A New Plan

With the devastating phone call late on Halloween Night, 2016; first from our property manager calling from the Arlington fire station and then a following call from the Snohomish County Fire Marshal from the scene - our house, the one Sue and all of her family grew up in - is burned out by an arsonist.  I asked the Fire Marshal if it was total lost? He said if it wasn't, it was pretty close.  Insurance adjuster later confirmed it was a total loss.

Our next steps toward recovery and deciding the future have been tenuous and discussed around the dinner table.  The option of taking the insurance ACV (actual cash value) which accounted for depreciation on the 56-year old structure made that decision pretty simple.  We would leave too much money on the table to walk away at this point and have only a vacant 50 acre lot on the Pilchuck Creek.  No, we would rebuild. 

Architect's elevation concept of our rebuilt house

 Our property manager did some searching and put out a feeler to see if any architects in the area were interested in taking on a design and rebuild project upon the original foundation of a house in the woods.

We got a couple of suggestions, and after checking the references for a Seattle-based architect, we paid him a retainer and I explained my new concept of what I had hoped to build back on the original foundation.  Our general contractor said to plan on $150/sq. ft for construction costs, and my original designs were far beyond the budget we had coming from the insurance settlement to replace the house.  Our architect, took my concept sketches and politely suggested that "a lot of people to not realize that up to 35% of interior space can be wasted with inefficient design."  He then tightened up my floor plan and eliminated my master bedroom and second floor loft as outside the scope of my construction budget.  After several iterations we had a new floor plan that we would enjoy and come close to affording.

For those familiar with the original Cook home, the new plan calls for placing the kitchen and a lot of windows on the south side of the house, looking off toward the orchard.  The kitchen will flow into a dining room with a wood burning stove, on the front of the house a large circular window will look east toward the front yard and garden area. One day we hope to have a deck that opens out from the dining room to the south.  

Sue really wants a fireplace, and we have placed designed the hearth to sit at a 45-degree angle in the corner of the front (east-facing) wall in the living room in the center of the house.  An office will be located at the northeast corner where the kitchen used to be.  We will have access to the basement from two first-floor locations, the first through the large kitchen pantry and the other along the north wall descending down a staircase across from the utility room (which will remain in the original location).

There will be a bathroom with tub and shower off of the living room and a second upstairs bathroom for the First Bedroom (for now, the Master Bedroom).  As before, the bedrooms will be at the back of the house, windows with a view to the west.  We are planning for now to have only two bedrooms upstairs. 

Depending upon budget and extra funds available, we hope to have at least one bedroom in the basement with its own bathroom and sheltered parking built on the north side, where vehicles have always been parked.

If we become rich enough to match our ambitions, we would like to add a real master bedroom over a 2-car garage built into the side of the hill at the back of the house, off of the newly planned kitchen.

The new floor plan concept sketch is shown below.  We will be expanding the first floor footprint, up from about 1385 square feet to 1600 square feet with the kitchen/dining room wall being pushed further to the south and an extension of the former kitchen wall to create a bit more space for the planned office. 

Final iteration of sketch of our vision for the new floor plan

 We are now awaiting technical drawing from the architect and the permitting process.  We have hopes of having the place ready by the end of October.  

I am disappointed that we expect to have to rent the place out once again to defray expenses.  But, at some point it would be great to move in ourselves, as we have long intended.