We-Design-Day Project: Construction Drawings!

This is an exciting week for me! I think I’ve finally nailed down the final, accepted design for the basement renovation. It’s been a very long and complicated process – made worse by my indecision and lack of time to dedicate to it. But this week, I am very happy to report that I’ve got what I need to down and documented, I’ve got the furniture specified and I’m now working on the construction schedule and the final budget.

I’m also planning a meeting with the We-Design-Day Fun with Colour winner (we had a scheduling conflict for our last meeting so we had to postpone) and will have the interview and the final results in the coming weeks and as if it couldn’t get better, today I’m involved in a seminar on ORGANIZING so I’ll be sharing those tips with you soon as well (likely, the organizing tips will be shared with my Friday participation with the 52 Week Organizing Challenge)! And I’ve got the next two renovation projects picked out AND (it must be summer) I’ll be sharing with you how to prepare a 10 Year plan for your home!

It’s going to be a fun, action packed summer so let’s get it underway with the final design for our first WeDesignDay Renovation project!

Last week I met with my husband to review the preliminary layout for his office. He expressed concern with the layout – his work flow is different than mine.

Design Tip: It’s important to keep in mind when planning an office space how your work flows and how you (and others using the office) are “handed”. Generally, most right handed people have the reference documents on their left side and will work in a left to right motion – ensuring less paper clutter on their right hand side to allow for free movement of the pointing device. A person’s height and weight are also important to take into consideration. Being too tall or too short cause strain and injury and having an ill-fitting chair makes sitting for long periods of time uncomfortable!

So we flipped his desk around and he’s happy! We are also improving the lighting and upgrading the electrics. The next WeDesignDay project will reduce the need for a complete table top studio in his office but we will accommodate prop and equipment storage.

This finalized design will meet our goal – it will provide an open workspace for me, a good play area for TroubleMaker, a larger office for my husband with a ‘thinking’ space and lots of storage, a games area (YAY), a music area and improve the overall lighting and layout. We are focusing our budget on getting the furniture that will work for my open-concept office and improving the electrical and lighting.
Since we painted the basement recently, we will not need to repaint but we will be installing new flooring in the area we are opening up. I’ve tentatively selected the lighting we’ll be installing and the furniture list is compiled. I need to do further research on replacing the T-bar ceiling – it won’t match up with the existing ceiling but I think offsetting it one way will work out fine and will require less cutting and patching on our part.

WeDesignDay_ProjectOne_bsmt

I will be sending out the lighting and electrical to my electrician (who also happens to be my step-father) and since we’ll be doing the remainder of the work, I’ll be pricing out the materials.

Next week, I’ll have the project schedule and the detailed budget for you. In the meantime, happy designing and see you next week!