Downsizing Your Home with Style

HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Chapter One

Preparing for Change

As with many things in life, when it comes to moving, the more you plan and the better prepared you are, the easier it will be. Being prepared means becoming as familiar as possible not only with what you've got but also with the home you'll be moving into, and that starts from the moment you sign the lease or go to contract and have access to the new space.

With any luck, you'll at least get a floor plan, but that's not enough.

What the Floor Plan Doesn?t Tell You

Floor plans give you the overall measurements of each room, but they don't tell you how much space there is between a window and a door, between two windows, or from any opening to the adjacent corner.

They don't show you all the little zigs and zags, the places where the wall bumps out to accommodate the pipes. Nor do they indicate the height and width of the windows and doors; where random, odd-shaped windows are located on a particular wall; or even the height of the ceilings.

One of my clients made the mistake of not carefully measuring the space between an archway to her kitchen and the bay window in her new living room. As a result, when she moved her 7-foot-long entertainment unit from the large family room in her previous residence to her new, smaller home she found that instead of fitting perfectly as she'd thought it would, the unit jutted 6 inches into the open archway. As a result, she had to hire a carpenter to remove one section so the unit would fit on the wall without obstructing the traffic pattern.

Get Acquainted With Your New Space

Many factors can determine how much access you'll have to your new home. It may still be under construction, the previous residents might still be living there with some or all of their furnishings, or it could be halfway across the country from where you're now living. But however much time you have, you'll need to make the most of it. So, before you access the space, make sure you have the following items:

• The floor plan
• A good, big tape measure
• A folder in which to keep fabric and paint swatches organized
• A digital camera
• A notebook and a pen
• A folding chair or two in case the space is completely empty (you don't want to sit on the floor while assessing your space)
• Photographs and measurements of all the furniture you now own (it's a good idea to write the measurements right on the backs of the photographs)

You may have decided in advance that a table or a bookcase is or isn't going to fit, but you may be surprised. So you need to measure everything (unless you really hate it and can't wait to get rid of it), and the photos will remind you of exactly what it looks like when you're far from home. You may think you're intimately familiar with every piece you own, but you'd be surprised how easy it is to forget the little table edge that sticks out farther than the legs or how big the arm of your sofa really is when it's not right there in front of you.

Remember the old saying "Measure twice, cut once." But if you forget your tape measure, you can use a dollar bill: it is slightly more than 6 inches long.

Ten Things to Do When You Get There

1. Measure every single wall individually, no matter how small, and write it on your floor plan. The measurements should include:

• The height and width of every opening: windows, doors, archways
• The measurement of every "space change": columns, sections of wall that jut out, indentations, curved walls, steps up to a platformed space or down into a sunken room, balconies, banisters, railings, central and baseboard heating units, radiators, and air conditioners
• The length of every flat wall
• The height of the ceilings, especially if there is a vaulted ceiling that angles from low to high at different points

2. Take pictures of every room from as many angles as possible. Start by shooting each room from every corner and then take some general photos that show as much of each room as possible. Remember, this place is new to you, and you won't be able to remember every nook and cranny when you are not there.

3. Figure out how much natural light you're going to have and where it will be coming from at different times of day. This will help to determine what kind of window treatments you will need and where you'll position the lighting.

4. Assess the condition of the ceiling, walls, and floors.

• Will you need to paint or paper?
• Do you want to add or remove built-ins, moldings, or chair rails?
• Will you need to sand, polyurethane, cover, regrout, or replace any of the flooring?
• Do you need to install overhead lighting or replace a fixture that is already installed?

5. Assess the doors and windows.

• Do any need to be replaced?
• Will any need new hardware?

6. Locate all the outlets for lights, telephone, and cable.

• Are there outdated, buzzing, or tired-looking dimmers with round knobs, or sleek new ones with adjustable settings?
• Will you need to add outlets on the floor and/or above the baseboards?
• Will you need to add wall outlets for televisions or painting lights?
• If you are bringing track lighting from your previous home, will it need to be cut down or reconfigured?
• Do you need to add more spotlights? If so, where will you place them?
• Do you need to move the phone jack or the cable outlet or add a Wi-Fi connection? Mark all these locations on your floor plan as accurately as possible.

Excerpted from Downsizing Your Home with Styleby Lauri Ward Copyright ©2007 by Lauri Ward. Excerpted by permission.
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