Spaces

The image in last night's post shows the house from the southwest.  This is the side facing the lake.  On the ground floor (from left to right) the house has:

• A screened porch, so one can sit and eat outside in good weather, or watch a thunder storm.  A service porch, laundry room, and half-bath are behind this, on the side facing the road.
• The kitchen (these windows are over the sink).  A dining area is on the road side.
• The living room, with the stairwell and front entry behind.
• The first floor bedroom on the lake side, with a full bath toward the road.

The kitchen, dining, and living areas will be one space.  This part of the house will appear spacious when, in fact, the square footage is quite modest.  Early on, I decided that didn't want a "great room" with a soaring cathedral ceiling.  I'm not building a medieval manor house!  And why heat all that airspace?

  

I definitely wanted the most-used spaces — kitchen and living room especially — to have a view of the lake.  I also wanted the ground floor to be, in effect, a barrier-free "apartment" should the time come when I cannot negotiate stairs.  From my years in Detroit I have vivid memories of parishioners living in handsome Grosse Pointe homes which lacked a bedroom and full bath on the ground floor.  Thus, when these folks had a hip or knee replacement, they had to put a hospital bed in the dining room and struggle (or "butt-walk") up and down the stairs just to take a shower.  That's what you get when you design a house without thinking about the needs of its occupants.  So one of my main goals was to put all the essentials — bedroom, full bath, living/dining, kitchen, and laundry — on one level.  In addition, both kitchen and bath will accommodate someone in a wheelchair.  The service porch entry will be just two steps up from grade, so a ramp could be added without much hassle. •••