illuminated!

Yeesh - two days after we finally get our financing straightened out, the first dip into our contingency fund. Despite having run over the code before designing the addition, Rose is used to commercial architecture rather than residential, and thus it was that she missed an obscure requirement relating the amount of window space (including "borrowed light," or light that comes via doorways and the like from adjacent spaces) to the amount of floor space. Because our second floor has low ceilings and limited places for fenestration (a word you'll rarely find, that - but useful), when we discovered we needed a measly three square feet of additional window space, we were actually a bit flummoxed. Aesthetically, enlarging the existing windows would have been either a disaster or bad in other ways; a skylight wasn't really an option either.

Fortunately (remember that "borrowed light" concept?) Rose brilliantly realized that, hey, we've got a door to the room...and in the hall space at the top of the stairs, there are windows, and light. So...replace the standard door with a door with glass, and we're okay, right? Indeed, we are (this per the city's plan review person). So it is that the door to the bedroom will now be a "French" door, with frosted glass and leaded panes, the latter to match the windows. It looks cool enough that I almost regret the fact that 99% of the time, the door will be open (it's just the two of us and the cats, so no particular privacy issues here).

And, we found out that the permit costs rather less than we thought - nearly a wash with the increased price of the door (obviously, doors with leaded glass panes are a bit more expensive than plain old wooden ones).