First off, I only count two bedrooms… Maybe the first floor with the kitchenette is your mother in law’s suite? Not sure… I’m basing my comments on seeing the two bedrooms, though.

draft 2: “new window above” in the 1/2 bath – what is that a window to?!

draft 3: I don’t quite understand why you’d want two full baths next to each other… If this floor includes your master bedroom in addition to your mother in law’s suite, then it might make more sense, but this needs some justfication to make sense. Like the idea of putting the window seat in, but the closet seems to just be kind of thrown in that space. Maybe put the closet next to the bedroom door. Plus it won’t block as much sunlight.

Hope this helps

I noticed you are going to leave the outside air handler where it is and build the deck above it. Consider moving it to a new location, or else have problems like we do where the previous owner located it in an alcove without clearance above to remove the hot air. kills efficiency and so the system doesn’t work like it should. it should have something like 10′ free clearance above with adequate air flow around to evacuate the heat, which will be prevented by the deck. move it out from under the deck if you can.

Thanks for the info on the air handler. That is not an issue that has come up, but is definitely worth considering.

Dirty- The renovations to the master bath are not part of this phase of the project, so the drawings show the current setup. Rest assured though, the master bath will be accessible from the master bedroom only. It just doesn’t show that way here. The deck design took a lot of thought. We wanted to maintain open and clear access to the lower level, we learned our lesson trying to move things in… we couldn’t. We want to maintain green space back there, so we have no desire to park a car beneath the deck like our neighbors do. You’re correct, it will definitely use more materials and we lose some space, but for us, it works!

What is the external addition going to have on the outside? Wood siding? Aluminum?

In the Kitchen – why are you planning on a door into the mudroom? I assume it will be insulated but maybe not heated space but for the sake of flow I’d leave off the door – or make it a pocket door. Think about walking in with groceries and having to open two doors.
Also have you considered puting in a bay window for the reading nook? It’d add a lot of light and interest to that space.

What kind of roof are you thinking? I say splurge for copper there and any downspouts, gutters, etc. In the new bath on the 2nd floor – is that a garden tub or a shower? A shower would be my preference over the garden tub.

Overall I think this is a great illustration how little spaces can make a huge differences. On This Old House this past weekend they spoke with Elizabeth Wilhide. If you haven’t read any of her things – I say run to the library and chekc out what they have. She really does a good job showing how small touches can really do a lot for making spaces feel bigger and more liveable.

Overall – excellent!

Sorry, I see you already addressed the question I had…I didn’t refresh the page before I posted.

Someone has to play devils advocate, and I guess it might as well be me; this screams BAD IDEA! When I started reading my first thought was this is going to end up being one of those renovation reality shows on TV.

I don’t care how long you plan on staying there; a 3 bed 3.5 bathroom row house is just unheard of in DC. Who is going to buy it when you eventually sell it? Sure its nice to have those extra things but I think what is going to end up happening is that your house will sell for the going rate of a 3/2 in your area and will not have any premium for that extra space making your whole financial investment a complete loss. I would sit down with a good realtor before I started anything.

Also, I don’t think you have taken the downside to a renovation seriously enough. It doesn’t sound like you have a lot of renovation experience (or confidence in your abilities). You are talking about ripping a whole in the back of your house! What if the renovations take longer than you anticipate? Do you really want to subject your Wife/MIL to an open house in the middle of winter? What if you find that you cant do the work and cannot afford to pay a contractor to finish the job?

I look at a lot of houses, and I have seen ones where people started a renovation and couldn’t complete. The ones with an opening to the outside are the worst, and their values plummet. Do you really want to risk you biggest investment (assumption) for a third bathroom???

It looks like you have a good plan. My husband & I have personally renovated several homes ourselves, as well as, by trade I am an interior designer who has done a ton of renovation projects. You need to plan that you will most likely spend 10% to 30% more than your initial budget & it will take you 20% to 40% longer than expected. If you are doing the work yourself it could be towards the higher percentages. Unexpected things happen when you start messing with older homes! If you are not sure of something, hire it out! Our first house my husband & I decided to do everything ourselves. It was a total gut out that included moving walls & plumbing. I came up with a great plan & because of my profession I had the project very organized. My husband & I would work on our house after our 9 to 5 jobs till 3 am monday-Friday & would work on it every weekend. We were so tired & wanted to kill each other by the end. There were several things that my poor husband tried to do himself that we had to call someone to come & fix it in the end. That project took twice as long & went almost 50% over budget because we were trying to save money by doing the labor ourselves. We learned a lot from that experience & have done several homes since then. All our homes have sold within a few days of putting them on the market, including one this summer! My advice is to do things right the first time. Oversee the overall renovation & find skilled tradesman for the major things. If your budget is really tight I would encourage you to hold off & save a little more money. Winter time can be a nasty time to do a renovation like this. If time isn’t an issue you might consider waiting till the spring. I do hope all goes well with this & the plan looks great! Keep us updated!!

Hey, thanks everyone, the advice and comments have been great!

First, we are only just now finalizing the plans, we still need to run things by the structural engineer and then get permits. We are definitely not planning on starting this in the winter, we just want to be ready as soon as spring hits.

Excellent point on the kitchen door. Throughout the early phases I kept pushing to keep it in, my wife and the architect finally convinced me I was wrong.

The plans don’t show it, but there is a parking spot which will remain untouched by the renovation, we have a “fairly” long backyard. That said, we want to maintain some green space, rather than concrete the whole thing as our neighbor’s have done.

Best idea of the thread has been to add a bay window! I have no idea why we didn’t think of that. I will send an email to the architect to see if it is feasible, but I can’t imagine why it won’t be.

I want to leave the discussion of cost to another post perhaps. I have done some very preliminary budgeting, so I have a good feel for what this should run. We’ve also received a number of bids from contractors, so I have a feel for the ceiling. After the plans are done I will sit down and do a full budget which I’d be more than happy to share!

A Strange- Thanks for sharing your experiences, like most things in life, I am sure this will come in over time and over budget, but being aware of that is important.

Just J- Sorry man, but yours was just another typical uninformed POP hater post. I guess there has to be at least one. Now that I’ve been the victim of one I really need to watch how I respond elsewhere. You made many assumptions that were not based on or substantiated by the original post.

We anticipate living in this house for at least 20 more years. The work we are doing is not meant to be a financial investment only, but rather an investment in quality of life. We love our home and our neighborhood, we don’t want to move elsewhere and yet we need more space. While we may not, at the end of the day, recoup all of our costs, I am confident we’ll recoup some and I am certain our home will sell faster. Also, I am sure 10-15 years ago someone would have responded similarly about a house in Columbia Heights, no? And now I am quite certain that the number of bathrooms in a Columbia Heights rowhouse affects the sale price. That said, we are not looking to make money on this, just looking to improve life. Also, is a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath house with in-law suite unheard of? Because I’ve seen a fair amount of those and it actually makes a lot of sense. Most people would love a real master bathroom and that requires at least a second bathroom to service the other bedroom. An in-law suite wouldn’t be much of a suite without the bathroom though, would it? I don’t think this setup is nearly as strange as you imply.

I perhaps undersold my experience in my initial post to be coy. I am by no means a professional, but have done some major improvement projects in this house and in others. I spent years in international development, developing, overseeing and participating in major building projects in other parts of the world. Doesn’t make me an expert in DC codes, but I can swing a hammer. Moreover, not sure where in the plans you see ripping a hole in the back of the house. This project was designed very specifically to use existing openings, doors and windows, to avoid having to rip new holes in the house.

Finally, and most importantly, we can, actually, afford to hire a contractor to do the work. We’ve interviewed a number of them and received some interesting proposals and yet we’ve decided to go this path. I enjoy doing the work and this seems like an interesting project, a great opportunity to get my hands dirty. We will hire out where necessary or prudent, for sure and I am sure moments will arise where some emergency help will be necessary. I have a number of family members in the trades, as I mentioned, who will be of tremendous help, I am sure.

Have you looked at zoning and whether your renovation will be approved? I don’t know the exact address but there is a max build out on lot in the city. So before you continue your planning I would double check, lot size, current size, planned addition siza and see if it’s going to be allowed before you are rejected and sent back to the drawing board.

I have another idea that came to me between the baywindow post and now. For the windows on the back bedroom – could you enlarge them (widht and heighthwise) and then on the outside add juliet balconies for plants? It would add light to a small space (if you can’t add square feet add the appearance of square feet) and make the back of the house a bit more interesting from the deck and yard. Plus I’m sure your MIL would love ‘em.

One last thing – If you can Keep the exposed brick in the mudroom.

Good luck – budget for more costs and more time and if you finish on time and on budget you’ll be really happy!.

I’m concerned about the 2nd bedroom not having a window. It looks like you have to tunnel deep into the closet to actually find the window here. Although it would be very enjoyable to have a window seat (everyone on my block has one in the back bedroom), your situation may result in skis, vacuum cleaners and other things filling that closet so you may not actually enjoy the closet-based window seat.