Cape cod first floor layout help!
We purchased a small 1950 cape cod (home is 27'x34' without the garage) and it needs to be completely remodeled (interior and exterior). Currently there is a full bath and two bedrooms downstairs, two bedrooms and a half bath upstairs. We are adding a master bedroom with office alcove in it and master bathroom upstairs by expanding over the garage, making the half bath a full bath upstairs, and that allows us to use all of the downstairs square footage for kitchen, family room, dining area, and laundry area? There are no washer dryer hookups anywhere. We will be limited with the layout options upstairs because all we can afford is a shed dormer in the back of the house and doghouse or Nantucket dormers in the front. But there seem to be many possibilities on the first floor. We cant decide how to make the best use of the first floor now that we don't need any bedrooms downstairs. I have attached the as-built drawings. Limitations: the stairs and bathroom need to stay where they are, and the kitchen can only be located in the rear of the home but right or left is fine. The stairs are currently closed off and could be opened with nice railings. The home is on a slab unfortunately. We have two kids under the age of 6 and would like to have an open layout if possible and maybe a peninsula or island. We would like direct entry to the garage as well. Any advice on how to make the best use of the first floor of this small home and create a decent kitchen? It seems maybe the best way to create an open concept is to move the kitchen to the rear right of the house and open two walls to create an open L shape? It's difficult for us to imagine what will flow and make sense for a family and not leave us with awkward unused areas. Thank you!
Comments (13)
amy_capecod
6 years agoRelated Discussions
Layout suggestions for upstairs cape cod please
Comments (4)I currently live in a Cape Cod style home. We don't have a TV area. The staircase leads directly to a small hall with bedroom doors on each side. Given that you have enough room for a central room for a flex space, it's not a problem for whoever is using the room to go through the bedrooms into the baths. I suggest you put the baths on each end. The TV area in the middle as shown above. This makes both rooms ensuite. Be sure to plan for closets in each bedroom and a larger linen/storage closet somewhere in the flex space. The dormers are good for student desks if the windows can be placed high enough to accommodate the built-in desk. This is a great floorplan. We are able to shut off the entire upstairs when not in use. It makes for a very efficient use of space. The rooms upstairs float in their own box within the building envelope. This makes for very quiet bedrooms....See MoreChoppy Cape Cod galley kitchen HELP please!!!
Comments (2)Ok here's a thought. Do you need a breakfast room and the dining room? If not, I would probably move the kitchen to the dining room area and put the kitchen in the dining room area. I would open up the walls between what is current kitchen and current breakfast room and move the door from the new kitchen to the new dining room down towards the bottom near the stairs. This would allow for a nice U shaped kitchen....See MoreOversized Master Bedroom & Small Bathroom in Cape Cod. HELP
Comments (6)Sophie’s right, this is a challenging space, and it’ll take a creative expert and a substantial budget to make it the best it can be. The low, partly sloped ceiling and the location of the door limits your options, and makes the square footage functionally smaller. If you’re hesitant to spend money on professionals, I’d make some careful measurements , draw it on graph paper, and sketch out some ideas. Be as accurate as possible with the size of the toilet, bed, closet depth, etc, so your sketch is realistic. This exercise may give you a sense of what’s possible in the space & whether the investment is worth it to you....See MoreHelp: New Cape Cod Style House
Comments (54)I really appreciate all your comments and suggestions. In rethinking this, we’ve decided to move the dining room table to the left of the kitchen, ditch the banquette and turn the former dining room into a morning room/library. (I am having trouble giving up my existing house and I was attempting to take many of the rooms we now have and recreate them in this proposed house. Both my husband and the building designer had suggested otherwise but it wasn’t until reading all your comments that I finally realized this just wasn’t going to work. ). I think this arrangement will work really well. Greenfish1234, I love the house pictured in the link you sent. Our proposed house looks very similar, flipped so the garage is on the opposite side, with a shed dormer above. It will then have the master bedroom wing where the garage of your picture is. And there is enough room over the mud room to connect the bonus room with the rest of the upstairs and include a bathroom there. I also think your suggestion about finishing the bonus room later is a good one, and that was our original intent; however, when I tried to fit my husband’s TV into the plan downstairs, it just didn’t work. We compromised by deciding to finish the mud room sooner, rather than later. And if it seems too expensive, we’ll just have it finished to the drywall and flooring and my husband can do the rest later. He’ll be retired at that point, his “shop” will move into the basement and he’d love having a project to work on. My existing furniture will fit there perfectly and it will get the morning sun....See MoreAnn
6 years ago
PROJudyG Designs
6 years ago- PRO
JudyG Designs
6 years ago - PRO
JudyG Designs
6 years ago Ann
6 years ago
PROSina Sadeddin Architectural Design
6 years agoamy_capecod
6 years ago
Jennifer David Schira
3 years agoCurious what you ended up doing with your renovation. We our considering buying a house with stairway in similar location but the garage is on the wrong side of the house to be able to do what Judy recommend.
amy_capecod
3 years agoJennifer David Schira
3 years ago
Lampert Dias Architects, Inc.