Plat of Property

Click above for larger picture of rendering

In order to continue with our building plans we had the property surveyed. I forwarded the plans to our architect David Graham and he will determine based on where property lines are and setbacks needed to finalize our plans. We would like to avoid cutting down trees in the backyard as they provide a much needed shade canopy. Also, I have noticed running bamboo spiking up in the backyard along the fence. While I like bamboo, it is very invasive and will take over the yard if we are not careful. Every plant in the yard, is in fact invasive. Wisteria is growing bountifully on the iron fence beside the house, and Asiatic Jasmine is growing in the front yard. I am surprised that I have not found Kudzu growing there as well. Back to the plat, this is necessary for the final plans to be drawn. It will be up to us the take the plat to the city and to register it. Apparently, the current plat the city has shows that our property line is literally right on the house line. The corrected plans shows a good 20 feet leeway. I had visions of expanding the house from the kitchen, but our architect seems to think, as well as JP, that it is better to stay withing the footprint of the original house......Reality check ONE!

Narrowing it down

David Graham presented us with four rough drafts of our restoration project. With a week and a half under our belts to digest his recommendations, we decided to morph the plans to incorporate from each plan the things that we liked. We really liked his ideas for the kitchen in #2 and the living room and bedrooms in #4. We met again and decided to adapt what we liked from his plans to bring them together into a final rough draft. We have divided the work into phase 1 and 2. Phase 1 will focus on a total redesign of the kitchen and one of the bathrooms. Phase 2 will add a new master bedroom, master bath, double garage and potential studio / garage apartment. And yes, an outdoor shower, my favorite indulgent suggestion!

April 7th, 2010

David Graham came by with some preliminary rough sketches for our renovation. They were imaginative, functional and would add heated square footage in progressively greater amounts . We talked of adding a master bedroom and master bathroom to the area that is presently our garage. Yes, I will gladly give up the covered garage for a NEW totally functional and level space. All of his renderings opened up the living space floor plan quite a bit making the house much more functional and free flowing. Now it is time to digest all the plans, assimilate all the information and come up with a single rough sketch that we can take to a contractor for some estimates.

This was also the first time Anna, Michael & Madison stayed with us at the house. We were all there for spring break. Additionally JP's parents (Michael & Phyllis) spent a couple of days with us "discovering" Conway. We dined at our favorite restaurant in town (The Rivertown Bistro) and put them up at the Moore Family Farm B&B (having a group breakfast the following morning).