Mike and Denise’s Virginia House Remodel – Part 2

Posted on: August 1st, 2012 | 5 Comments

John and Matthew discuss suggestions from Slow Home Studio visitors as well as show their solution to the main floor.

PART 1










  • E.Chang

    I see your viewpoint, but can’t help asking.. does it feel comfortable if we are entering the house and seeing a bathroom? bad chi, if you will. Do you have alternatives? Thanks. I usually love your solutions.

  • http://slowhomestudio.com/ John Brown

    I can understand how you feel but, in our experience, not everyone has that same sensitivity. Personally I would have liked a bit more separation but that was almost impossible to achieve in this particular situation. Far worse, however, would be for the guest bath to be located off of one of the major rooms like the kitchen, dining room, or living area. That is a real design faux pas!

  • http://slowhomestudio.com/ John Brown

    I posted your comment on our facebook site. Check in there to see if Mike has an opinion on this.

  • BradW

    No real surprise here. You have three things – 2pc bath, laundry, closet – and three spaces – under the stairs, behind the fireplace, entry to kitchen. Designer preference and I am not going to argue with the choice presented.

    If the client is still committed to an addition I wonder if it will include a basement. If so consider moving the basement stairs into the addition in order to create a better living room. Also, it looks like the deck could use some love.

  • Michael Tuso

    Hi John and Matthew,

    Thank you for your ideas about
    our main floor plan. Moving the exterior door towards the west really helps. If
    we move it more than 3 feet it conflicts with several items in the exterior
    wall: electric service entrance, main plumbing stack from basement to roof, and
    a heating duct. Also the 6′ wide decorative concrete walkway and entrance
    passage through the porch would no longer lead to the door.

    The east kitchen is in a great
    spot for morning sun and east screened porch access so we would not want to
    move it to the west side. The laundry would move to the addition.

    An important element for us is
    a defined interior entry area with seating and a place for shoes and coats. We would
    like the powder room to be private with the door not directly visible from the
    entry, kitchen-dining or main living area.

    One of my recent drawings
    (plan and 3D perspective attached) moves the entry door about 16″ west.
    The exterior walkway and porch entry would still line up OK with the door.
    Removing the laundry makes room for an interior entry area that is separated
    from the kitchen by a full shelf wall and cabinet half wall. A short passage to
    the pantry hides the powder room door. The kitchen in this plan is unchanged
    from the current arrangement, however I like your combination of L shaped
    kitchen plus island to increase the available dining area.

    Do you think the reduced
    hearth size opens up the living-dining circulation enough to work OK ?

    Best Regards,

    Mike and Denise