Cottage Improvement Chronicles: The Plans

As much as I love our little cottage, I've know from day one that it's interior layout wasn't exactly my style. A four room house with one tiny bathroom is hardly conducive for two people and a beagle with ADD, let alone a couple thinking about children in the future. So, I started thinking about what I wanted to do to the house to "make it ours" and really make it our dream home. I could picture every detail...a giant mudroom on the back that swings around to a sun-room on the side of the house. A second story with a master bedroom and bathroom (complete with large walk in closest, claw foot tub, and balcony that over looks the Potomac River), as well as Jack and Jill style bedrooms downstairs, and don't forget the office/library...

And then we talked to Bubba's uncle, who just so happens to be a licensed contractor, who kindly reminded us that the front of our house is built on piers. Very old piers that can only hold so much weight, which is most likely the reason we only have a loft right now, and not a second story. Of course, we could jack the house up, remove the piers and put in a foundation, but money isn't growing on trees down here in Colton's Point. After that mild reality check, I decided to scale my plans back just a bit.

Here is a rough sketch I did of how I believe we could lay out our house while keeping the piers in the front. We are lucky in the fact that the kitchen/back of the house has an actual foundation and we could build a second story over top of it. PLEASE bare with me...these were done in Microsoft Paint...I never claimed to be a graphic artist!

But this wouldn't be a home repair/improvement process if there were some challenges...up next - sh*t hits the fan, well, the back yard...Hello, Septic Problems!