Appraisal

Our schematic drawings have been sent to the bank for their appraiser’s review. They need to make sure that what we build has more value than what it costs. We are new to this process and it seems a bit scary-subjective. Are they counting rooms or how big they are? Do design features factor in to the calculation? Are the costs to build the design features going to cost more than their value? How do we communicate the uniqueness of what we’re doing in a quantifiable way? All we have to go on is our drawings.

There are some aspects of the design that have to, at least, be included in the project- walls & doors, plumbing, heating & cooling and the exterior repairs. Others can be added by us later, outside of the bank’s involvement. We had to prepare drawings enough to explain the project, so we are starting with some detail, hoping that they can understand the design goals and we can check off the appraiser’s box as complete!

Here’s a start.

Second floor plan- north is to the right.

The goal is to build out the space on the second floor for our living, entertaining and creative space. We don’t need to occupy the entire area all the time and we especially don’t want to heat and cool everything all the time.

We started by creating living spaces along the bottom of the plan (east side of the building) that are interconnected. This also give us the ability to close off and hide our living spaces if we are hosting an event in the main space. The main space is to remain mostly open, with areas of furniture groupings and the large kitchen. We don’t have the furniture that is shown, but we thought showing it would help them to understand the basic idea and scale of the space.

We’re showing a variety of areas- dining, a bar, and a couple seating groups. And a piano. We’ve never owned a piano, I haven’t played piano in decades, but we like the idea of a piano in the space. How we actually use the space will certainly evolve as we live in it.

We are continuing to design the details, finishes and features. We’ll post more as they get fleshed out. It is fun to be in design mode again!