I shared what I consider is the ultimate format for our addition a few days in the past. For those who missed that, you’ll be able to see it right here. Since we’ll have a giant, model new household room, and I’ll be turning the entrance front room 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 really be a breakfast room, with a desk and chairs and fairly chandelier and the traditional belongings you’d anticipate in a room known 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 thought the place I used to be going to place a recliner for him to take a seat in for lengthy intervals 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 on daily basis 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 chance of this room being helpful to anybody apart 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 shall 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 most likely proceed to eat his lunch every day whereas sitting in a snug chair, which shall 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 snug 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’d 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 out a goal as soon as the addition is constructed.
So what is going to we do with it? I truthfully don’t know. However I can inform you what I’d do with it in a dream world the place I’ve a limitless finances. I’d double the dimensions of my kitchen.
Again in 2014 once I transformed our kitchen the primary time, I needed to keep throughout the footprint of the unique kitchen to maintain price as little as doable. There was no means we might have afforded to increase the kitchen on the time. I needed to do the whole lot I might consider to redo that kitchen as inexpensively as doable, together with utilizing the cheap inventory unfinished utility cupboards from Residence Depot.
I dressed them up by including ornamental toes, plenty of trim, a header that went all the best way to the ceiling, and crown molding. However I did a complete down-to-the-studs kitchen rework 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 increase the dimensions of the kitchen and incorporate the world that’s now the breakfast room into the kitchen, however there was merely no means 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 components.
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 primary a part of the home is a pier and beam basis. And for those who’re acquainted with several types of foundations, that pier and beam foundations are costlier to construct up entrance, however they’re fairly simple and comparatively cheap to make modifications to, akin to operating plumbing to a brand new space of the home, simply so long as there’s crawl house entry.
Slab foundations are cheaper to construct up entrance, however they’re an actual headache and way more costly to make modifications to later. With a purpose 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 price 1000’s of {dollars}.
And suffice it to say that we didn’t have 1000’s of {dollars} to spend on that type of factor once we purchased this home. I desperately wanted a brand new kitchen as a result of the unique format was so inefficient that straightforward 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 format made no sense to me in any way. So I did the most effective with what I needed to work with whereas staying throughout the finances we had on the time, and staying throughout the authentic footprint of the kitchen. Due to that pier and beam basis, I used to be in a position to have the water and gasoline strains moved at a really affordable value in order that I might prepare issues in a means that made extra sense to me. And I believe general, I did a reasonably 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 front room, and the aspect wall of the kitchen opened as much as the breakfast room, the room remains to be the identical small measurement it’s all the time been, at about 9’10” x 14’8″. After I’m on my own within the kitchen, the dimensions feels simply positive. However final night time once we had a home full of individuals, I attempted to concentrate to how the whole lot 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 dimensions of my kitchen, increase 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 the whole lot else located round that space.
I’ve completely no thought how I’d prepare 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 kind a straight wall via that entire house. There’s an ungainly little jog within the wall that works simply positive as it’s now with the peninsula in that house.
But when the peninsula is not there, that distinction shall be way more noticeable. After which there’s the problem of the cased opening separating the 2 rooms.
That works simply positive with the present format since these are two distinct rooms. But when it’s all one huge room, that cased opening within the center must go. And that signifies that some fairly vital (and costly!) structural work must be performed.
I don’t know if that is one thing that may simply keep a dream in my head, or if I’ll truly get to increase my kitchen in the future. If I do truly get to do it, this isn’t one thing I’d do with out skilled 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 comfortable.
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 house after our addition is constructed, that is precisely what I’d do. However for now, I would simply need to 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 rework 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’ll be able to study extra about me right here.
