After - The Final Layout

DESIGN DRAWINGS:  Part of what I’d like to use this blog for is to share some of my work, not only before and after photos but also the design drawings, sketches and inspirational concepts. They represent all the months and sometimes years of work that have had to take place before those lovely ‘after’ photos can be taken.  For past projects, I’m going to start by going back about 6 years, or about as far back as the files date on my current computer.  Anything older than that,,,,and I’ll have to start digging thru the boxed archives.  Which i’m sure I’ll do eventually but in the meantime,,,,, I’ll start circa 2003 with one of the oldest living projects on my hard drive now, it also happens to be the FIRST time I had the opportunity to design a home for myself!   If you haven’t read my earlier post or seen some after photos of my condo you can check it out here.  

BEFORE:  When my boyfriend and I decided to buy a place together, our search for our ‘dream’ home didn’t last long, I don’t even remember how we ended up looking at condos, that certainly wasn’t my intent,  but it is true when they say that location really trumps everything else..... and, that men really don’t like change.  Did I mention this condo we bought was located directly below the unit my boyfriend was renting at the time.   Oh yes you could say,,,we searched high and low for our new place. ; ) 

 

And this is the condo we bought .......

The combination Living Room/Dining room featured a stippled popcorn ceiling, cheap, plastic like laminate flooring, ugly aluminum windows,,, and a stunning view.

The kitchen 'Before' - viewed from the Living Room.

Despite the kitchen was 20 years old, it was in like new condition.  The condo had only one previous owner, a single male and the unit was immaculately well kept.

Guest bathoom and Master Ensuite below, vintage 1983.  

The master ensuite.  

DEMO:  And about  one week after taking possession,,,,,this is what our condo looked like!

THE AFTER SHOCK:  This is the stage in every reno project when the homeowners feel overwhelmed with anxiety, it marks the beginning of many sleepless nights.  Your home, typically your single biggest investment, has suddenly become a pile of rubble and you can't imagine it ever being livable again within the time frame or budget you've allocated.  

It was after the demo stage that most of the design plans for the condo got reworked and finalized.  We discovered all sorts of conduit and telephone/cable risers in places we didn’t expect, right smack dab in the middle of our new wide open plan living spaces.  Discouraging to say the least.  They weren’t indicated on the base building plans that the management office had provided so we had no idea what we'd find once the walls came down.  And when they did, I had to quickly figure out how I was going to work around all these obstacles without chopping the place up again and building bulkheads everywhere. All that conduit you see hanging down from the ceiling and sticking up thru the floors,,,,had to stay, but i wanted clean, high ceilings.

Despite all those 'surprises' I was excited to see the place demolished.  Aside from the view, there was nothing I liked about the unit.  I hated the layout.  The tiny kitchen on the interior of the unit was completely enclosed with full height walls, essentially blocking a spectacular view - which made no sense to me at all.   As for the 45’s, I can’t even begin to tell you how much I hate 45 degree angles (I’ve always thought they’re a lame way of trying to making something fit that otherwise doesn’t fit - and people might think its a ‘creative’ solution, but i think it just looks like something was lopped off.)   And then there’s that interior bedroom with sliding patio doors,,,,,and the fact that there was no balcony.

Here’s a look at the demo plan - it shows what the existing layout was like when we purchased it, and everything we planned to remove is indicated by dashed lines.  Basically, we stripped it back to the concrete shell leaving only the plumbing stacks and conduit in place. 

PRELIMINARY PLANNING: Before we even submitted an offer to purchase the place, I took a site measure, drew up the plans and starting sketching.  We had to satisfy ourselves that we could make the space more useable for us, and do some quick estimating on the costs and time involved.  This only took a day or two.  Below are some of my really rough sketches (and I mean rough), probably done in a coffee shop.  Despite how rough the sketching looks, when i look at these now i can clearly see my thought process and how the final plan evolved.   I always freehand sketch dozens of ideas before I ever start to draft anything up on the computer, i had piles of these rough layout sketches.  To this day, that condo remains one of the most challenging spaces I ever worked on.  A huge angled wall, very little wall space,,,,foor to ceiling glass,,,,,,furniture placement was impossibly awkward.  I never was completely satisfied with the layout but for us, it was a a big improvement to what was there before.

SKETCHES:  We wanted to maximize the views of course, I love to cook and have dinner parties so I wanted a kitchen that was condusive to entertaining large and small groups, I wanted undercounter, side by side washer & dryer set up, not a tiny stacked unit squeezed in an even tinier closet,,,I wanted a separate cozy tv/library area, a small home office space and an entry way that was inviting, private, and could accommodate 3 or 4 people comfortably with lots of storage for coats and boots.