I’m embarking on a new project for a homeowner in the Donelson area. He just bought this home from the 1940’s. Much of it was updated after a fire a few years ago, but it still had only one bathroom. It’s time for that to change.
On one end of the home is a room that obviously started out as a garage, but was later transformed into a den with a large closet that probably held the laundry at one time. The idea for this project is to completely remove the closet, raise the floor to match the rest of the home and then add a 2nd bathroom.
This is a difficult one to explain, even if you’re looking at my rough sketch (pictured below).
There are a couple tricky parts to this project. First, is the prospect of raising the floor. This room’s floor is around 28″ lower than the rest of the house. Thankfully, that’s enough space for me to frame a new floor and still have an 18″ crawlspace to access underneath.
Raising the floor will require adding two sets of stairs. One, at the end of the hall that will descend into the den. The other will actually be inside the bathroom. To make all of this work, the new bathroom will enclose the back door and have three ‘winder’ steps leading down to it.
It will be an interesting project with some very interesting parts that will have to come together to be a bathroom that is not only functional, but also up to code and built to last.
I like a challenge!
-Peter
