Thank you for all the kind, excited messages on Instagram and Facebook about our beach house project. If you missed our original announcement, check the post on our blog to catch up. As promised, here’s a clear rundown of the floor plan and the changes we’re planning so far. Fair warning: we’re still early in the process and likely to tweak things as we go. This house is a huge project and we’ve only just begun exploring it.
Before diving into plans, we recorded a short video tour on our first visit after closing. You’ll see the house in its original, rough condition and some of the leftover bits that came with the property. The state of the house only made us more excited — we even found a few amusing surprises during our first pass.
Also: you might notice Sherry’s voice sounds a bit different in the video — she’s wearing Invisalign right now, so her speech is slightly altered. If you want more background on that, she discusses it on a couple of podcast episodes.
NOTE: If you can’t see the video (for example, if you’re reading in a reader), visit the blog post where it’s embedded.
Now that you’ve seen the house, here’s our rough, hand-made floor plan for context. The house is about 1,800 square feet and currently lists two official bedrooms. We labeled a third room because it’s essentially missing a closet and could easily be converted. We also labeled a couple of enclosed porch areas as “bonus rooms,” though in their current condition they have openings to the outside and aren’t really countable heated square footage. To be honest, much of the house needs work: there’s no functioning plumbing, the wiring is sketchy, and it currently lacks heating and cooling.
The existing layout is a good starting point, but the kitchen and sleeping arrangements could use improvement. Ideally we want the house to comfortably sleep two families — our family and a guest family — so we’re planning for flexible, bunk-friendly sleeping spaces.
Before we made an offer, we toured a nearly identical renovated house next door. That tour gave us several initial ideas, which are shown in this first revision of the floor plan:
Key changes we considered:
- Mudroom. We liked the idea of converting an enclosed side porch into a mudroom for corralling sand, towels, and shoes. It could also contain a small utility closet for a stacked washer/dryer and a water heater behind bifold doors.
- Open Floor Plan. The wall between the kitchen and dining room is already partly removed, so we planned to take it out entirely to create a more open main living area. Good news: it’s not load-bearing.
- New Wall Upstairs. Shifting a long load-bearing wall a few feet allowed our neighbors to finish the upstairs bonus space into an additional bedroom; we considered the same move.
- Main Bedroom With Attached Bath. Converting a front storage room into an en suite bathroom and expanding the closet felt like a smart luxury upgrade.
That first revision worked in many ways, but we discovered several issues as we penciled out layouts and estimates:
- Limited Kitchen Walls. The back of the house has very little uninterrupted wall space due to the back door, the back staircase, a low window, and the bathroom door, which complicated kitchen design options.
- Plumbing Costs. Adding a bathroom to the front of the house would be significantly more expensive because there’s no plumbing on that side; the plumber estimated an extra $4–5K for materials and labor. We wanted two full bathrooms upstairs, so the plumber recommended placing the second bath adjacent to the existing plumbing to save cost.
- Pass-Through Bedroom Concern. Our earlier plan created a layout where people would have to walk through bedroom spaces to access bathrooms. Adding a hallway felt like wasted space, but not adding one didn’t feel right either.
Then a neighbor in another nearly identical house invited us over. Their upstairs has a hallway exactly where we’d been contemplating one, and it didn’t feel dark or cramped — it felt right. That sparked a new plan that addresses the earlier concerns. Here’s the revised plan we’re working from now:
Breaking it down floor by floor, starting with the upstairs (existing on the left, new on the right):
Upside changes include:
- Hallway. Adding one new wall through the old Bedroom 2 creates a comfortable hallway while still leaving ample space in the remaining bedroom.
- Hall Bath & Bunk Room. The upstairs bonus room is split into a hall bath placed right behind the existing bathroom plumbing (a major cost saver) and a small bunk room. The bunk room isn’t a legal fourth bedroom, but it will comfortably hold two built-in twin beds, making it a perfect kids’ sleeping area.
- Closet Trade-offs. To create a clean bed wall in what becomes the main bedroom, Bedroom 2’s closet is removed. We have plans to replace that storage with a wall of closets down the length of Bedroom 2 (likely an Ikea system) and will find a suitable wardrobe or closet solution for Bedroom 3.
- Small Front Room. The small room at the front could be used for storage, or turned into a cozy reading nook or other functional space depending on our needs.
Now downstairs (revised on the left, current on the right):
Main downstairs updates:
- Kitchen / Dining Swap. We moved the kitchen to the center of the home where there’s a long wall for cabinets and space for a large island. The dining area becomes a cozy rear spot with big windows and could also house a bookcase and games.
- Kitchen Design. We haven’t finalized cabinet and appliance placement yet, but the plan includes a sink in the island so whoever’s at the sink can look out the windows instead of staring at a wall.
- Utility Closet. The mudroom will hide a stacked washer/dryer and the water heater behind bifold doors for a tidy appearance.
- HVAC. An HVAC pro suggested placing the first-floor unit under the stairs in the storage area, which keeps it out of the way and preserves mudroom space.
We’re now in the stage of getting quotes for these revisions and addressing big-ticket items like foundation repairs and a new roof. Fingers crossed the numbers stay manageable — we’ll be balancing budgets and priorities as we move forward.
P.S. If you’re shopping for holiday gifts, we’ve shared gift guides and curated home-favorite lists on our site for those who asked about the decor and furnishings we love.