The Trees Room

Okay. No more avoiding it, I need to capture my thoughts about the room that connects the 2 bedroom, 2 bath main house with the 2 bedroom, 2 bath west wing and garage.

Electrical concentrations in opposite walls and across the ceiling

Moving the laundry adds 20 SF to the room and, in theory, widens the Carkeek view. Removing the west wall will be tough, because I know a half dozen wires run through it. All the wiring for the main house runs above the ceiling.

Bedroom 3 is nicely self-contained--we can give the current hall to the transition room without affecting the bedroom. Assuming that the main panel has to stay where it is, 

This room, obviously, suffers from a major identity crisis. I'd like it to serve as a second kitchen for outdoor parties, a first kitchen for the renter in BR3, a wet bar for sipping drinks on the deck, and a dry access path from the dry, clean garage to the main house by way of the mud room/pantry. That's a lot.

The room is 9' 4" wide (inside) with a simple triangle roof. The eaves hit the top of the doors. Because we're blowing away the garage roof, we can raise that ridge and intersect the main house roof closer to the ridge. I suspect that the ceiling can't be similarly raised due to the wires. To be clear, not from the old panel to new (which mostly run under the rafters), but the wires from the old panel to the main house.

April 2019 photo from Workshop Project. Note chicken wire at wall to be removed.

The roof comes into play because we could move the north wall closer to the street along the blank kitchen wall. There are 16 circuits in the main house--I don't want to have to do a full re-wiring. That said, moving the service entrance and meter isn't as big a deal. That's just a new mast and one heavy, unwieldy wire from the meter to panel. It involves coordinating with Seattle City Light which could leave us in the dark for a week or so, but that's nothing compared to refinishing the floors or replacing the roof.

New service entrance, meter. It's a weird little alley.

Finally, we need to consider what is in the Trees Room. I'm showing sliding garden doors on both sides, making it a true breezeway. There seems to be a 4x8 header on the north and south, so we can do whatever fenestration we want up to 82.5" above the floor. If we rebuild the roof--for example, a shed roof with a high wall to the south for clerestories--we can likely adjust the attic electrical.

From the tenant's perspective, it's a stick-out bonus room up a short flight of stairs with access to the backyard. A counter with a sink, a refrigerator of some size, and at least a microwave if not a portable induction cooktop. A small couch, maybe. It's like the common room on a floor of a dorm. Maybe we add a washer-dryer stack like this one from Frigidaire (27” W, 32.5" D, 77.5“ H)

From the landlord's perspective, it's the path to get to the house, all the while judging the housekeeping of the tenants.

What kind of floor? Carpet--no, we want indoor/outdoor use for summer parties. Tile--maybe match the kitchen, or maybe reuse the existing. Wood/laminate--might be nice.

Trees Room, aka Breezeway