FARMHOUSE DEMOLITION BEGINS!…(and we need your ideas!)

[@241Tsunami]

We have a main floor closet mech room that holds our central vac and furnace/ humidifier, we use a large 20x25x5 return filter to help keep the air clean, don’t skimp on air quality and small ducts, oversized for low noise. We insulated our return drop also. Everyone loves our house for the look but i love it for the mechanical. We also trenched our entire basement perimeter from thee inside and installed weeping tile and a sump pump as we can get a higher water table in spring and if it rains for days, better dry than damp and moldy. Also run power and water to a few outside locations to make for easy house maintenance and upkeep/gardening. Add power outside for security cameras that have external power rather than battery units, helps make things easy to keep an eye on. When we dis our basement we wrapped the entire exterior wall in dimple wrap and that went down over the weeping tile/gravel and then the new cement floor with radiant tubing. Our basement walls are spray foamed also, our basement is perfectly dry summer and winter with low humidity in summer and comfortable and quiet in winter, easy to clean also as its ceramic tiles that look like grey barn board flooring.

[@thekumpfylife]

That is a really smart setup and I appreciate the details - it's so helpful to know all of that!

[@scottie196624]

Im sure money is tight, but adding a master bath now, would be a wise investment. Having the 2 full bathrooms upstairs, will make life so much easier for you, especially as your children grow. Not sure of your plans for the kitchen sink, but agree with another comment about putting it under the window. I did a major kitchen remodel and put the sink in the island. Even though it's an open concept, I miss the window. Just some suggestions....good luck, I'm happy for you and your family!

[@thekumpfylife]

Great ideas! Unfortunately there really isn’t a way to get two bathrooms upstairs. Where we are putting the bathroom upstairs, it is a larger room and we hope it will accommodate everyone as they grow. It will have a separate entrance from the master bedroom though. As for the kitchen sink, we have been trying to figure out how to make it work under a window, but it’s been a challenge. Right now, we’ve been thinking about making the windows smaller to gain counter space and possibly putting the stove/range between the windows in order to vent out the exterior wall. The sink may have to stay where it originally was… but we’re not sure yet.

[@241Tsunami]

Consider also a basement kitchen and bedrooms and you can always help someone out or help your kids later. We renovated the basement into an apartment and lived there while we were renovating and gutting the upper 2 floors. We also ran. 6” wide oak floor throughout the 2 upper floors and its really nice as it brings the entire place together. We redid our stairs also and had new railings installed , it’s worth it to have good stairs, we flipped ours around and gave it a 2 star landing as our original stairs were too steep. Also insulate for sound all bedroom walls and run separate 6” ducts to all rooms and give each room its own return air duct back to furnace, that can be hard but take the time to do it right. 6” dia runs to all areas make for quiet airflow and helps the furnace to work easier. Run internet cables and central vac to your 2nd floor also, rough in central vac as it really helps with easy cleaning. GOD Bless you in your endeavours.

[@thekumpfylife]

Thanks for all the great advice! We are definitely taking notes!

[@241Tsunami]

We gutted our farmhouse and redid it all with new design also. If I could do it again I would have not had blown insulation in the attic but rather spray foamed the rafters and then used the attic as extra storage space, you always need more storage. We moved our furnace and duct to the main floor and then installed radiant floor heating in the basement so no ducts in basement taking up head space as well our basement is cozy warm and dry with its own heat, we use our tankless water heater for the source for heat in the radiant concrete floor. We also redid all our plumbing so it worked out good.

[@thekumpfylife]

That sounds like quite the project, but definitely worth it! Thanks for sharing!

[@JL-hn6hi]

Subscribed. If you can slip in a main floor walk in pantry, I think you’d be happy with it as part of living the country life, canning, etc.

[@thekumpfylife]

Thanks for the sub! Just behind the “random wall” in the kitchen is a large laundry/utility room. We plan on making part of that a pantry.

[@barbhale8709]

If possible, remove those two windows and replace with a window that the kitchen sink can go. Always nice to look out when you are at the sink. Whatever you all do just pray.

[@thekumpfylife]

We actually had this idea as well! The tricky part is the brick work on the outside, but it might be possible! We trust the Lord for everything! He will provide just what we need.

[@carlacaldwell5675]

You need a bathroom on the main floor. Or at least a toilet.

[@thekumpfylife]

There is a bathroom just behind the kitchen with a sink, toilet, and shower/tub. Just needs a little love though.