Fernleigh House

image from Freepik

As per usual, all gung-ho I had made a start on the demolition/alterations to Fernleigh House, when it somewhat belatedly dawned on me that perhaps it might be prudent to make some plans on what actually needs to be done 😏  So work was temporarily halted whilst consultations took place with Ephemy and Susannah as to what they would ideally like their new home to look like, both externally and internally. 

Quite major alterations have already been made to the front of the house, which I will show you in an upcoming post.  Suffice to say not a vestige of the "mock Tudor"-look in the photo above now exists 😉 Discussions are still ongoing with regards to the roofline, and whether it should be completely altered or just made so that the third floor is more accessible for decorating.  It's not as easy to work up there as it might appear!

 As for the internal layout of the house, that's proving to be a little bit of a headache to be honest.  As I mentioned previously the stair openings are very unsatisfactory, as is so often the case 😒  However I think I can make it somewhat better by moving the internal door openings from the back of the house to the front, thereby giving a little more space for the stairs and landings.  The rooms on the left are good sizes, though, even after the alterations that have already taken place.  Likewise, those on the right are okay in theory.  However, on the ground floor the plan is to have the living room on the left and a kitchen/diner on the right.  This, of course, means that it is going to be a rather tight squeeze fitting the latter into the room currently ear-marked for it!

An extension is therefore being seriously considered on the right-hand side, perhaps using one of the many small kits that I've accumulated over the years and never got round to actually building 😏 One kit in particular might be a very good candidate for making into something else.  The question is whether to add said kit to the side of the house or perhaps see if it's at all feasible to add it to the front.  The house itself is made from the usual 9mm MDF but the kit I have in mind is 6mm, hence wondering whether it would be lightweight enough to possibly attach it to the front opening panel 🤔 Regardless of whether it goes on the side or the front, the footprint of the house will obviously have to increase in one direction or the other.  This kit is also double-storey, so it has the potential to create an additional room on the floor above.  This would give a little more scope for what to do with the rooms on the first floor.

Originally it was planned to simply have a guest bedroom and bathroom on the first floor.  However, if an extension is added to the smaller room, then those two rooms could become the guest bedroom and en-suite.  This would then enable the larger room to be used as a second sitting room/study/library combination.

The plans for the top floor are straightforward with the room on the right to be the master bedroom, and a bathroom on the left ~ there will of course be an internal wall put in place for the latter in due course 😉

So that's where things currently stand, with plenty of decisions yet to be made and plans to be drawn up!  Hopefully it won't take too long to sort everything out 😳