pre-renovation - bonus room In California, "bonus room" is code for "unpermitted addition." In this case a converted porch, hence the step down (this is on a slab foundation, while the rest of the house is on a perimeter foundation). My budget doesn't allow, but in an ideal world the walls on both sides of the fireplace would come down and the wall of windows would become an opening wall. The bugs where we live are minimal, and this would make the movement between house/ kitchen and outdoor living seamless. I'm sure there is concrete under the fake parquet - perhaps this is a candidate room for a nice polished concrete floor? Love that look in small pieces.
pre-renovation - master back/ bath Currently, this is a long narrow room that is rented as a separate apartment (you can just see the kitchenette in the far back). The fireplace mantels are all fake. The little walled area at the back is the bath. It is a miserable master bath. Ideally, a freestanding tub with large window (no neighbors!) goes in that back corner. The whole back, in fact, I'd like to see become a wet room. That has a toliet nook, washer and drier, and walk-through closet. We are renting right now, and I thank my lucky stars we rented this place before having to make decisions about our renovation because I learned the JOY of a walk-through closet. It connects the master bedroom to the bath (there are two ways to enter the bath) and it is FABULOUS. Loses all the claustrophobia of some walk-ins. I have a friend with a W/D in the master and I think it is BRILLIANT. 70% of dirty clothes end up in the master bedroom anyway. I'm always folding in the bedroom, and always making late night runs to the garage to get just one more load in the drier while energy is cheap before going to bed.
pre-renovation - master front Door opens into "bonus room." I believe we will build a new wall that sort of boxes in the bed space (cozy bed nook anyone?), remove the existing door and put a new door to the master so that people can get from the bonus room to the rest of the house without backtracking through the kitchen, or passing through the master space. This house makes me hate sponge paint, I can't wait to get rid of it.
pre-renovation - driveway In poor condition, will eventually tear out the asphalt and replace with packed crushed granite. I love that look. The road out front is busy and it is a blind exit from the driveway, so we might take down the fence and make this a round-about.
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