Let's Start From The Very Beginning...

What's the saying..."let's start from the very beginning, because it's a very good place to start"? Since my last post gave the not-so-short history of our home, I thought the next best place to start this renovation blog is with the house itself and our "grand plans." So now without further ado, I give you the house that Rose and Ben built:

I know the quality of the picture is a bit anticlimatic, but somehow I don't have a good fullview picture of the outside, so I had to borrow a screenshot from Googlemaps. This picture gives a closer view.

The outside of the house is a cute American Craftsman home with a bit of a country spin. When we first viewed the house, we fell in love with the large oak and the red door.

At closing, the Greens Daughters provided us with all the original blueprints of the home. Based on some of the blueprints, it looked like the house had been remodeled at some point during its life. The Green Daughters, however, confirmed that the house was never remodeled, but that the different blueprints were actually the floor plan of Rose's inspiration home. Apparently, when the Greens moved into West U, there was a home that Rose adored and wanted as her own. However, because she had 5 daughters, Rose needed to add space and closets (a woman after my own heart). So to make her dream home work for her family, Rose revised the floor plan to create an "open concept" living area and added large closets in each of the bedrooms. This is the floor plan of the first floor as it looks today (and you can click on the photo for a larger, easier to read version):

We liked how the entry, dining, and family room are open to each other. We also love the first floor master. I know this is a personal preference, but all the houses that I lived in growing up had first floor masters, so it just seems right to me. Our two problem areas on the first floor are (1) the size of the master bath; and (2) the stairs.

Although you can't tell from the drawing, the stairs are extremely steep and have super narrow treads, which equates to me, Matt and several of our friends taking multiple tumbles down stairs. Not fun! To fix this issue, we decided to extend the front of the house and reposition the staircase so it can be built with the proper rise and run. The added bonus of this change is a larger dining room. I come from a fairly small family and have always dreamed of hosting large family gatherings and dinner parties with friends. We will now have the space to fit a large dining table and my dreams of playing "hostess with the mostess" will hopefully come to fruition (although, learning to cook will be step #2 after the reno). The second problem, our tiny master bath. To address this dilemma, we are taking over the old study to create a master suite. Here is the revised plan for the first floor:

Now onto the second floor. This is how our second floor is laid out today:

The big change to upstairs is the conversion of unused attic space to a third bedroom. We are also enlarging the second bathroom to create a "sink room" and a "shower room." I think this will help make the morning routine a bit more peaceful when we have kiddos. And since we are moving the stairs, we are able to create a laundry room (que me doing the Happy Dance, WooHoo!). We also decided to turn the landing at the top of the stairs into the new study with the addition of a built-in desk. Here is how we are changing the second story:

So this is where we are beginning...and I think it's a pretty good start.

Oh, and about a year ago, I came across Rose's inspiration home when taking a walk through the neighborhood. Although she changed the interior to work for her family, Rose stayed true to the exterior and only changed the color scheme.

I love the calming green color and how all of the white trim pops. We are definitely going to take this into consideration when we pick the color for the new hardy plank and trim.

What about you? What color exteriors do you like best on a home?