home renovation for a family of 6 on the lake

Briefing

CURRENT PICTURES:

Pictures of the house are above but are also on shutterfly. https://16900homepics.shutterfly.com/
In Shutterfly, the name of each picture tells what room you are looking at. It is public so you should have trouble getting in but please let me know if you do. We have a lot of pictures of the house at different angles/views.

OUR STYLE:

We like a transitional style with a slight hint of rustic. We have Houzz accounts we can get you to so you can see the style of the things we like. www.houzz.com/user/charlottehouseonlake
and
http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/31508184

PROJECT:

We just bought a 5 bedroom 3 bath family home on a lake in Charlotte, NC to renovate. We have four young children. We need to make the home fit our family and renovate the home. The home is outdated and has been neglected for several years.

We are looking for ideas to make the outside more attractive. We will paint the house so color ideas are needed.

Bedrooms
We would like the four kids to be on the same level as each other. One idea was to have our 4 kids' bedrooms (girl -9, boy - 7, girl -5, girl -3) on the main level with a "u" shaped hallway connecting them between the 2 bathrooms that connect to the kitchen on either side. We aren't tied to that idea, but it was interesting. Our master bedroom downstairs may work best. We do not need a large bedroom, enough for a king bed, nightstands and a dresser/tv stand. We would like a separate master bathroom (double shower head, overhead rainfall, body spray, and walk in large shower) and a walk in closet attached to our master bedroom/bathroom. We would like the kids to have good sized closets, their rooms do not have to be large - just enough to hold a queen bed and some smaller furniture items.

Kitchen/Dining
We would like an open concept kitchen. We would like a large island (small sink would be nice). We would like to stick to semi custom or standard size cabinets. We like cabinets that go to the ceiling vs. stop short of the ceiling by a foot or two. We need lots of cabinets and a good size pantry. We would like a gas 5 or more burner stove and a double oven. We'd like a refrigerator with a 2 drawer freezer on the bottom, ideally with covered doors to match the cabinets. We'd like to have 2 pull out cabinets near the sink and dishwasher - one for recycling and one for trash. We want a big sink (maybe a farm sink or a large double sink). It would be nice to have an eat in area that is easy to get in and out of. A dining area as an extension of the kitchen would work best for us. We like to congregate in the kitchen daily and when hosting. A built in desk with a large counter with cabinets in this space would be nice. A wine/beer refrigerator should be in the kitchen layout as well as an area to make drinks/small bar area.

Living Room
We would like to see what a wall of seamless windows/doors facing the lake would look like (not floor to ceiling but pretty seamless). We'd like to have some way to open some of them for fresh air and to use as a door to get out. A few areas with screens to open and not worry about bugs would be nice. The area facing the lake currently with decorative cabinets above would be nice to replace with more windows. One option we would like to consider is pushing the wall back so the room is shaped like a rectangle vs. the current "L". The roof currently overhangs that cutout area where the door / entryway is that has that little porch. We want this to be a room the family enjoys being in - comfortable and welcoming, since it has the best views of the lake. We need to work in a built in TV and seating for all 6 of us into the area so we can enjoy hanging out in here with movies and such.

Basement
Update bar area. The current cabinets are wood so maybe refinish and add new hardware and a new bar top and front. We need a refrigerator in the area and a sink (currently a small on there). There is a microwave under the bar top now, we would like to keep that built into the design and out of sight but easy to get to. We like the current space of the game area and family room but would be looking for furniture/decorating ideas/TV area. Need built in surround system. We love ping pong and foosball and card games. We want this to be a fun area to hand out in with friends and comfortable. It would be great to have some storage for board games and such in this area.

Bathrooms
In addition to the master ba, we need 2 bathrooms. One with a double sink and good storage and a shower (kids would use this most). The other can have a storage vanity and a tub with a shower head (for guests and overflow for kids).

Laundry room would ideally be on main floor, would be nice to have a small one downstairs as well. Laundry on the main would need a sink and small area to hold laundry soap and such and a counter for folding/work.

We need storage - linen closets, cleaning supplies, board games/toys, arts and crafts for kids stuff.

Ceilings
The ceilings are all 8 feet with the exception of:
1. Living room. The ceiling slants from 8 ft to 12-13 feet.
2. Family room downstairs (not the bar and game area). The ceiling is 8-9 feet. There are wooden beams running through at the 8 ft height and in between them it is 9 ft.
The handwritten pdf floorplan has this written on it to help clarify.

Resources