Maybe it was a good thing that we didn’t have too much detail in the CAD design we ordered from a local lumberyard. Initially, that was a miscommunication between our contractor and us, plus a looming deadline for a building permit.
The upshot was that as we watched the space open, our vision transformed. We saw new possibilities.
The first big one opted for cathedral ceilings in the four bedrooms. No big problem, said Adam.
Also, we wanted to leave the charred exterior rafters visible in the two back bedrooms. They were evidence of the 1886 downtown fire that started on the waterfront just below our house. They also reflect the original roofline, which we had now raised. And they were dramatic.
Alas, once we realized how labor-intensive (i.e., costly) keeping that touch visible would be, we opted to forgo it.
In another change, the windows in the bathroom and laundry room went from transom-style to narrow vertical.
The ceiling in the upstairs hallway was originally going to be flat, but we liked the feel of having it follow the roofline. Classy.
In the two front bedrooms, the width of the two side roofline panels was halved when we saw how much the original, aligned to the old dormers, really confined the rooms. The purpose of the panels was to keep a sense of the original profile of the house as seen from the street. What we wound up with does the job.
After that, the windows in the front two bedrooms went from spaced apart to being placed together, centered between the two pairs of windows below.
And there were some big tweaks in closet arrangements between bedrooms. The two smaller bedrooms got larger closets while the two bigger bedrooms got open loft above those.
As I’ve said, none of the bedrooms wound up looking like rectangular boxes with holes for windows punched in.
We did encounter so many unanticipated details. Things like molding, the placement of light switches, even the door latches – you usually open them with your right hand, it turns out. I’d never thought about it. How about you?
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Did we see things an architect wouldn’t? I like to think so.
Jnana's Red Barn 