Part 2 – Biloski Residence, Upper Floor

Yes, it’s a simple and elegant solution.

Grace,
I am afraid you are going to have to wait a week or so for the classic house case study exercise that I promised you. I had everything set to go for tomorrow to do one of Pierre Koning’s case study houses. Yesterday I found out that I am able to tour one of them next week when I am in California so I decided to wait until I could give the exercise the benefit of having actually been in the space.

However, I do think you will enjoy the which house should I buy? exercise. I am also going to give more info on the LA trip on this week’s slow home report.

I asked this question yesterday and nobody gave an answer. I will ask again today – Is the middle bedroom too small? We talked about this in a room by room segment.

I have included a plan more in keeping with the client’s desire to add closet space to the master and repurpose the open study space. I expanded the size of the middle bedroom into the open study space, moved the master bath into the remaining space there and added closet space.

And Jim part of the fun is to imagine what is possible. With all due respect the minimual changes required here are really quite simple.

And credit to Terri, I like where she located the master bath in her plan yesterday and I used a version of it here.

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Brad,
I think that the middle bedroom is too small to be a good bedroom. However, at this point it is also the bedroom that the Biloski’s have in their house. I think it might have been a reason not to buy this particular property but now that they have we have to work with it.

I agree with you about the value in seeing a range of solutions. I think it is also important to discuss the level of intervention that each implies so that people with less experience in design that are watching can see the differences in approach.

Booking my flight now ;)

I only wish.

John–the koenig will be well worth the wait. Jim–a class trip! haha–a great idea. let’s look for a sponsor and write a grant.

Jim, we can just hoist the stuff up onto the front deck – no problem!

John – I see your point.

When I saw that demo plan I knew that you were going to keep the middle bedroom basically intact. I also realized, like most others, that it was small. So before committing to that, are there any options in which the bedroom size can be improved?

Looking at the plan, by simply moving the door of the back bedroom forward of the family bathroom and using the middle bedroom as a closet a master bedroom is created for minimal cost. The open space is big enough for a family bath and since the kitchen is located below this the plumbing should be convenient. Finally, fitting two bedrooms into the front of the house was left. Initially, I incorporated the front deck and added a bump out to gain space. This would be very costly but solved the space problem. Because of the costs involved in renovating the second floor as described, I thought about adding a third floor. This gives the parents and kids their own level and each enough private space in a otherwise public or open home. So with minimal changes on the second floor, each kid gets an ensuite bath and a good sized bedroom. This frees up the budget to construct a third floor master bedroom and roof deck for the parents. As was pointed out both options are larger scale expensive renos which maybe out of scope. And that brings you full circle back to simply using the open space to add value to the middle bedroom and the existing master. And here I think Terri had the best idea to move the master bath into part of this space. In Jim’s case, I saw his plan last night and since he had located the two kids bedrooms within the existing footprint of the house I thought I could tweak that a little and see if it worked to solve the bedroom size issue.

At the end of the day, for the Biloski’s I would pick the design which incorporates Terri’s master bath and my enlarged middle bedroom I have included here for clarity.

If the home has a decent basement height, I would suggest developing a space down there for the kids to hang out.

PS. I still like the third floor with the solar panels on the roof the best:)

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John,

I like your plan’s approach to defining the master bedroom space with millwork and the fireplace. I think that finishing the space in that way will help give the feeling of a retreat. I thought of a fireplace but decided that if there isn’t one downstairs, maybe it wasn’t quite egalitarian for there to be one upstairs (a political decision instead of a design decision on my part).

Terri,

I agree with your egalitarian reasoning.

The fireplace is one way to detail a bigger design intention which was to extend the millwork of the closet all along that wall so that you didn’t feel like you were walking through the closet before going into the room. Shelving or a counter would also work if the fireplace was not wanted or too expensive.

My only quibble with the suggested plan is that the 3rd bedroom is extremely small. Moving its north wall to the north would add some extra space. The main bedroom closet would still be large.

Sean,
I agree totally about the third floor and if this was a new house I would have adjusted it as you suggested. In a reno, however, it can be quite expensive to move the bedroom walls. For that reason I left it alone, however, if it was a big issue for the Biloski’s then expanding slightly into the master closet would be the reasonable option.

Louis you gave me enough clues to find the house.

Nice plan Paul…I like straightening the stairs. I do think a couple more windows might be needed :).

James – I agree with your comments.

Sean – As you know, I believe the middle or third bedroom is completely unacceptable. I think the basement would be a better place and I also think that the renovation should have responded to it.

Having said that, I will defend John’s design as a simple response to the client’s criteria.

It can be expensive to move walls because the floor, ceiling and adjacent walls are directly affected. Electrical, plumbing and HVAC systems are likely to be involved. And, not to mention, the structural integrity of the building. So the only way many of the designs shown here, including mine, will work is if the space is gutted. Then structural engineering can be done, walls can be moved, systems reconfigured, insulation and drywalled installed and finishes completed.

The only criticism I would have for John regarding cost is that he moved the toilet which usually means moving the plumbing stack or changing structure to properly accommodate the new drain and that is expensive.

The location of the master bathroom does raise questions about plumbing noise in the living space below.

John you have explained why you left the small bedroom well SMALL and that if the Biloskis really wanted to, they could expland slightly into the master closet. However, can you tell me why you left the windows/walkout to the deck from the master untouched. On the floor plan the angle looked a bit odd. Does the actual room look balanced? Its hard for me to tell because I have never actually seen anything like this.

Belle,
Good question. I agree that the angled wall in the mater bedroom looks odd.

However, it is also a question of deciding where to stop. In the same way that there is always a scar somewhere with a facelift and the goal is to try and hide it in an unobtrusive place like the hair line, there will always be a place where the renovation stops. The decision of where that might be is dependent on a variety of factors including cost, value, and client priority.

My sense was to leave the bedroom small as discussed above. I also reasoned that changing the front window would involve a lot of technical work (including the re-waterproofing of the upper deck over the main living space)for a relatively small “return”.

On the other hand, if the Biloski’s said that they really didn’t like it, I would be more than happy to add it to the scope of work.