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I shared what I consider is the ultimate structure for our addition a few days in the past. When you missed that, you possibly can see it right here. Since we’ll have a giant, model new household room, and I’ll be turning the entrance lounge right into a eating room, some of the requested questions was, “Kristi, what is going to you do with the breakfast room?”
Our breakfast room used to truly be a breakfast room, with a desk and chairs and fairly chandelier and the conventional belongings you’d count on in a room referred to as a breakfast room.
After which Matt’s occupational therapist insisted that he wanted to spend extra time away from bed, out of the bed room, and extra time sitting up in an precise chair throughout the day. So Matt determined he needed a recliner. I had simply completed the lounge, music room, and bed room, so I had no concept the place I used to be going to place a recliner for him to take a seat in for lengthy durations of time every day. And that’s once I determined to show our breakfast room right into a sitting room.
He can spend as a lot time as he desires to each day enjoyable in his recliner, watching TV, taking part in video video games, or on his laptop computer. He’s additionally fairly comfy consuming in his recliner (as am I), so we didn’t actually lose the perform of consuming on this room, however we did lose any risk of this room being helpful to anybody aside from the 2 of us throughout a meal.
The plan has been to show this room again into a daily breakfast room, with an precise desk and chairs, as quickly as our addition is constructed. I really feel sure that Matt will likely be spending his time within the new household room as an alternative of on this sitting room as soon as the addition is completed. And he’ll in all probability proceed to eat his lunch every day whereas sitting in a comfortable chair, which will likely be within the new household room. So I don’t see that we’ll want this room as a sitting room anymore.
However do we’d like it as a breakfast room? Not likely. If Matt is extra comfy consuming his lunch in a comfortable chair within the household room, I’m not going to take a seat within the breakfast room and eat on my own. I’m going to affix him within the household room. We might eat at a desk if others are becoming a member of us, however we’ll have the eating room for that. In order that just about leaves the breakfast room/sitting room with no function as soon as the addition is constructed.
So what is going to we do with it? I truthfully do not know. However I can inform you what I’d do with it in a dream world the place I’ve a limitless price range. I’d double the scale of my kitchen.
Again in 2014 once I transformed our kitchen the primary time, I needed to keep inside the footprint of the unique kitchen to maintain value as little as potential. There was no manner we might have afforded to develop the kitchen on the time. I needed to do every little thing I might consider to redo that kitchen as inexpensively as potential, together with utilizing the cheap inventory unfinished utility cupboards from House Depot.
I dressed them up by including ornamental ft, plenty of trim, a header that went all the way in which to the ceiling, and crown molding. However I did a whole down-to-the-studs kitchen transform for $10,000, and that included model new home equipment!
I bear in mind on the time that I had readers who inspired me to develop the scale of the kitchen and incorporate the world that’s now the breakfast room into the kitchen, however there was merely no manner we might have afforded that on the time. It wasn’t only a matter of getting to purchase extra stuff to suit a bigger kitchen, however there have been different elements.
The breakfast room wasn’t a part of the unique inside of the home. It was an exterior breezeway that linked the home (which ended the place the kitchen peninsula at present sits) to the storage. Sooner or later, a earlier proprietor enclosed it and made it an inside room.
However that complete part, from the entrance wall of the breakfast room to the again wall of the walk-in pantry, sits on a concrete slab basis, whereas the principle a part of the home is a pier and beam basis. And should you’re aware of several types of foundations, you already know that pier and beam foundations are dearer to construct up entrance, however they’re fairly simple and comparatively cheap to make modifications to, corresponding to working plumbing to a brand new space of the home, simply so long as there’s crawl area entry.
Slab foundations are cheaper to construct up entrance, however they’re an actual headache and rather more costly to make modifications to later. With the intention to run new plumbing strains or restore issues in plumbing strains in a slab basis, you need to jackhammer up the concrete, run the strains (or repair the strains), after which pour new concrete. That may value 1000’s of {dollars}.
And suffice it to say that we didn’t have 1000’s of {dollars} to spend on that sort of factor after we purchased this home. I desperately wanted a brand new kitchen as a result of the unique structure was so inefficient that easy duties like making a sandwich within the authentic kitchen felt like absolute drudgery. Right here’s a fast “then and now” 360-degree view of the kitchen in case you’ve forgotten the place this room began out.
The unique structure made no sense to me in any way. So I did the very best with what I needed to work with whereas staying inside the price range we had on the time, and staying inside the authentic footprint of the kitchen. Because of that pier and beam basis, I used to be capable of have the water and gasoline strains moved at a really cheap worth in order that I might organize issues in a manner that made extra sense to me. And I feel total, I did a fairly good job working with what I had out there, all issues thought of!
And whereas the kitchen feels a lot greater now with the cased opening between the kitchen and the entrance lounge, and the aspect wall of the kitchen opened as much as the breakfast room, the room continues to be the identical small measurement it’s at all times been, at about 9’10” x 14’8″. Once I’m on my own within the kitchen, the scale feels simply tremendous. However final evening after we had a home full of individuals, I attempted to concentrate to how every little thing actually functioned, and my little kitchen begins to really feel fairly cramped actually shortly with the addition of just some folks.
So in my dream world, I’d double the scale of my kitchen, develop it into the breakfast room, and have a great deal of room for a giant island the place folks might collect, discuss, fill their plates, and even sit on the counter, with out the room feeling tiny and cramped. I’d love nothing greater than to have the sink proper in entrance of the home windows, and every little thing else located round that space.
I’ve completely no concept how I’d organize the remainder of the world. Sadly, the 2 rooms don’t go collectively completely. The entrance wall of the kitchen and the entrance wall of the breakfast room don’t type a straight wall by that entire area. There’s an ungainly little jog within the wall that works simply tremendous as it’s now with the peninsula in that area.
But when the peninsula is now not there, that distinction will likely be rather more noticeable. After which there’s the problem of the cased opening separating the 2 rooms.
That works simply tremendous with the present structure since these are two distinct rooms. But when it’s all one massive room, that cased opening within the center must go. And that implies that some fairly vital (and costly!) structural work must be completed.
I do not know if that is one thing that can simply keep a dream in my head, or if I’ll truly get to develop my kitchen in the future. If I do truly get to do it, this isn’t one thing I’d do with out professional assist. Clearly, I wouldn’t do the structural work myself, however that’s probably not what I’m speaking about. I’d truly work with a kitchen designer who might assist me get absolutely the most out of a brand new kitchen. So long as I get the sink in entrance of the home windows, I’d be joyful.
Maybe that is all only a dream, and it’ll by no means occur. But when I might do no matter I needed with this area after our addition is constructed, that is precisely what I’d do. However for now, I would simply must settle with turning that room again right into a breakfast room with a desk and chairs.
Addicted 2 Adorning is the place I share my DIY and adorning journey as I transform and beautify the 1948 fixer higher that my husband, Matt, and I purchased in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do bodily work, so I do nearly all of the work on the home on my own. You may be taught extra about me right here.
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