Not Another Plan Change!

Trying to figure out the second floor windows so Jim could have the proper dimensions to frame them turned out to be more involved than I thought. First, I had to insert a wall in the middle of the dining room to accommodate the vent. If you read my last post, you'll remember it came up in the middle of the dining area so it really screwed up my design. No matter how I changed things, I just couldn't get the kitchen/dining area to work. I had no choice. I had to move the kitchen. It wasn't that close to the pantry anyway. I ended up putting it in the back corner where Jim had originally suggested but wouldn't work before because the master bedroom was originally in the back left. Here it is:




The pantry is now right off the kitchen and the back skylight will give much-needed light in the kitchen since I had to remove the back right window due to a chimney I didn't realize would exist. The skylights let in a huge amount of light and I'm excited about this because nearly all of our previous homes or apartments were holes as far as light was concerned.

Here's the second floor plan we did have for our "final" design:




You can really see a big difference. The new layout will be much more user-friendly.

Just when I thought I had the windows placed evenly with the bottom floor windows, I realized the bottom windows in the plan didn't show the actual placement. Our computer crashed about six months ago and we lost nearly everything. A friend of ours recovered most of our information, but the plan files were gone. I had to redraw the first floor from an old printout after the foundation and windows were already framed. Two days ago, Jim and I went out to get actual measurements including the vent.

The new first floor plan reflects the actual window placements and a few adjustments in the back storage room that I made into closets for the laundry room and guest bedroom:




Where we place closets for the two front bedrooms remains to be seen. I didn't plan for these very well and right now the rooms just have the main walls up. Got suggestions?

Here's the original "final" first floor design:




Comparing the two, you can see a difference with some window placements. That difference was huge on the second floor.

Once the plan showed bottom windows in their right places, it was much easier to center the top windows so the outside looked even. Well, as even as possible. Three sides of the house look fine, but the left side of the house has two of three top windows out of alignment. The bathroom would not work with a centered window and for the one in the office to be centered it would have to be right next to the inner wall. We thought it would be better having the window centered in the room instead of trying to center it on the outside of the house, particularly because the bathroom one would still out of alignment.

These changes were challenging, mostly because I could have gotten upset having to change things yet again after thinking the plan was finally done. Getting frustrated wouldn't have helped me fix it, though. I'm convinced that because I kept my attitude positive, I could realize the need to add a major wall which at first appeared to screw things up was actually an opportunity from God to make things better. Perhaps He kept us from remembering that vent and realizing the chimney until the last minute just so I could learn that lesson.

What about you? Got a major obstacle suddenly in the way that seems to be screwing up things? Maybe it's an opportunity to alter things so they'll be better. It's worth considering.