The Renovate Otis's New House Thread (1 Viewer)

[glock]

Had the inspection today, all went well. You guys were totally right about the wall through to the living room, looks like the opening would be a lot smaller than I'd thought. I'll need to open up the landing to the basement too, to get that wall space into the living room. The complication is that landing is about 2 steps down, so it will make things a little tricky. Someone smart and creative enough surely can devise a solution.

Excited to get the place closed and get in there in September and see what we can do.

Did you get a measurement on that corner walls in the breakfast area? What i proposed does not matter where the landing is, you will cut off that corner and build a floor in that corner. The corner is kind of wasted space on the stairway anyways.

Sometimes that extra space in the stairway is needed for bringing boxes and furniture up stairs.. I've seen many stairways that were very comfortable to walk, but were impassable with large furniture..

On a stair turn, sometimes you will need to set something down and reposition to navigate the next set of stairs.

A very creative idea Jon, and it may work. Otis, just make sure you leave yourself enough room for furniture.

The good news here is we have a separate door to the basement, and I expect would load large objects that way.

And how would those large objects get past the first floor on their way to the second?

He has a separate entrance on the third floor, too.

 

[glock]

Had the inspection today, all went well. You guys were totally right about the wall through to the living room, looks like the opening would be a lot smaller than I'd thought. I'll need to open up the landing to the basement too, to get that wall space into the living room. The complication is that landing is about 2 steps down, so it will make things a little tricky. Someone smart and creative enough surely can devise a solution.

Excited to get the place closed and get in there in September and see what we can do.

Did you get a measurement on that corner walls in the breakfast area? What i proposed does not matter where the landing is, you will cut off that corner and build a floor in that corner. The corner is kind of wasted space on the stairway anyways.

Sometimes that extra space in the stairway is needed for bringing boxes and furniture up stairs.. I've seen many stairways that were very comfortable to walk, but were impassable with large furniture..

On a stair turn, sometimes you will need to set something down and reposition to navigate the next set of stairs.

A very creative idea Jon, and it may work. Otis, just make sure you leave yourself enough room for furniture.

The good news here is we have a separate door to the basement, and I expect would load large objects that way.

And how would those large objects get past the first floor on their way to the second?

He has a separate entrance on the third floor, too.

And if not, he'll just blow one out.

Rooftop helipad.

 

[jon_mx]

Had the inspection today, all went well. You guys were totally right about the wall through to the living room, looks like the opening would be a lot smaller than I'd thought. I'll need to open up the landing to the basement too, to get that wall space into the living room. The complication is that landing is about 2 steps down, so it will make things a little tricky. Someone smart and creative enough surely can devise a solution.

Excited to get the place closed and get in there in September and see what we can do.

Did you get a measurement on that corner walls in the breakfast area? What i proposed does not matter where the landing is, you will cut off that corner and build a floor in that corner. The corner is kind of wasted space on the stairway anyways.

Sometimes that extra space in the stairway is needed for bringing boxes and furniture up stairs.. I've seen many stairways that were very comfortable to walk, but were impassable with large furniture..

On a stair turn, sometimes you will need to set something down and reposition to navigate the next set of stairs.

A very creative idea Jon, and it may work. Otis, just make sure you leave yourself enough room for furniture.

The good news here is we have a separate door to the basement, and I expect would load large objects that way.

And how would those large objects get past the first floor on their way to the second?

Unless you had some very large sofa going up the stairs, I don't see a problem. Of course with a 30' x 18' bedroom, maybe he would. Dressers, beds and mattresses could be manuvered up with little problem.

 

[Sarnoff]

Had the inspection today, all went well. You guys were totally right about the wall through to the living room, looks like the opening would be a lot smaller than I'd thought. I'll need to open up the landing to the basement too, to get that wall space into the living room. The complication is that landing is about 2 steps down, so it will make things a little tricky. Someone smart and creative enough surely can devise a solution.

Excited to get the place closed and get in there in September and see what we can do.

Did you get a measurement on that corner walls in the breakfast area? What i proposed does not matter where the landing is, you will cut off that corner and build a floor in that corner. The corner is kind of wasted space on the stairway anyways.

Sometimes that extra space in the stairway is needed for bringing boxes and furniture up stairs.. I've seen many stairways that were very comfortable to walk, but were impassable with large furniture..

On a stair turn, sometimes you will need to set something down and reposition to navigate the next set of stairs.

A very creative idea Jon, and it may work. Otis, just make sure you leave yourself enough room for furniture.

The good news here is we have a separate door to the basement, and I expect would load large objects that way.

And how would those large objects get past the first floor on their way to the second?

He has a separate entrance on the third floor, too.

And if not, he'll just blow one out.

(blows out)

 

[Otis]

Just to give you an idea of what I was talking about.....

Old and New Plan

That was accomplished without moving the stairs, just chopping off corner of the stairway landing. This change should probably flow down to the basement for support. I assumed that corner as measured in the kitchen is 2' x 2', which is probably pretty close if that is drawn close to scale.

Wow this is clutch. Thanks man. I see what you're saying now.

I was also wondering if we could blow open the walls around the top of the stairs and put a railing. That would leave a more open feel even if it's not space you can walk through, and opens up to the playroom in the basement below. Any reason I would want to keep a finished basement separate with walls and a door?

Stair walls are usually load bearing walls. Itr can be done, but will require a little more work if it's carrying load. You''ll have to transfer load..

I'm OK with putting, e.g., a post or beam, whatever it takes really, if that allows us to open up the space a bunch.

The alternative I suppose would be to just live with it for now and, when we decide to pursue bumping out the back of the house and gutting the kitchen, just resolving it all then.

You'll probably have a better idea what you really want after living there for a year and seeing how the family actually operates in the existing space. You may realize that you want the basement closed off because of sound, dampness, etc. Or the amount of work necessary to open a 3' pathway would ruin the nature of floor plan. Or etc. etc.

This.

We have been planning our high ranch kitchen makeover for years now (side tracked by doing the backyard) and everyone suggests we open it up to the living room and dining room. As it stands now I created a double doorway width entry from the kitchen into the dining room. The dining room in turn is mostly open to the living room to the right. No sight lines from the kitchen to the living room. There is an entrance to the kitchen via the entry hall/living room We honestly have no desire to remove the wall between the kitchen and the living room. Would it be an awesome space? Sure. But knowing what we know about our large gathering of family or friends, one crowd usually ends up in the kitchen discussing (rather loudly) one topic de jour while in the living room the "discussion" is completely different. Or football.

An open concept would create absolute havoc.

This living room also functions as our family room. As the boys were growing up it was always just 3 short steps to a clear sight line...

This is a fair point. I suppose there is value to separation of spaces (as it stands, in our current house, our 3 month old naps in her swing in the dining room, a couple rooms away --- in a totally open concept, that might be a bunch tougher).

I think what I'm going to do is have a contractor walk through with me and talk about ideas for opening up the space a little, to open the flow and make more light, but still retain separate rooms.

For example, the first floor has high ceilings (I believe around 9.5 feet), but the doorways come down to normal door way size. In some of those instances -- like the flow from the center hall into the kitchen in the back, I don't see the purpose of having that piece of wall come down from the ceiling to normal door height. It breaks up spaces a little too much, and without good reason. I am wondering about removing a couple of those. Similar issue with a couple of doorways, from the center hall into the living room to the right, and the dining room to the left -- and the doorways into those rooms could be widened a bunch. I'd like to ask about doing that.

I'd basically like to retain the traditional center hall colonial layout, but "modernize" it some, to open the space, make interaction between rooms easier, and to allow light to flow more throughout the house.

Really I'm just psyched to get in and start investigating these things. It's gonna be a long 90 days....

 

[Otis]

Had the inspection today, all went well. You guys were totally right about the wall through to the living room, looks like the opening would be a lot smaller than I'd thought. I'll need to open up the landing to the basement too, to get that wall space into the living room. The complication is that landing is about 2 steps down, so it will make things a little tricky. Someone smart and creative enough surely can devise a solution.

Excited to get the place closed and get in there in September and see what we can do.

Did you get a measurement on that corner walls in the breakfast area? What i proposed does not matter where the landing is, you will cut off that corner and build a floor in that corner. The corner is kind of wasted space on the stairway anyways.

Sometimes that extra space in the stairway is needed for bringing boxes and furniture up stairs.. I've seen many stairways that were very comfortable to walk, but were impassable with large furniture..

On a stair turn, sometimes you will need to set something down and reposition to navigate the next set of stairs.

A very creative idea Jon, and it may work. Otis, just make sure you leave yourself enough room for furniture.

The good news here is we have a separate door to the basement, and I expect would load large objects that way.

And how would those large objects get past the first floor on their way to the second?

Unless you had some very large sofa going up the stairs, I don't see a problem. Of course with a 30' x 18' bedroom, maybe he would. Dressers, beds and mattresses could be manuvered up with little problem.

This work doesn't impact the 2nd or 3rd floors at all. And in any event, very spacious stairway going up there, not an issue.

 

[Village Idiot]

My dream would be to find a house with historical significance that has fallen into disrepair and restore it completely true to period on the outside and main common areas, but have all the modern conveniences in the kitchen and baths, walk-in closets, etc. The ultimate home with character that no new house could ever come close to matching.

And still retain any of the cool historic stuff inside if possible.

For example if it had an awesome imported Europen fireplace or built ins in a dining room etc.

Your thoughts on dumb waiters?

As much fun as old laundry shoots, especially if you have kids.

 

[El Floppo]

Just to give you an idea of what I was talking about.....

Old and New Plan

That was accomplished without moving the stairs, just chopping off corner of the stairway landing. This change should probably flow down to the basement for support. I assumed that corner as measured in the kitchen is 2' x 2', which is probably pretty close if that is drawn close to scale.

Wow this is clutch. Thanks man. I see what you're saying now.

I was also wondering if we could blow open the walls around the top of the stairs and put a railing. That would leave a more open feel even if it's not space you can walk through, and opens up to the playroom in the basement below. Any reason I would want to keep a finished basement separate with walls and a door?

Stair walls are usually load bearing walls. Itr can be done, but will require a little more work if it's carrying load. You''ll have to transfer load..

I'm OK with putting, e.g., a post or beam, whatever it takes really, if that allows us to open up the space a bunch.

The alternative I suppose would be to just live with it for now and, when we decide to pursue bumping out the back of the house and gutting the kitchen, just resolving it all then.

You'll probably have a better idea what you really want after living there for a year and seeing how the family actually operates in the existing space. You may realize that you want the basement closed off because of sound, dampness, etc. Or the amount of work necessary to open a 3' pathway would ruin the nature of floor plan. Or etc. etc.

This.

We have been planning our high ranch kitchen makeover for years now (side tracked by doing the backyard) and everyone suggests we open it up to the living room and dining room. As it stands now I created a double doorway width entry from the kitchen into the dining room. The dining room in turn is mostly open to the living room to the right. No sight lines from the kitchen to the living room. There is an entrance to the kitchen via the entry hall/living room We honestly have no desire to remove the wall between the kitchen and the living room. Would it be an awesome space? Sure. But knowing what we know about our large gathering of family or friends, one crowd usually ends up in the kitchen discussing (rather loudly) one topic de jour while in the living room the "discussion" is completely different. Or football.

An open concept would create absolute havoc.

This living room also functions as our family room. As the boys were growing up it was always just 3 short steps to a clear sight line...

This is a fair point. I suppose there is value to separation of spaces (as it stands, in our current house, our 3 month old naps in her swing in the dining room, a couple rooms away --- in a totally open concept, that might be a bunch tougher).

I think what I'm going to do is have a contractor walk through with me and talk about ideas for opening up the space a little, to open the flow and make more light, but still retain separate rooms.

For example, the first floor has high ceilings (I believe around 9.5 feet), but the doorways come down to normal door way size. In some of those instances -- like the flow from the center hall into the kitchen in the back, I don't see the purpose of having that piece of wall come down from the ceiling to normal door height. It breaks up spaces a little too much, and without good reason. I am wondering about removing a couple of those. Similar issue with a couple of doorways, from the center hall into the living room to the right, and the dining room to the left -- and the doorways into those rooms could be widened a bunch. I'd like to ask about doing that.

I'd basically like to retain the traditional center hall colonial layout, but "modernize" it some, to open the space, make interaction between rooms easier, and to allow light to flow more throughout the house.

Really I'm just psyched to get in and start investigating these things. It's gonna be a long 90 days....

Not saying a good contractor won't have good ideas... but this is exactly what architects do.

 

[Otis]

Just to give you an idea of what I was talking about.....

Old and New Plan

That was accomplished without moving the stairs, just chopping off corner of the stairway landing. This change should probably flow down to the basement for support. I assumed that corner as measured in the kitchen is 2' x 2', which is probably pretty close if that is drawn close to scale.

Wow this is clutch. Thanks man. I see what you're saying now.

I was also wondering if we could blow open the walls around the top of the stairs and put a railing. That would leave a more open feel even if it's not space you can walk through, and opens up to the playroom in the basement below. Any reason I would want to keep a finished basement separate with walls and a door?

Stair walls are usually load bearing walls. Itr can be done, but will require a little more work if it's carrying load. You''ll have to transfer load..

I'm OK with putting, e.g., a post or beam, whatever it takes really, if that allows us to open up the space a bunch.

The alternative I suppose would be to just live with it for now and, when we decide to pursue bumping out the back of the house and gutting the kitchen, just resolving it all then.

You'll probably have a better idea what you really want after living there for a year and seeing how the family actually operates in the existing space. You may realize that you want the basement closed off because of sound, dampness, etc. Or the amount of work necessary to open a 3' pathway would ruin the nature of floor plan. Or etc. etc.

This.

We have been planning our high ranch kitchen makeover for years now (side tracked by doing the backyard) and everyone suggests we open it up to the living room and dining room. As it stands now I created a double doorway width entry from the kitchen into the dining room. The dining room in turn is mostly open to the living room to the right. No sight lines from the kitchen to the living room. There is an entrance to the kitchen via the entry hall/living room We honestly have no desire to remove the wall between the kitchen and the living room. Would it be an awesome space? Sure. But knowing what we know about our large gathering of family or friends, one crowd usually ends up in the kitchen discussing (rather loudly) one topic de jour while in the living room the "discussion" is completely different. Or football.

An open concept would create absolute havoc.

This living room also functions as our family room. As the boys were growing up it was always just 3 short steps to a clear sight line...

This is a fair point. I suppose there is value to separation of spaces (as it stands, in our current house, our 3 month old naps in her swing in the dining room, a couple rooms away --- in a totally open concept, that might be a bunch tougher).

I think what I'm going to do is have a contractor walk through with me and talk about ideas for opening up the space a little, to open the flow and make more light, but still retain separate rooms.

For example, the first floor has high ceilings (I believe around 9.5 feet), but the doorways come down to normal door way size. In some of those instances -- like the flow from the center hall into the kitchen in the back, I don't see the purpose of having that piece of wall come down from the ceiling to normal door height. It breaks up spaces a little too much, and without good reason. I am wondering about removing a couple of those. Similar issue with a couple of doorways, from the center hall into the living room to the right, and the dining room to the left -- and the doorways into those rooms could be widened a bunch. I'd like to ask about doing that.

I'd basically like to retain the traditional center hall colonial layout, but "modernize" it some, to open the space, make interaction between rooms easier, and to allow light to flow more throughout the house.

Really I'm just psyched to get in and start investigating these things. It's gonna be a long 90 days....

Not saying a good contractor won't have good ideas... but this is exactly what architects do.

Will that cost me :boatloads:?

I thought architects designed like steeples and gargoyles and other outside stuff?

 

[El Floppo]

Just to give you an idea of what I was talking about.....

Old and New Plan

That was accomplished without moving the stairs, just chopping off corner of the stairway landing. This change should probably flow down to the basement for support. I assumed that corner as measured in the kitchen is 2' x 2', which is probably pretty close if that is drawn close to scale.

Wow this is clutch. Thanks man. I see what you're saying now.

I was also wondering if we could blow open the walls around the top of the stairs and put a railing. That would leave a more open feel even if it's not space you can walk through, and opens up to the playroom in the basement below. Any reason I would want to keep a finished basement separate with walls and a door?

Stair walls are usually load bearing walls. Itr can be done, but will require a little more work if it's carrying load. You''ll have to transfer load..

I'm OK with putting, e.g., a post or beam, whatever it takes really, if that allows us to open up the space a bunch.

The alternative I suppose would be to just live with it for now and, when we decide to pursue bumping out the back of the house and gutting the kitchen, just resolving it all then.

You'll probably have a better idea what you really want after living there for a year and seeing how the family actually operates in the existing space. You may realize that you want the basement closed off because of sound, dampness, etc. Or the amount of work necessary to open a 3' pathway would ruin the nature of floor plan. Or etc. etc.

This.

We have been planning our high ranch kitchen makeover for years now (side tracked by doing the backyard) and everyone suggests we open it up to the living room and dining room. As it stands now I created a double doorway width entry from the kitchen into the dining room. The dining room in turn is mostly open to the living room to the right. No sight lines from the kitchen to the living room. There is an entrance to the kitchen via the entry hall/living room We honestly have no desire to remove the wall between the kitchen and the living room. Would it be an awesome space? Sure. But knowing what we know about our large gathering of family or friends, one crowd usually ends up in the kitchen discussing (rather loudly) one topic de jour while in the living room the "discussion" is completely different. Or football.

An open concept would create absolute havoc.

This living room also functions as our family room. As the boys were growing up it was always just 3 short steps to a clear sight line...

This is a fair point. I suppose there is value to separation of spaces (as it stands, in our current house, our 3 month old naps in her swing in the dining room, a couple rooms away --- in a totally open concept, that might be a bunch tougher).

I think what I'm going to do is have a contractor walk through with me and talk about ideas for opening up the space a little, to open the flow and make more light, but still retain separate rooms.

For example, the first floor has high ceilings (I believe around 9.5 feet), but the doorways come down to normal door way size. In some of those instances -- like the flow from the center hall into the kitchen in the back, I don't see the purpose of having that piece of wall come down from the ceiling to normal door height. It breaks up spaces a little too much, and without good reason. I am wondering about removing a couple of those. Similar issue with a couple of doorways, from the center hall into the living room to the right, and the dining room to the left -- and the doorways into those rooms could be widened a bunch. I'd like to ask about doing that.

I'd basically like to retain the traditional center hall colonial layout, but "modernize" it some, to open the space, make interaction between rooms easier, and to allow light to flow more throughout the house.

Really I'm just psyched to get in and start investigating these things. It's gonna be a long 90 days....

Not saying a good contractor won't have good ideas... but this is exactly what architects do.

Will that cost me :boatloads:?

I thought architects designed like steeples and gargoyles and other outside stuff?

Space, light, materiality, massing, flow and use of spaces... basically sums up what we do. Gargoyles are the cherry on top.

 

[El Floppo]

shouldn't cost you much- a few hours max (not lawyer fees). see if your contractor works with somebody.

 

[gianmarco]

shouldn't cost you much- a few hours max (not lawyer fees). see if your contractor works with somebody.

Yeah, $5k should cover it pretty easily.

 

[El Floppo]

shouldn't cost you much- a few hours max (not lawyer fees). see if your contractor works with somebody.

Yeah, $5k should cover it pretty easily.

Seems really steep for what I was thinking... architect associate/friend of contractor walks through with contractor and Otis, sketches out a couple of ideas for O, contractor builds. Architect spends just a few hours at architect rate/hour ($100-200/hr). But that's for non-permitting, nothing-fancy, raise/lower/etc doorways and eyeballing opening up that corner of the Kitchen to Living Room (from the plan, it still looks really awkward to me, but might work better in person).

 

[Carolina Hustler]

If you have 36" or less between the rails, I wouldn't take anything out of the stairway

What means this part?

36 inches of clearance between the rails

 

[Carolina Hustler]

Had the inspection today, all went well. You guys were totally right about the wall through to the living room, looks like the opening would be a lot smaller than I'd thought. I'll need to open up the landing to the basement too, to get that wall space into the living room. The complication is that landing is about 2 steps down, so it will make things a little tricky. Someone smart and creative enough surely can devise a solution.

Excited to get the place closed and get in there in September and see what we can do.

Did you get a measurement on that corner walls in the breakfast area? What i proposed does not matter where the landing is, you will cut off that corner and build a floor in that corner. The corner is kind of wasted space on the stairway anyways.

Sometimes that extra space in the stairway is needed for bringing boxes and furniture up stairs.. I've seen many stairways that were very comfortable to walk, but were impassable with large furniture..

On a stair turn, sometimes you will need to set something down and reposition to navigate the next set of stairs.

A very creative idea Jon, and it may work. Otis, just make sure you leave yourself enough room for furniture.

The good news here is we have a separate door to the basement, and I expect would load large objects that way.

And how would those large objects get past the first floor on their way to the second?

Unless you had some very large sofa going up the stairs, I don't see a problem. Of course with a 30' x 18' bedroom, maybe he would. Dressers, beds and mattresses could be manuvered up with little problem.

Dressers and mattresses are the things you usually have problems with navigating a stairway with turns. I do renovation work for a living, and I'm usually the guy who hears the complaints before the work, and/or sees the issues as people move back into their homes after we are complete. I've had to remove window units and lift furniture in second story windows before. Usually we are just following the architects and/or designers plans/specs, and sometimes they make mistakes, I've experienced this particular issue and have corrected designs before the project starts on more than 1 occasion.

Even in 48" stairs wells with a full square landing before at the turn, people have trouble maneuvering furniture up the stairs, especially if there is a wall on both-sides rather than open rail.

 

[Grace Under Pressure]

Congrats on the closing. Which town/towns are you in/near? Not trying to iStalk, but we're new to LI, looking to move to Nassau County and am curious where those "in the know" settle down.

 

[Otis]

Congrats on the closing. Which town/towns are you in/near? Not trying to iStalk, but we're new to LI, looking to move to Nassau County and am curious where those "in the know" settle down.

Moving to Garden City. Lived on the north shore for a few years, got tired of the hills and long drive up there and other inconveniences. GC and Manhasset are the best school districts around, great towns for families, can't go wrong. There are some more affordable towns a little further west that are great too -- East Williston, Floral Park, Stewart Manor, among others.

Shoot me a PM with any questions, I'll do what I can to point you in the right direction. I grew up in western Nassau County (on the Queens border) and know it relatively well.

 

[Grace Under Pressure]

Congrats on the closing. Which town/towns are you in/near? Not trying to iStalk, but we're new to LI, looking to move to Nassau County and am curious where those "in the know" settle down.

Moving to Garden City. Lived on the north shore for a few years, got tired of the hills and long drive up there and other inconveniences. GC and Manhasset are the best school districts around, great towns for families, can't go wrong. There are some more affordable towns a little further west that are great too -- East Williston, Floral Park, Stewart Manor, among others.

Shoot me a PM with any questions, I'll do what I can to point you in the right direction. I grew up in western Nassau County (on the Queens border) and know it relatively well.

Great info here. Had a feeling it might be GC. I'm on the north shore in Suffolk, in Setauket. Nice, but far! Gonna hit Trulia now.

 

[glock]

Congrats on the closing. Which town/towns are you in/near? Not trying to iStalk, but we're new to LI, looking to move to Nassau County and am curious where those "in the know" settle down.

Moving to Garden City. Lived on the north shore for a few years, got tired of the hills and long drive up there and other inconveniences. GC and Manhasset are the best school districts around, great towns for families, can't go wrong. There are some more affordable towns a little further west that are great too -- East Williston, Floral Park, Stewart Manor, among others.

Shoot me a PM with any questions, I'll do what I can to point you in the right direction. I grew up in western Nassau County (on the Queens border) and know it relatively well.

Great info here. Had a feeling it might be GC. I'm on the north shore in Suffolk, in Setauket. Nice, but far! Gonna hit Trulia now.

Huntington area here- almost to Nassau- and better!

 

[Otis]

Well, we're out of the old house, and as of a week ago into the new house. More than double the size, and in much better shape. Easier commute, better town for kids. Really can't go wrong.

Of course, moving into the new house comes a series of super expensive projects. Paint alone is going to cost us $18k. (wtf) Throw in building a surround around the formal living room fireplace to make it more a modern "family room," refinishing the kitchen cabinets, new granite and backsplash in the kitchen, shutters (why did they take them off? It looks bizarre without any), converting the 1920 Freddy Krueger cellar oil burner to gas, an electrician to install a bunch of light fixtures, furniture, and all the booze I'll drink to get through this, and we'll be dirt poor again in no time



Still, it's a pretty sweet house. Life could be worse.