Tuesday 12 October 2010

House Plans

We finally have the final plans from the geometra for the adjustments we're making to the house and all of the documents we require are all ready for submission to the commune for approval. It's taken us over a year to get to this stage. I'm not even sure why it's taken so long. The geometra is a friend of my husband's family so it's mainly been my father-in-law who has been dealing with this side of things. We're not making any major changes to the outside of the house, basically just putting it back to the way it once was. The only big change is to slightly enlarge some of the windows.

Piano Terra (Ground floor)
We have two options for the placement of the kitchen. We can either have a big kitchen / diner in the 'taverna,' the large room where we opened up the arch I posted about here, and a small living room / den next door. Or we can use the large room as a living / dining room and have a smaller kitchen next door. The plans show the kitchen in both locations (we won't actually have two kitchens!)What do you think is best, a large kitchen or a large living room?

The downstairs bathroom will be more of a laundry room with a loo, and possibly shower if space allows, rather than a bathroom the way the geometra has shown.
the 'cantina'

Piano Primo (First floor)
The problem we have upstairs is that we only have 2 rooms we can use as bedrooms. The external staircase enters into the third room so it can't really be used as a bedroom. The geometra has shown it as another living room with a little kitchen in the corner (not quite sure why she thinks we need yet another kitchen!. However, we're planning to use this room as a study / library. We'll also put a sofa bed in there so it can turn into a guest bedroom when required.
the 'library'

This weekend is going to be spent in the house knocking the plaster off the walls. I'm getting extremely impatient now. It seems like the real work is never going to begin.


12 comments:

Shauna said...

Looks like it will be beautiful when its done .. have a happy weekend knocking that plaster off ;)

Ellen said...

It must be so exciting to get this going...thinking and dreaming of how it will be when it is all done. Anticipation! Looking forward to hearing the progress of it all.

Mademoiselle L. said...

Can't wait to see pics before and after! It is always exciting to look at the changes!
I will vote for smaller kitchen + bigger living room. You have space to entertain and you can actually take part in that without worrying about the huge pile of dirty dishes behind closed doors. :)

Sara Louise said...

Personally, I'd go with the bigger kitchen, because that's the room everyone gravitates to anyway. And if you have room for a big farmhouse table or extra comfy seating, it's the perfect place to hang out. I'm a firm believer that the kitchen is the heart of the home.

This is getting exciting Sarah! I love watching this journey x

Unknown said...

This looks like the Big Job! I envy you!!! I am already waiting for your next pics!!!!

Leanne was in Italy now in Australia said...

I love the plans, and they sound SO similar to our plans. At least you have a project on paper! We are already up to chipping the walls, but have not yet got the plan of where/what all the rooms will be.
I really like the idea of a larger kitchen room, as this is what we want to do, and like your arch, we want to smash the wall in, to have an arch just like yours. I think if you'll be cooking then it's nice to have company, and I want to have a biggish open plan kitchen/living room - so you can have the kitchen, and then the table, and also a sofa and tv in there if you have room so it's more of a warm, family room. The smaller room can be the computer room/den/library room.

LindyLouMac said...

I personally would go for as big a kitchen/ family room as you can get it is the heart of the home. In fact just looking above exactly as Leanne says. with growing families in the years to come you will find this sort of room works well. Our external staircase also goes in to the room that used to be the kitchen, house was only lived in upstairs, it now has a staircase and we use it as study/library.
I think you have been following my renovation posts, it is going to be fun seeing your progress now as well.

Makey Cakey said...

It's very exciting! Sure it will be a roller-coaster of a renovation with highs and lows, but the end result will obviously be beautiful and in impeccable taste Ruthx

Amanda said...

How exciting things are starting to move along. I like the kitchen in the bottom position (joined onto the 'taverna' rather than a separate smaller sized room. As for your upstairs room where the stairs are, I think putting a study/library there is the perfect idea and as you say, you can make it double as a guest room too. Happy de-plastering! x P.S Thanks for your kind words on my post yesterday.

Sarah Elizabeth said...

Thanks everyone for helping me to decide on the position of the kitchen. It seems like the overall consensus is to have a big kitchen / living room. Hopefully it will be big enough to fit in a decent sized sofa and table. Now I need to decide what to use the other smaller room for!

LindyLouMac said...

Does the smaller room have a door to the outside, maybe a laundry room or a snug (additional small sitting room)to one day maybe become a playroom.
Thanks also for stopping by News From Italy Just think soon you will be able to roast chestnuts c over your own open fire, perfect.

Grace @ Sense and Simplicity said...

How exciting your plans are. I would personally go with a joined kitchen - eating area, and have a small seperate living room. That is what we have in our house (which couldn't be more different than yours - new suburban Canadian - by the way) and it works very well. The living room is very cozy (13 x 13 feet) and I love that it is away from the mess of the kitchen, and the dining table is in close proximity to extra dishes or bringing the food to the table.