S is for house by the Seashore

We are still house hunting.  We did find a house in a little beach community that we felt had potential.  It was destined for the wrecking ball, but we think it's worth trying to save.  Did you know it's almost impossible to get reasonable financing for a fixer-upper?  Now, if we wanted to scrape the house and start fresh with new construction, banks would fall all over themselves to give us a loan.  Maybe that explains why so many lovely old houses get scraped?

Ah, well, we are in negotiations for the beach house fixer-upper, but the negotiations are not going smoothly.   So, we are going back to the shore this weekend to look at more houses.  But, I really liked the fixer-upper.  Not the mold growing on the ceiling where the roof leaks.  Not the rotting deck.  Definitely not the rat poo in the gutted kitchen.  I like the house's bones.  And banks of windows.  And it just seems to have heart.

If we buy it, which we very likely won't (since negotiations have stalled, because the seller seems to have forgotten that the housing bubble burst), here is what we would like to do.

We would like to raise the house one level to better take advantage of this view.

Here's another view of the back of the house.  The stairs would need to be moved to meet setback requirements.

Here's a before.

Here is a before of the front of the house...

and an after.

And another before of the front, showing the entrance...

... and here is a concept of how it would look after.

Remember the nasty kitchen?

Well, it could look like this!

I've decided to represent flagstone flooring, even though it isn't my favorite, because it is already there, and would be very expensive to replace.

This plan would leave all the fixtures in the same place, because that's less expensive to do, and it was pretty efficiently designed the first time around.  We would add a small island, however, because there is plenty of room for one!

Okay, I'll only share this one last space...

I'll spare you the rant about how dangerous step up tubs are, and how most building codes don't allow them, because too many people have broken their hips and chipped their teeth trying to climb into these things.

You can see why this is my dream home!

Who wouldn't want this nasty, stained moldy shower?

 Or this ripped out wall?

Seriously, though, without moving any major plumbing, but by thoughtfully planning the existing space, this bathroom could look like this.

Notice that there is NO chandelier over the bathtub.

I'll save that rant for another day, but I will say that I get REALLY tired of wanna be designers placing chandeliers over tubs.  It violates most electrical codes to do this, and can be very dangerous.

Well, there you have it.  The beach house. Could be my dream house.  Could be just another frog I've kissed trying to find my dream house.  Now, I'm off to pack my bags for the seashore to do a little more frog kissing (just in case the negotiations completely fall apart on this one)!

This post is being linked to Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday, and House of Grace Best of 2010