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Rosesinsummer
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| Posted: Nov 25 2009 at 10:44am | IP Logged
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Praise God-- we have bought a new house (new construction) and we are moving in between Christmas & New Year's. It is not one that we really "chose", but rather one that the Lord dropped in our lap due to the incredible interest rate the builder was offering during a 4 day promotion. The catch was closing before 12/31.
Anyway, I need some help figuring out layout and how best to utilize 1780 sf. of space. It is a 900 sf foundation, two story house with 3 bedrooms upstairs, an open concept kitchen/dining, and living room area (no walls between). The front door has an open foyer that looks right into the living/dining area, there is no hallway. There is a small laundry room off the garage before you enter the kitchen, and a half bath off the garage. There is also a 2x2 foot closet by the garage entrance. There is a 4x2 closet by the front door on the right side, on the left are stairs to go up and down. The dining area has a nook with a small desk and cupboards above and pantry beside it, which is great but there's no room for my china cabinet in the dining room. The kitchen is a half U shape with an island dividing kitchen from dining. There is a sliding glass door off the dining area directly opposite the desk/pantry area. There is hardwood in the kitchen/dining area and carpet in the living room. There is a HUGE window that takes up a lot of wall space in the living room it's probably 10 feet wide by 8 feet high (it's a Northwestern exposure, so the light is needed!) There's maybe 1-2 feet of space below the window, The other wall has a fireplace in the center with about 60 inches of space on either side, and there there's a short wall on the side of the house with the front entrance(the stairs are behind this short wall). It is very open and airy, but limited wall space in the main living areas.
Right now we have two daughters who will share a bedroom, and we are hoping for more children. We also have both sets of parents who live out of state, so they tend to visit and stay for a couple weeks at a time.
We have 900 sf. unfinished basement with lookout windows.
I'm trying to prioritize and divide our activities into my "living areas" versus unfinished areas and I'm having a difficult time.
I guess I'm wondering how to fit a lot of things into my "living room" area without it looking like chaos. The lack of wall space is a challenge. Maybe an impossible task?
I know we will be using our unfinished basement quite a bit for living-- how do I make it more inviting and organized into zones?
Thanks for your ideas! And please pray for my attitude about this house. I know it's a blessing-- the area we are in is expensive compared to where we moved from, so while this house payment will be a stretch financially, at least we found something close to dh's work. We had a generous sized 1930 home prior to this, so with the unfinished basement, it is downsizing for us.
I know I am probably sounding like a spoiled brat. Again, please pray for my attitude-- for contentment and cheerfulness on my part.
And any help you can offer for set up will be greatly appreciated!!
God bless you and Happy Thanksgiving!!
Lyda
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SeaStar
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| Posted: Nov 25 2009 at 3:11pm | IP Logged
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Lyda-
I wish I could help you more... awhile ago on the boards we were discussing a scrapbooking storage cabinet that could be used for many purposes and then folded all up to look neat and tidy. I wish I could think of the name...
anyone?
You might be able to use something like that in your basement to create a good work space for yourself that can also be closed up/off from kids and look neat and tidy.
There is also a thread right now with lots of creative ideas for making the most of your space- I'll try to find the link for you.
A new house is always so exciting... have fun!
How do big families live in small homes?
More small home questions
I am not meaning to imply you have a small home... these two threads just have a ton of great organizing ideas in them.
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
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teachingmyown
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| Posted: Nov 25 2009 at 5:13pm | IP Logged
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When we were in a smaller house, I found this book helpful for rethinking how to use each room.
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In Christ,
Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
Remembering Today
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stefoodie
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| Posted: Nov 26 2009 at 1:12am | IP Logged
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SeaStar wrote:
awhile ago on the boards we were discussing a scrapbooking storage cabinet that could be used for many purposes and then folded all up to look neat and tidy. I wish I could think of the name...
anyone? |
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I think you're remembering the Scrapbox
How exciting, Lyda!
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stef
mom to five
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Paula in MN
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| Posted: Nov 26 2009 at 5:52am | IP Logged
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Lyda, I'm more visual than I thought. I'm drawing things out on paper and I'll come back after eating turkey!
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 Paula
A Catholic Harvest
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MNMommy
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| Posted: Nov 26 2009 at 7:14am | IP Logged
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We just moved into a house with little wall space. I actually like being forced to downsize stuff. The few furniture pieces I am keeping out all have drawers or shelves. Then, I am trying to move as much stuff into alternative storage (totes in garage, basement, Goodwill, etc) as possible and use pretty baskets scattered around the living areas for other things.
Also, look into Ikea solutions. I love some of their ideas,
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Jennifer
Tired mom to - 10yo dd, 7yo ds, 6yo ds, 4yo dd, 2yo ds
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SeaStar
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| Posted: Nov 26 2009 at 7:38am | IP Logged
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Thanks for posting the link, Stef. My old brain is leaking vital information these days. How could I not remember the Scrapbox?
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
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Servant2theKing
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| Posted: Nov 26 2009 at 8:45am | IP Logged
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Lyda, What a blessing to be preparing for a new home!
Based on some earlier threads, you might want to look into books by Sarah Susanka and other authors who focus on making your home do double duty. One of Susanka's signature ideas is incorporating window seats into a home, for a sense of enclosure...perhaps you could convince your builder to include window seats around that large living room window! If you added drawers beneath and bookshelves on each end you could have an incredible, cozy space for reading and snuggling with your daughters. If that's not possible, perhaps you can place lower bookshelves or a low cabinet behind a sofa placed strategically away from the walls...maybe between your kitchen and livingroom areas. Think outside the box, literally...consider unconventional ways to place furniture...kitty corner, away from walls, perpendicular to walls, rather than parallel.
For visitng family, you might consider sleeper sofas, especially if your family grows and you no longer have a spare bedroom.
Our china cabinet is in our livingroom, due to lack of space, and it hasn't bothered me a bit. Is there room in one of the corners of your living room to place your china cabinet at an angle in the corner? Would it fit along the wall by your stairway? You may find you enjoy using your china cabinet as more of a display cabinet than simply a place to hold china. We actually converted the base of ours to hold a TV when we used it in the livingroom of a previous home...currently, it houses an extra computer for games. The glass top displays statues, collectibles, vases, etc.
One small tip, when we moved into our current home I had a couple boxes packed with little niceties to unpack first...special things to place here, there and everywhere, to make things homey while we unpacked...scented hand soaps for bathrooms and kitchen, new kitchen towels to mark the kitchen as our very own, special treats to make meal and snack times easy and enjoyable! A string of Christmas lights, perhaps hung over your fireplace, might help make things festive and less stressful while you're moving in. The year we moved into our previous home, we had a small potted pine tree, adorned with little angels as our Christmas tree...since we were moving over the holidays...your girls might appreciate helping with a simple decoration that moves from your current home into your new one!
May God bless you and your family in your new home!
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All for Christ, our Saviour and King, servant
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Rosesinsummer
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| Posted: Nov 28 2009 at 12:09am | IP Logged
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Thank you, ladies, for your ideas and support.
I will be back to comment/respond more later this weekend, I hope. I'm still thinking/pondering/analyzing right now...
God bless,
Lyda
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Donna Marie
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| Posted: Nov 28 2009 at 10:30am | IP Logged
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One thing I did recently was to get some time alone in the library and the book store and park myself on the floor near the organizational and planning/remodeling books (kitchen, bathroom, office space...etc) I am very visual and I was looking for pictures. They have ideas for a variety of decorating styles and interesting storage solutions for smaller spaces. Oh yeah, and I prayed hard that I wouldn't' wish for what I didn't have LOL!
I was able to ck out a few titles from the library and perused them with dh and we came up with some good ideas that utilize what we had in a more user-friendly way.
I walked around and pretended I was not me and tried to think of ways I could hide some things that were bothering me and store other things without it looking cluttered. I almost feel like if the space works for me in one room, the space in the next room has to work too...like an onion I am making things work....layer by layer.
I have a short hallway that has a higher ceiling that I will be adding a long shelf to that will hold a lot of dh's things and books. This is win-win for us as dh is very tall and we need to keep his stuff safe from our up and coming destructionary toddler...haha!...not to mention that no one will SEE it
Another thing that I have been doing slowly is finding items that make great storage pieces in thrift stores and freecycle. I store our toys in sturdy baskets in our living room so I don't feel like it is just the space that belongs to the kids...it belongs to aaalll of us.
Donna Blevins taught me that. We love to put the wooden railway pieces in the large basket and the wooden cars in another.
I know, I am just weird, but if I visually like it and they visually like it, they do it more often then not. Even my baby, who is 13mos, knows how to put toys in a basket..maybe not the right one, but he will do it when prompted. He learns "put it back" as his second sentence. (first is "I love you", of course ) I did not do this with son #2 as when we moved in here, 10 yrs ago, I had no way to store some things and I was rather green with our fifth child. By the time we figured out where things went he was several years older and almost impossible to train.
I found that I needed more horizontal space for the things that came in through the door and the things that we moved around frequently during the course of the day. This made the room seem more spacious and less overwhelming, visually speaking.
I made a parking station for some of the things that make a mess in our school room and in our kitchen. For Example: I used zip ties to make more narrow shelves in one of those wire cube systems for paper projects! In one cube we have many horizontal slots that are wide enough to accommodate the large scrapbooking paper projects and the papers for them and even the dreaded binder! I had a small area to put this cube system in and it works very well. I got 2 cube 'sets' free...can't beat that.
My 14yo ds gave me a cleaned out plastic salsa bottle to park in the kitchen cabinet for the stray knex and lego pieces that seem to drift in there that only the broom can find..no pile on the counter that never gets taken care of. The frequent offenders have an out of sight place to go and he knows where to collect them from!
I also love hardwood floors in any space. They can be CLEANED and when you clean them up and they glow, it gives you a sense of a larger space as well. I have had various surfaces in different homes that have been tried by children. This is the one thing I love the most....just short of a drain in the floor, this works great. We learn to sweep early in life here...and is usually a chore the kids choose to do first...
"would you like to scrub the toilet or sweep the floor??"...guess what they choose
I wouldn't worry about the large window too much! It will give you the illusion of the space being larger by bringing the outdoors in. Plant something colorful outside that window that will make you feel wonderful in different seasons.
HTH somewhat! I have delegated this day to relocting things in our living/diningroom area so we can bring in the Christmas tree. Now that I have swallowed my coffee and hid a bit behind this monitor, I am ready to start
Have fun!
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God love you!
Donna Marie from NJ
hs momma to 9dc!!
Finding Elegant Simplicity
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: New Home: planning/organizing layout
