entire rest of the upper level will be opened up to make a cohesive living space. The kitchen will lead to a dining area and living area.
-A deck will be added to the upstairs, and stairs from the deck will lead directly to the backyard. This will greatly facilitate indoor/outdoor entertaining.
-The staircase will be moved from the back of the house to the center, opposite the dining area.
-Ruby's current downstairs playroom will be turned into a master suite. A bathroom and closet will be added to the area currently occupied by the staircase.
-Skylights will be added to the kitchen and stairwell to bring more light into the center of the house which is now quite dark.
These changes will address all of the issues we've had with this house. After the remodel we will have a fully-utilized living space upstairs, direct access to the backyard from the upper level, and 3 bedrooms on one level downstairs. We will also be able to customize all the fixtures and finishes to our taste.
While the end result promises to be amazing, the process is a bit more than we bargained for. In our minds we had envisioned going on a long vacation and returning to a brand new house, Extreme-Makeover-Home-Edition style. We had also thought that we could possibly live in one section of the house while the construction occurred in another section. We quickly realized after talking with our architect that these scenarios would not be feasible. For the scale of the remodel that we are looking at, the timeline is on the order of 6 months, and we were told that living in a construction site is akin to living in a war zone.
Coming to terms with the reality that we would have to move out of the house was probably the most difficult part of the process so far. Keep in mind that at the time we had this conversation with our architect, we had just moved into the house not a month before. Even though we now have only 3 days left before the move, I am still somewhat in a state of denial. I worry about how it will affect Ruby. Will she be homesick? Will she ask to go home? I worry about myself being homesick. This house in the past year has become very much a part of our identity as a family. We love the neighborhood, the many memories. I also worry that I will see the house after the demo and think, "What have I done?????"
At the same time, we are excited to explore our new neighborhood. We will be moving to the Diamond Heights Avalon Apartments. While the Diamond Heights neighborhood is probably one of the lowest trafficked areas of the city, it is fairly centrally located atop a hill between the Sunset and Noe Valley. The nearby neighborhoods of Glen Park, Bernal Heights, and Eureka Valley offer many great playgrounds and rec centers.
The apartment has only 2 bedrooms and is less than 1000 square feet, so fitting our 4-bedroom, 2000+ square feet house inside of it is a bit like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. The only room that will be unaffected by the remodel will be our office, so it will serve as a storage unit. We are hoping to fit one full bedroom set, one full dining room set, and all of our extraneous junk into there.
I plan to chronicle the progress of the remodel on this blog. I am hoping against hope that the process will not be as painful as others have warned. The adventure begins on Friday. Wish us luck!
