Part 1 – Goodwin Residence, Manitoba

Posted on: November 5th, 2009 | 11 Comments

Part 1 – Goodwin Residence, Manitoba (PDF)
Part 1 – Goodwin Residence, Manitoba (JPEG)
Part 1 – Goodwin Residence, Manitoba (Demo)
Part 1 – Goodwin Residence, Manitoba (Full Symbol Library)

  • Steve

    John, looking at the demolition plan, will we need to reintroduce bearing walls or support for the second floor or roof?

  • Doug Roberts

    [img]goodwinplan.jpg[/img]

    Nothing overly imaginative here. I decided to start with the original plan instead of the demo plan, as I don’t see a reason to eliminate or change the powder room or back stairs (I am willing to assume that there was a good reason for adding the extra set of basement stairs when the addition was done). I moved the kitchen into the old dining room and turned the old kitchen into a large mudroom & laundry room. I replaced most of the wall that used to separate the living area from the hall and dining room with an engineered beam to open up the new kitchen to the living area without causing the ceiling to collapse. I moved the dining room into the east end of the living area and added double french doors out to the garden. I turned the old parlour into a library/home office and added a pocket door between it and the mud room for convenience. I also opened up the front entry and added a proper closet.

  • Sherry

    I have a minor comment about placement of the desk in the library/office. It’s a nice large room with a lovely large window and fireplace. It would be nice to pull the desk away from the wall and have it sit out in the room and face the window.

    A couple of comfy chairs could sit near the window facing the desk, for other family members to sit and read while the mother works or for client seating for meetings.

    I have mixed feelings about the extra door in the office leading to the mechanical heart of the home. On one hand, it would be convenient for hopping up and down and tending to running the household. On the other hand, the point of the office is to have a somewhat isolated place to work. I wonder which the client would prefer.

  • Terri

    [img]goodwin.jpg[/img]

    I’ve done something similar to Doug it seems, though I did eliminate those back stairs and changed the old powder room a bit. Entry to the mudroom is through garage or back door (facing to back yard). Kitchen is in the old dining room. I also used french doors in the dining area.

    I put the entrance to the study off the kitchen. I was thinking about being able to look outside the window, plus being close to kitchen for cups of sustenance (my experience). There’s a table for kids to do homework or crafts while their mother is at her desk. There’s also a family computer desk just outside the office so that she can monitor the boys’ use while she’s just inside. (Boys spend more time on computers than TV, according to research.) Also, if they’re in the back yard, it’s easy to just pop in or out of the office.

    The island is at table height for the eating bar so that the chairs can be used at desk, dining table or island. There’s millwork to house good china, which faces dining area. The front entry is functional for guests. I’m expecting the family to use the back entry more often than the front one.

  • Doug Roberts

    [img]1_goodwinplan.jpg[/img]

    Sherry — As requested I have turned the desk to face the window and have placed a comfy chair and ottoman next to the fireplace. As Pamela is a writer, my assumption is that she will not be using the office for regular client meetings, so I have not provided for client seating. I debated over adding the second door to the office, but finally decided add it to give Pamela a much more direct route to the powder room.

    Terri — I like your more compact mud room (without laundry) and larger kitchen and computer/homework desk. Having now experienced basement, main floor and second floor laundries, I definitely prefer having the laundry on the second floor. Not only do I love not having to lug the laundry basket up and down stairs, I also like that the laundry room stays much cleaner when it is not trying to do double duty as a mud room, so I don’t have to worry so much about items getting covered in dirt if they fall onto the floor while being transferred to or taken out of the dryer.

  • Louis Pereira

    [img]091105a.jpg[/img]

    Terri and I seem amicably on the same page in terms of overall design layout and room relationship. Although Terri’s plan feels more open while I was in a Sarah Sasanka state-of-mind.

    The Kitchen and Living Room again are very similar with the exception that i’ve included a peninsula on the north side of the Kitchen. The layout allows guests to gather around the kitchen without interupting the work flow – something that can easily happen when there’s a large gathering of people.

    Since the Dining Room was important to the Goodwins to host dinner parties for friends and ‘extended family for holiday meals’, i’ve allowed for a sizeable and flexible Dining area to accommodate additional seating when necessary.

    Like other plans submitted, I also opted for a connection between the Kitchen and Office/Study but kept the doorway from the main Entry Hall.

    ——

    Doug – Great points made for having a second floor Laundry. I thought about incorporating it into the Main floor, but decided to leave it for next week’s exercise.

  • Doug Roberts

    Louis — You and Terri were definitely on the same wavelength. Interesting placement for the front hall closet — it’s a fair distance from the front door, but has the effect of making the hallway feel part of one large entry space. I also like how you centered the archway into the living room on the fireplace and the way you put the door from the office/study to the kitchen in the NW corner, keeping the circulation space along the north wall of the office/study. Hey, is that storage for LPs that I see on either side of the living room window — so have you decided that the Goodwins are audiophiles, or are you simply showing your age? ;-)

  • Louis Pereira

    Haha! Doug – I’ll be hanging on to 39 for the 4th time next year, so i’m desparately trying to keep my youth!

    I suppose the main closet is a fair distance from the Main Entry, though I think in this case it helps to have a quite a bit of ‘crush space’ to welcome a number of people at one time. Imagine having a group of 5+ show up and trying to remove dirty shoes and jackets (Winnipeg) if the closet was right by the door.

    As for the LPs by the Living Room window seat, they were actually implied as books – but they can be LP’s if you like…

    —————–

    On another matter, has anyone else been experiencing problems connecting to the Slow Home website lately?…

  • Terri

    Doug, I decided to leave the laundry for next week. The ideal would be to be able have all the clothes magically move from washer to dryer, or even better, get onto the clothesline (in some municipalities). There’s always stairs involved no matter what, but you make a good point about dropping clean clothes onto the floor, and it’s easier to dash upstairs for a switch over from one machine to another while NOT carrying a full basket of dirty or clean laundry.

    Louis, Interesting how similar our plans turned out. You have a better front entry and I have a better powder room. ;) I say this about your PR because of the toilet in line of the windows, and also the doorway being closer to the dirty foot traffic and not at the cleaner edge (nit-picking here!). You make a very good case for having space for lots of people coming in from outside with boots in Winnipeg. I forget these details being luckily in lotusland! (I also got carried away imagining a private study with nice eastern windows and a fp–I wish!)

  • Terri

    BTW, no problems connecting to Slow Home for me, except for my usual Slow System.

  • BradW

    [img]shdp371.jpg[/img]

    My contribution…