Renderings!

Our intrepid architects Zac and Bjorn recently created a 3D rendering of our addition project, both internal and external.  They were kind enough to create to images for me to post on the blog.  These images of course represent what we'd like to do given budget constraints, as yet unknown costs of construction, and assuming nothing gets limited by zoning or permitting requirements.  Bid packages went out to three contractors yesterday.  Can you tell we're getting excited???

This is a view of the house from the north, looking south.  The addition will be the portion on the right.  You can see we're adding some substantial space in the back of the house, and will have a new covered patio.

A closer look at the addition and patio from the north side of the house.

A look at the house from the southwest corner, looking northeast.  We'll be building out part of the second floor of the existing structure (where the balcony currently ends.  there will be a door there to the balcony that isn't draw in this model.

This is the interior first floor, standing in the existing living room (turret), looking west towards the back of the house.  Currently this is a large, open, undefined space between the living room and kitchen.  We'll be adding the wall with the cutout, and counterspace on kitchen side of that wall.  After the remodel is done, we'll plan to use the turret room as a dedicated dining room and space to entertain guests.

This image is looking at the kitchen from above, from the south side of the house looking north.  To those of you who have been in the house, you'll notice that the basic kitchen layout isn't changing much.  The sink, diswhasher and stove will remain in place.  We're building a permanent (and larger) island to replace the portable one we have now.  The fridge is positioned a few feet further to the right than it currently is, and the high wall cabinets will be new/repositioned.  The biggest change here is along the south wall of the kitchen (the bottom of the image).  Currently the door on the left goes to the bathroom.  We'll be turning that into a half bath and putting some additional pantry space where the bathtub currently resides.  Right now there is a door to our study just to the right of the bathroom door.  That door will move over to the right side.  In between we have added floor to ceiling pantry space.  That will move the wall back a couple of feet and decrease the size of the study a bit, but that's ok.  On the left we will take out part of the wall to create a pass-through from the kitchen into the new addition area.  You can see that better in the next image.

This is from the addition looking east toward the kitchen.  The room will be about a one foot drop from the rest of the floor.  The counter space extending from the kitchen will overhang a bit, and we'll put some barstools there.  To the right are built-ins that will include our entertainment center.  The design of the built-ins is still a bit up in the air.

This image is looking at the living room from a similar vantage point as the image above.  The kitchen is to the left.  Along the south side of the room we'll have some large windows, a wood burning fireplace, and window seats with storage inside.

And here's one last shot of what the addition might look like superimposed on an actual photograph of the current house.