Change Orders

Kane gives his approval to the new rug in the front hall.

When you are working with a contractor, it is no surprise that, if you ask for changes half-way through a project, you will incur a surcharge. It only makes sense: they've hired labour, bought supplies and booked time based on your agreed contract, and they've taken time to revise any plan drawings.

When you share a bed with your handyman, however, you get away with a lot of "change orders." Often, instead of costing you more, these changes actually save you money.

These are pictures done in PowerPoint and are not precisely accurate to scale.

As you'll see in the above picture, we originally planned to convert our former office space into a laundry and walk-in closet. But after deciding not to have a front-hall closet, we had some misgivings. We liked the open foyer, but, in all honestly, we would miss the storage.

After many, many versions of floor plans, however, Stephen came up with what I think will be a fantastic option: split the walk-in closet in half and give half of it to the entry area. Like this:

Stephen called this Plan D only because he didn't know about the 18 other plans I had gone through,
including some with an en-suite bathroom instead of a closet.

The biggest hitch in this new layout is that people will have to take one step down to the landing and another step up to the closet. (Because of ventilation and supporting beams in the basement, the stairs could not have been moved further into the dining room, which would have allowed us to have a level landing at the top.) That extra step is weird, but not impossible. And we will still have hooks and a bench in the foyer for access to ready-to-go items, like the dog leash and our everyday coats.

Here's the IKEA Planner version of what the front closet will look like:

Top closet will have a pocket door into the master bedroom; bottom closet opens to the landing to the stairs and front hall.

 And here is the 3-d view (from the front door, approximately) if we decide to put in cabinets.

The IKEA design software doesn't allow placement of hanging rods, but there will be rods along the long wall
as well as in above the cabinet that is tucked into the corner.

Just for fun, I've designed it with some cheery Kallarp fronts in a muted turquoise.

I'm not sure I would want an entire kitchen in this finish, but it would be nice in the closet, I think.

Because my contractor (wink-wink!) is involved with the design, we are able to make these on-the-fly adjustments without significant extra labour or costs. Steve had already walled off the step from the landing to the closet, but will be able to change it to an opening with about one day's extra work, and no extra materials.

Stephen's next brilliant interjection was to ask me if I really wanted to install ceramic tile in the foyer. I had been going on the assumption that we would tile it because — that's just what one DOES with a high-traffic area exposed to mud and dogs.

But with our last house, we found that, though the tiles held up well, they still looked dirty all the time and they allowed dirt and dust (and dog hair) to travel willy-nilly. So we ended up putting in a large area rug. It trapped the sand and dirt, was washable, and was very inexpensive.

Tile would be expensive and would require some retro-work on the subfloor to ensure the tiles wouldn't crack (and that all of the flooring would be at the same level; we both hate those transition wedges).

Sticking with wood flooring means we avoid more patchwork -- from tile in the foyer to hardwood in the dining room to tile again (currently plank flooring) in the kitchen. Plus, we are fortunate to have lots of salvaged wood flooring from putting in the new stairs and laundry room, so that reduces some costs while creating a seamless floor.

Hence, the first acquisition for the decor of the new entry hall: a rug. We're glad Kane likes it; we do, too.