We Have Light!

With the help of our very wise and talented friend, my husband has now gifted our basement with its very own light, making trips down there much less hazardous!

We also brought some much needed natural light into the soon to be kitchen area by knocking out an original back doorway that had been plastered over.

standing in kitchen admiring new doorway

The newly opened doorway leads into the living room at the front of the house. Because of this adjustment we will have to build new stairs to the basement, but this is actually a wonderful

opportunity because this leaves the old entrance to the basement as a large closet/pantry space.

looking at new doorway from living room

We have been thinking a lot about the kitchen space lately. It is definitely the room that needs the most attention and we feel it is the most important room in the house. It is the room where everyone gathers, the room where I prepare and feed my growing family nourishing, healthy food. At first our initial reaction to the room was "make it bigger," we'll put on an addition was our solution. But now we're rethinking our original plan. How much room do we really need? We've been reading through these books by Sarah Susanka "The Not So Big House; A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live" and they are quite inspiring. Though most of the houses used as examples are much bigger than our house, the intention of reducing and combining the spaces we actually live in is something that speaks to our family's personality. As well as the all too important fact that it means less space to heat!

So, with that in mind my husband, Toma and I got out the graph paper last night and worked with some design ideas that will include not only a kitchen, but also a powder room, laundry space and (drum roll please!) MUDROOM!

I am just adamant about creating a mudroom for the back entry. As the mother of three young children I know this space will greatly improve everything that comes along with the dressing and undressing of three very muddy, snowy, sandy, wet children, not to mention the odd fact that if there is dog poop within a five mile radius of our house my children will step in it and I unfortunately never notice soon enough. To include the magical mudroom in our design plans we will have to enclose a portion of a breezeway that connects the back door to the garage, but we are okay with that as the garage already blocks all the light coming into the kitchen from that side of the house and we knew we would have to invest in sky lights from the beginning to give the kitchen all that wonderful natural light.

breezeway to be partially enclosed

(don't mind the large fire you see at the back, it's under control :)

I'll try to post a picture of the floor plan we came up with next time, which will hopefully help us commit to one idea and then go for it.

**Wishing everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR filled with light, new beginnings

and a go-for-it kind of attitude!** Love, Susan