What most people want in a home today is a large, open kitchen and a great master bedroom suite. That fact is proven over and over in the real estate market. Older homes were rarely built with those comforts because in the era that these homes, those were not priorities.

PROBLEM

This home in Livonia was a fairly traditional three-bedroom ranch, built in the ‘70s. A family room (A) was built on a concrete slab behind the two-car garage (B). The way into the house from the garage is through a small hallway (C) that is shared by the stair down to the basement. The dining room (D) is next, adjacent to the very confining kitchen (E). The living room (F) is a nice size, yet rarely used because it feels “too separate” from the rest of the house. The bedroom end of the house features three small to medium sized bedrooms (G, H, I), a hall bathroom (J) and a very small master bathroom (K) -- about the size of one on a cruise ship. These homeowners wanted creature comforts, like a roomy master suite and a larger family room, open to a large, inviting kitchen. They understood that would require some kind of addition, yet couldn’t figure out how and where to put it. SOLUTION

We tackled the new master bedroom (L) first. The addition would extend out 12 feet, and be 16 feet wide. We located a hallway (M), which accessed the bedroom and the enlarged bathroom (N) and new walk-in closet (O0. Happily, we would up with extra space, which we used for a laundry room (P). When we expanded the bathroom, we lost the linen closet in the hallway. To replace it, the closet (Q) in Bedroom (G) moved down to make way to build the linen closet (R) on the other side of the hallway. The second addition (S) was six feet out, the length of the family and dining rooms. We raised the floor in the family room (T) to make it level with the house and feel really huge. A new box bay (U) was added to recess a bench to be used with an expandable table. Now for holidays, this family will be able to seat almost unlimited dinner guests. The kitchen (V) simply expanded out both ends, and a large curved island was added. A useless counter was converted into a great closet style pantry (W). A “to Go” shelf was placed next to that. The living room (F) easily converted into a library (Y) when we added French doors into the front hall, opened the basement stairway, and added an opening through the entry hall (C) into the back of the house - kitchen and family room. Although not wide open, this change made the library more inviting and he entry hall less closed in. Marcia Lyon is a professional remodeling designer and freelance writer, producing projects locally and several other areas across the United States and Canada. Her new book on remodeling design, “The Essential Planner for Home Remodeling,” is available at www.creatingspaces.net. You may contact her at Marcia@creatingspaces.net or 515-991-8880.