You may remember this fun announcement we made a few months ago, after waiting for so long. We explained a little bit of our situation here, and why we’re building a primary owner’s suite onto our home. {If you’re not familiar with our history, this is a nice little quickish recap of sorts.} Then last week, we shared our landscaping plans for the front. Today, we’re thrilled to share our {preliminary} owner’s suite plans.
I have to say, it’s a lot to explain. It’s complicated. But we will do our best to bring you along on this journey, as much as we can. At the very least just know that every decision we have made thus far, has been very intentional. And we’re thrilled to move forward.
We’ve come so far, and plan to take it farther!
Basically we purchased this house for the yard and school on a little bit of a wing and a prayer. And we did the inside which hadn’t been touched in years, so it was a fun project for us, while we’ve built our business up locally, helping people fall in love with their homes all over again.We know that it feels like, and it’s been a process.
In the meantime, over the last five years, the already-hot market really took off here, to the point where we received a cash offer on our house the other day, but we literally have nowhere to go… {Errebody is moving here from California!} and Nashville/Franklin is quickly becoming very much like it in the real estate market.
Also in the meantime, we didn’t know if an addition to our home was even possible. There are a lot of rules at play and we’ll try to explain why this has been SUCH a process, below.
The location of our home is GOLDEN. Close to the interstate, which is so rare. Amazing school system. Our children have built their lives here, and so have we. A large yard, which is so hard to come by. But with three growing children and two giant dogs, three bedrooms and two baths is shrinking rather quickly, and we need space to spread out.
Yes, I know that sounds Amercanized-entitled/whatever you want to call it. But we’ve taken this house from 1650 square feet of living space, to make it our own as a nice home for our family with three growing teens. That’s saying a lot.
So this is lucky phase no. 7, the one where we build our primary owner’s suite.
We’ve taken the back of the house from the original above, to here.
To the left of the pool room addition, in this photo below, is where our primary suite will be located.
This is a view of the side of the house where the owner’s suite can go. It’s the only space for it on our 1 acre lot, actually. I know, right? But let’s start it from the top. Literally. Because we’re just happy to be here.
This is what our home looked like the day we took possession of it, from the overhead view. We’ve outlined a little bit of what we’ve done, from the inside to the yard. What you’re looking at in this shot, is the metal shed that once stood before our first addition. {We’ve added even more square footage by finishing off the basement, and adding our first addition to the back.} We’ve also expanded the fence, and more.
So we started by consulting our surveyor. We’d been working with them since first moving to the house in 2016, when we did our initial renovation. {They even helped us with property lines when we added the fence.} With that initial renovation, we honestly did not think it was possible to add an primary suite. But we held out hope that where there’s a will, there’s a way. And we waited.
I’ve taken out the coordinates + street names, because we do like to maintain a little privacy. But I’m going to try to explain it all. We have had to play in the sandbox dealt to us, to the point where we’ve really had to re-examine if staying was the right thing for us. And we know it is.
1. We live with septic.
a. So that means because of the MBSL (more on this below) and the way the house and current septic sit on the lot, we only have enough space with new septic for a three bedrooms with this house. It doesn’t matter how many people live with you, or how many baths. Just bedrooms. Yep, those are the rules. Hard and fast. However, we’ve had a very kind person who works with septic help us through this. We are turning one of our bedrooms into a study. Yeah, we know. Just go with it.
b. The tricky part is we have to have a primary septic field, and a backup septic. Primary existing septic is on the right, where you see the lines on the map above. The backup is the fielded off area to the left of the house looking overhead. Septic fields have to be 25 feet off of the building and off the right away setback.
Whew. Are you following?
c. Along with the above, all the utilities also need to be 10 feet outside the septic field area which meant we needed to move internet, power, and gas. This is the stage we have been at, all summer long. Bonus because I’m choosing to see the bright side of things and this process WAS NOT CHEAP: no more icky power lines coming off the house, and we probably would have done that eventually, anyway.
Does your head hurt yet? {Cue laughy-face/hysteria emoji.}
2. We are also working with MBSL – The Minimum Building Setback Line.
This was designated when the neighborhood was established back in 1970-something. It ensures everyone maintains a certain amount of land. I’m not mad about it. There are too many homes being torn down now, and four built in their place. Keep your MBSL. It keeps our neighborhood established and traditional. But there was no appealing even the tiniest of borders. The MBSL is shown above, with the dotted line.
So, deep breath. If you’re keeping up with all of this information we’ve been dealing with for the past nine months, this doesn’t give us much to work with. That one-acre lot seems a lot smaller when you have two septic fields, two roads you must stay 25 feet off of, utilities that need to get to the house, but stay at least 10 feet away from the septic field, OH…. and let’s not forget the actual house and pool.
Still. This is the best plan for lots of reasons. We know what we have. At this point, we lose money if we move. And we lose our established trees and school and we’d have to fight people for a house and we’re busy building a business so aintnobodygottimeforthat. {We don’t feel like throwing down 150K over asking in an offers war.} We love older homes. We and the children…. love where we are.
I’ll be honest when I say this initially isn’t what I envisioned. I had to have a real come to Jesus, to decide if we truly wanted to stay here for a while. If the old home that we’ve now made one of a kind and fallen in love with, is really worth it. We knew we were in a pickle with limited space, a list of what we wanted, and rooflines alone were overwhelming. So we collaborated with an architect.
Enter: genius.
Total side note: Peter Aylsworth is the very best. He’s made a stressful situation fun, and brought us into the design process. We look forward to our meetings and bringing this project to life. Seriously, I’m getting kind of excited. If you live in Nashville and are looking for a well-versed, creative architect, willing to put up with your crazy ideas and laundry list of requests… he’s your guy.
So looking at the dotted lines above, this is what we truly have to work with. The existing house {the ORIGINAL PARTS} aren’t even within the MBSL. Someone long before us already broke the rules. So there was no negotiating with more space.
This is the site plan, and the initial plans were not like this. They were staggered to work within the bounds. However, he came up with this idea, after looking at it… and we wanted to hear what he had to say. So after a revision, this is where we’ve landed for now. I have to admit, at first my answer was no. No way would this work. But I believe in the creative process and what can happen when people are open minded.
Now, we’re thrilled with the solution to a very big problem.
This is what the roofline will look like from overhead. Keep in mind that it will all be unified with a much-needed new roof for the entire house, along with well-placed landscaping to make it an integral part of the house.
Back and front views:
From the pool view, you can see how the primary addition will become a part of the back porch, as if it’s always been there. And the side of the house will have elements that tie it in effortlessly.
But that roofline. Can we have a minute? Smooth like butta.
I love the way that he’s helped us bring in thoughtful moments to effortlessly tie it in with the original house, while also making the VERY most of that limited space. So if you can see from these drawings, they’re great opportunities to bring in some sitting areas outside, all while maximizing the inside with some great square footage.
I’m here for it, and tying in all these beautiful views.
But let me take you back to the inside, first.
We’ve kept this space to the left of the kitchen, purposefully empty all these years. Here is where the punch-through will go, to enter the new addition.
And here are the plans from overhead.
A few things for the inside:
• We had quite a laundry list of needs. Literally. The ultimate idea is to free up the basement, so that I have more office/studio space, and bring all of that into a bit of a butler’s pantry situation, that you walk through with the new addition. I had my heart set on a small wet bar on the left, which was also included. The only place the slightly offset addition will feel a bit odd, will be walking into the pantry area. Which can easily be interpreted as a hallway situation.
• Then, one thing we’re most thrilled about, is that laundry room. Oh for the love, we are so thrilled to finally get a laundry room. One of the big problems with this, was how to add something without blocking up those already existing beautiful kitchen windows? The washer and dryer are in a cantilevered space, while allowing room for what we need, without ruining our kitchen area. As you can tell, we had a tall order and we love the way Aylsworth Architecture seamlessly worked all of this in for us.
• If you spy the circle on the floor plan above, in the yard, you’ll see the established magnolia we plan to preserve. You know how we love our trees.
• The existing windows {A-la Window World} in the pool room will go away, on each side of the fireplace, and be recycled in the bedroom themselves. We’ve had limited wall space, and while I was sad to lose a little light, I’m also thrilled to gain some wall space for more creative use. See: sconces with photography, or art. This room isn’t hurting on light.
• From there, begins the entry to our bedroom. We will have built-ins and a fireplace with a hidden alcove for a TV, then a walk-through to our closets and bath. Ceilings were also very important to us with this, so we will have two rooflines which easily maximize the space, while giving the illusion of a larger room.
Ps. Do you know how excited we are to score some walk in closets? It was time.
So now we’re finalizing elevations and plans, while I’m pulling together all the design elements for the inside. {THE FUN PART!} I purposefully haven’t touched it yet with product and finishes, because I wanted to know how the inside would feel, first. I knew a lot of things were dependent on the way it felt, and I wanted that nailed down before I moved forward. Here we go.
So in between client work and day jobs, I’ll be dabbling in this {AND THE PLANNER- no worries – it’s totally coming} at night.
Stay tuned – we can’t wait to share it all with you! Thanks for staying with me. I know this one was a doozy. We’re tired but excited with all the feelings in between.
Have an inspired day!
Diane@InMyOwnStyle says
Wow! You had a lot of rules to work around and came out with a great looking plan. Looking forward to following the progress.
Layla says
This is so exciting. You guys have really stayed with this and it is going to pay off. Such smart solutions to so many crazy rules. Can’t wait to follow along.
Jeanine says
Wow, this will really look great and make the outside and inside of your home so much prettier and functional! The only thing I would add would be a bigger front porch while you’re at it!
ashley @ the handmade home says
YES Jeanine! Great suggestion. One which we have already considered – it’s those darn MBSL’s again. #killmenow But we do plan to revisit once all is said and done here. The size of that tiny porch definitely drives me cray cray – older homes and their little quirks though, right? 😀
Brie says
Yay!!! 🙂 May everything come together as you continue to mold this into the home of your dreams!
ashley @ the handmade home says
Thank you so much! We certainly have our work cut out for us {HA} But we’re excited for sure.