Google+ House Revivals: Beach House Before and After Concepts

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Beach House Before and After Concepts

We had guests visiting our beach house last weekend, and we were showing them pictures of the renovation, and how the beach house looked when we first found it.


Needless to say, our guest were shocked at how bad it looked when we originally fell in love with it!  I realized, as we were skimming back through old blog posts, that our concept pictures were scattered all over the place.  Although I'm pretty positive my guests all want to watch me search through millions of posts to find what I'm looking for, I'm pulling several of the beach house concept before and after pictures together into one post -- just in case they actually don't want to sit and watch me search through millions of posts.

 Loft level window seat.
The loft level window seat came about when we discovered one of our decks was leaking into an interior wall, causing lots of damage.  We realized that, due to our very rainy winters, even if we fixed everything, we would have to do it all again in a few years.  The wind was forcing the water into the wall before it had a chance to drain.  So, we enclosed the deck, and were left with this funny little space. What to do with it?  The seat is still unbuilt, and we decided to carpet the loft level for warmth, comfort, and noise reduction, instead of hardwood floors. Now, we're looking for a new carpenter....

Guest Bedroom (formerly a badly converted garage)

Sleeping Loft Bedroom (formerly part of the badly converted garage)


Beach House Kitchen. 
This layout actually changed when a neighbor added another floor to their house -- we lost part of our view to the south, so we removed one window and switched the sink and stove around.


View of the House from the Beach.
This is the last major part of the renovation still to be completed -- although the house has been raised, the beach facing deck has not been rebuilt yet.

The Street View.
The street view concept has gone through many changes.  Between our structural engineer's earthquake and wind requirements, our city codes, our budget, and the fact that our neighbor painted their house almost exactly the colors we had planned to use, our street view plans have been pretty open.

Courtyard Concept.
Okay, our courtyard only looks slightly better than that first picture right now!  This concept is still changing.  My husband was leaning toward a fire pit in the center, and I was leaning toward a fireplace.  He wanted concrete flooring; I wanted pavers....  We're working on it :)

It's good to see these before pics -- it reminds me how far we've come... and it's good to see the concept drawings, as well -- it reminds us where we're going!