Epic Move #2 _ Scaling Back

Epic Move _ Scaling BackContractors often tell you to start with your full list of wants and once the pricing comes in you can scale it back to what is more realistic, but after this experience, I think it makes more sense to go the other way around. Keep your dream list in your head, and if the numbers for what you need come in low, add to it from there. It would save a lot of time and money that way.The two biggest items that we scaled back on have to do with the brick. Matching brick to the rest of the house is complicated and expensive, so we decided to go with black board and baton on the extension. Inspired by barn construction that has stone foundation, the contrasting wood on the second floor won’t feel so out of place with the high peaked roof. To avoid it looking too obvious where the new house begins we will install a fully glazed wall to join the second floor with the extension. We also worked out that if we leave the masonry wall up, we can continue living in the house during construction without too much disturbance. Stay tuned to find out if that’s true.Inspiration _ maybe a little warmer.Access to the outside from the kitchen was high on the priority list when designing the renovation. As opposed to a typical backyard, this house has a side yard. It’s generally quite nice as it make us more in-tune with our surroundings. For example, if the kids are in front on bikes or playing street hockey, we can sit in the "backyard” and be within earshot. The down side is, however, that it’s quite a hike from the kitchen to the bbq. The solution to this was to open up the kitchen wall where the backdoor is, but without taking down that wall, we had to come up with a new plan.We are so glad to have had this new challenge, because it forced us to design a far superior kitchen. We had always wanted an island but the kitchen is too narrow. We originally toyed with the idea of a bump-out or a narrow island, but decided to drop in. This new design forgoes the traditional cabinetry along the wall for French doors to the outside and a central island. The stove is moved to the niche on the opposite wall and a full hight cabinetry with a panel-ready fridge fills the masonry wall side.