The original house was built in the early 60's and
has less than
700 sq feet of living area on the main floor. The kitchen was
cramped & dark. The dining room wouldn't hold a regular sized
table. The living room has wonderful huge windows facing north
& east, overlooking the lawn but the room itself is isolated from
the rest of the house. We never used it. The fireplace was of
the zero-clearance variety, had not been installed professionally
and blocked a radiator. The house has hot water heat but no
air conditioning. The
long narrow area between the garage and living area is the
stairs to the finished basement. It takes you to our office area
(under the bedroom) a half bath and another bedroom (under the
living room). At the bottom of the landing is another short stairway
that takes you outdoors to the back yard.
Planning for the additions was a challenge because
there were
several factors that restricted the directions or distances we could
go. To the left of the dining room, immediately in front of the garage,
sat the well. Expanding in that direction would require drilling a
new one ($$$). Also in that area was a huge old oak tree that wanted
to be left alone. Another huge oak tree stood not that far from the
west end of the garage. The new septic system's mound-style drain
field could go in one of only two possible locations (thanks to the
state of Wisconsin) so we had to work around that as well.
We think the following plan represents the best
compromise in both
cost and practicality.
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