So are you saying that you have a rectangle about 26' x 38' with a chimney in the middle to work with, no other walls or plumbing? Where exactly are the french doors? Are there windows to consider?

You say that is it "completely gutted"

and you say "the walls in the first three rooms have to remain the same".

Which is it?

Yep! A rectangle with 4 french doors across the front. The drawing indicates the location of walls, except for the back section where there are no interior walls at all. There's one centered window in the exterior wall of each room. I'm not allowed to make changes to the exterior.

I guess I could put the kitchen in the front room, though I'd rather not.

I'm not sure I'm understanding the situation you've described and the image you posted isn't clear enough to see sizes. Based on what you've said so far, I redid your sketch but, before we all try to make suggestions, it would help to know that we're starting at the right point.

On the sketch below, the walls that I show in blue are the ones that I understand you to be saying you can remove. I'm not at all sure however I have the chimney in the right place. And, do I have the horizontal and vertical measurements of the kitchen and bedroom 2 correct or have I managed to reverse them?

You mentioned 4 French doors in one post and 4 PAIRS of French doors in another. I rather suspect 2 pairs (4 total) French doors is correct so that was what I drew. 4 pairs would pretty much go clear across the front... but maybe that is actually what you have so let us know.

Also, you mentioned a single window in each room but it would help if we knew how wide each window is and its position. No point in suggesting that a wall go in a particular place if that would put it going right into the middle of a window. LOL! Probably the best way to tell us the positions of the windows is to measure from the nearest corner of the house to the center of each window.

Looking forward to seeing if we can't help you figure out a plan that works for you!

Perfect, Bevangel! Thanks for sharing your talent! The only mistake is with the French doors--there are 4 pairs and they do span the width of the house in the front. If you google pictures of creole cottages in the French Quarter, you'll know what I'm talking about. The windows in each room are 35 inches wide by 55 inches high and centered in the wall. So in the front room, for example, I have 4 feet of wall space, 3 feet of window, 4 feet of wall space. That probably makes sense only to me...

There was once a second floor, but the previous owner took down the ceiling--that's why I have 16 foot ceilings in the front room. I have no idea, though, where the stairs would have been placed to reach the second floor. And I'm not sure that I would like 8 foot ceilings on the first floor. But it's an option to consider.

I did the google search you suggested and found the website linked below. Is is possible that your house was originally designed like the plan shown on the left in this link?

It kind of looks like if you replaced all the windows and doors on the front of that floorplan with French doors and then filled in the space at the back between the two "cabinets", you would basically have the floor plan and window arrangement you've been describing. What do you think?

I'm assuming you can't alter the exterior due to historical restrictions. So, the placement of interior walls HAS to take into account exactly where each of the windows is located. Sometimes inches matter! Can you go get a long measuring tape and get accurate measurements?

Also, can you tell me more about that center chimney. Just how big is it? (length and width) Does the chimney serve an open fireplace or some kind of wood stove? Or, does the chimney serve as a vent for your stove? I am really intrigued by your house! I've got some ideas for making everything you want fit in there but, like I said, I have to know exactly where ALL the unmoveable elements are located.

You indicated that your front room is 17' deep with a single 3' window on each side. The would seem to indicate that you have 7' of wall then a 3' window then another 7' of wall in th front rooms instead of 4' wall spaces like you said. Or, am I still confused?

From the pictures of the Creole Cottages, it looks like your front room probably has a slanted ceiling that goes up to 16' as you approach the wall between the front room and the first bedroom and then comes back down again as you move further to the back of the house.

Not sure it would even be possible to put in a loft room nowadays even if there used to be a second floor. Modern codes won't allow the kind of very narrow steep staircases that used to be used! So, I think you tall ceilings are safe... unless you want to consider using a circular staircase. (NOT something I normally recommend!)

Here is a link that might be useful: Creole cottage plan

Bevangel, you're a good sleuth.

I did mean 7 feet of wall space on either side of the 3 foot window in the front room. I'm always in a hurry when I type. I'm still in my pajamas so I can't run over and measure precisely, but in the rooms marked kitchen and bedroom, there are 46 inches of wall space, a 35 inch window, and then 45 inches of wall space.

The floorplan in the link that you provided reflects my house pretty well--the primary difference is that my front room is deeper and the wall that originally divided it into two was removed by the previous owner. Unfortunately, a huge chimney was removed, too.

The remaining chimney is only 2 feet wide and is located 4 feet from the living/dining room wall. It sits between the bedroom and kitchen, and sticks out only 6 inches into either room. I don't understand its function since it has no opening, but I like the way it looks and am planning to put a mantle on the bedroom side of it.

I'm really interested in seeing your design!

Here's one idea that might work if you wouldn't mind having one of the bedrooms at the front of the house and moving the kitchen to the back. One advantage would be that you could access the back yard without having to go thru a bedroom to do it. A big disadvantage, especially if you're on a noisy street, is hearing the street noise while you're trying to sleep.

I put some furniture in to show how you might arrange it. BTW, you would probably also have to basically lock three The back ground grid is 1 ft per square so you can see easily what sizes thing are.

For others to help you solve a design problem you need to define it well enough that everyone can participate effectively. Also, renovation design solutions usually depend on inches rather than feet.

IMHO you'll be spinning your wheels until you post some photos and a detailed scale drawing that shows the fixed/structural elements and describes the roofs and ceilings and how they are supported.

If the cathedral roof you describe has no rafter ties between the wall top plates it might need a ridge beam and support posts. Don't assume the removal of the second floor was done properly; check all existing conditions, plan carefully, and document the new design thoroughly before investing a lot of money in the project.

MightyA is absolutely correct and he is a professional - unlike myself! - so do please LISTEN to him. The design I showed is only a very rough possibility based on what you've told me about your footprint thus far. If any measurements are off by even a few inches, it is possible that the whole thing would not work. Accurate measurements are vital in remodeling! Hence my recommendation that you get a tape measure out there.

Mighty, do please note that Julienola said in her first posting that the back had already been gutted and that the walls in the first three rooms had to remain the same. I understood this to mean that she had already figured out that those walls were supporting walls and therefore could not be taken down. So, my sketch leaves those walls in place and merely adds additional interior, non-supporting walls.

Based on the fact that this is a Creole cottage, I imagine Julienola probably lives in New Orleans or somewhere along the Gulf coast where such cottages were commonly built. In that case, her home has withstood rather severe winds from a couple of recent hurricanes. Just a guess, but the mere fact that the house is still standing suggests to me that the roof is properly supported. Of course it would still be a good idea to get an engineering report to verify that fact.

Bevangel, thanks so much for the floorplan--I had drawn something similar, but wasn't sure how to include a washer/dryer. I especially like the location of the kitchen and its proximity to the backyard.

What's that green box by the bathroom door? A pantry?

You're really nice to help people like me! Do you have a background in construction or architecture?

MightyAnvil, a structural engineer signed off on the structural integrity of the property before I bought it. He returned recently to look at the foundation work. I don't have much faith in anyone these days, but don't you think he would have commented if the roof hadn't been properly supported?

The roof might be fine but you need to know if it is spanning from exterior wall to exterior wall or if it is supported on one of the interior walls.

The green box by the bathroom door would be a wall oven (or two stacked wall ovens if you're a major cook!). On the pennisula, I was thinking just a cooktop with storage cabinets underneath. Everybody seems to want to separate their cooktops from their ovens these day so I was going with the flow for you. (In my own kitchen, I'm just going to have an old fashioned stove that slides into a space between the cabinets rather than built-ins but I tend toward the old-fashioned.)

Because the kitchen if very small, I was visualizing using a pony wall (42" high) wall with a bar top to separate it from the dining area but leave it with an open feel.

One issue with this design however is that you will have very few upper cabinets which are prime storage space. If you put a regular stove (cook top and oven) in the penninsula, that would open up that entire wall near the bathroom for cabinets giving you more storage and countertop work space... maybe put a narrow tall cabinet right next to the back wall for storing brooms and mops and things like that, then have upper and lower cabinets along the rest of the wall.

Also, if you were willing to NOT have your sink under the window, it might be possible to revise the kitchen so that you could have a little more wall cabinets. Me, in a kitchen this small, I'd definitely want my sink under the window. And, you have to use the window you have so that sort of contrains the design.

You'll definitely want to plan to have cabinets over your washer and dryer as well so that you can use that space for storage.

BTW, the arrangement of the back bathroom, including the short entry wall is so that, if someone leaves the bathroom door standing open during a dinner party, you and your guests are not staring right at the toilet. Instead, you would be looking into what appears to be only a laundry room.

The other problem with this plan is that you have very little closet space. Of course, given that you have a limited footprint, any space given over to closets HAS to come out of other space resulting in smaller rooms. Unless you can build up (and you do need to talk to an engineer before you consider that), I would think you would probably be better off with free-standing armoirs (chiffarobes) for most of your storage.

To answer your question, no I don't have any fromal background in either construction or architecture. I was a high school teacher for many years (math & science) and then became a lawyer - but my practice has nothing to do with construction law.... at least not yet tho that could change.

I have just always loved looking at houses being built. When I was a kid, my mother and I used to go out "window shopping" for new homes instead of clothes. We didn't have the money to buy either one so Mom always said, as long as we're just dreaming anyway we might as well dream big... and there isn't much that money can buy that is bigger than a house!

We would walk thru half-built and newly finished $50,000 mansions on the right side of the tracks ($50K bought a LOT of house in the 60s!) and discuss how, IF this were our house, we'd make it better by "moving that wall" and "adding in a bathroom" etc. I guess with lots of looking and thinking about floor plans, I just kind of glommed onto a sense of what works in a floor plan and what doesn't. On the other hand, I have zero sense of fashion when it comes to clothing! LOL!