apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Gut it. There's nothing worth saving. You'll save money in the long run.

I' replace all the linoleum with bamboo, you can get it cheap at lumber liquidaters and for small amounts there are always some for sale on craigslist for cheap.

I envision a tin roof and some new siding, My cottage has a tin roof and I LOVE it, it's why I bought the house. Be creative and have fun!

Oh wow! This is an exciting space... lots of possibilities.

If you're able, I would absolutely take down that interior wall (the area near the fridge seems so dark and dreary!) and put in a countertop or breakfast bar. And certainly all of the floors need to be redone, although the rooms with tile are the priority...the wood laminate is workable.

The rooms are set up sort of strangely... why is there a cot in the bathroom area? Maybe while you're knocking down walls you can make that room a large bathroom/dressing room area and convert the second living room into a guest bedroom if you need that extra bed.

Have fun!

First thing I'd do is rip off that enclosed porch on the front of the house and re-establish the covered porch with a front door and sidelights where the archway is now.

Then I'd reconfigure the bathroom/kitchen by moving the bathroom wall @ 3 feet into the kitchen and putting the sink to the right of the toilet - and reconfiguring the kitchen workspace into an L-shape.

As you said, I'd rip out the wall between the living room and the living room - leaving an archway with wing-walls that are an exact mirror of the archway currently at the front of the living room, not only to define the space but to provide any structural support necessary.

Much of the lumber from the demolition should be reused - ripped down for flooring, reused for handmade cabinets in the bathroom and kitchen, building closet alcoves in the bedrooms, etc.

You know, I think this is a pretty cute cottage, and that once the renters' stuff is out, it won't need as much work as you think. The wood floors are great, the white paint (assuming it's not in bad condition) isn't offensive. It's not as if you NEED a big overhaul your first year.

I agree that the linoleum floors in the kitchen and bathroom are an eyesore. And if the vanity is in the main room, you'll want something more stylish.

But I'd stop at that. Live in the house for a while -- see what bothers you enough to want to change. If the lawn is mowed and you get some nice outdoor furniture, you might not feel you need a deck after all. Or, you might find that the baby blue bathroom tile -- which isn't on your wish list -- drives you crazy.

But this is a place you can work on gradually. There's no desperate need to do everything all at once.

Hire a stupendous architect with vision and long-term plan. The first year, make sure that the foundation, plumbing, and wiring are all as they should be.

If you don't know what walls are load bearing, you must hire a professional. No one on a website can make these kinds of assessments.

A few months ago there was a feature about an interior designer/architect who renovated a cottage a bit bigger than this. If I can find the name I'll post it.

I second Lisa (mtl) on living in the house before doing any major work. ...that said, that tile definitely needs to be replaced...but if you end up gutting the kitchen and putting in a breakfast bar (which I also second) and rearranging everything, then there's no point in doing the tile all by itself.
So, yeah, just redecorate first.

Welcome to the Catskills! It looks great and it has tons of potential.

What a cute cottage with so much potential! I agree with all of the suggestions to re-assess when it's cleared out and address necessary structural things first, and then the things that just top your list that you want to change.

Depending on your style, I think you can really do a lot on the budget you laid out, especially if this is a weekend getaway cottage and not your main residence. I think that leaves more room for imperfections, more "rustic" elements that you might not want in your main home, but that will be fine and even work well for a more country cabin type feel.

I'm sure you will make it bright and cheery in no time. Have fun!

I love it. Ok, maybe not all the furnishings, but that is a super cute, cozy cottage. Paint, new lino, maybe rip out the wall between dining and living if you're feeling ambitious, new hardware on the kitchen cabinets, and I bet it'll look great.

Is the bathroom sink really outside the bathroom, in a bedroom? That's a little strange, but if it's just the two of you, maybe it's fine.

My advice -- WAIT until you have spent some time in it to see what you really need/want. If this is a vacation place, you don't need the same amenities that you need at your weekday/full-time place. For instance, I find that at our weekend place I need less kitchen cabinet storage but more room for towels/linens (houseguests!!). Also, knowing what I know now I would have doubled the size of the patio and made our outdoor storage about 3 times the size it is (bikes, BBQ, chairs, etc., etc).

In the beginning -- clean, paint & fix anything that's broken. Tuck away that $15K and go slow. Also, I disagree with the statement above that the patio is not a priority. If this is a weekend getaway, the outdoor space is a priority.

http://www.countryliving.com/homes/house-tours/school-house-glamour-0407?click=main_sr

Lisa (Montreal) has the right idea. Check and repair your basics first. Second, scrub, scrub, scrub, top to bottom, every nook and cranny. This will make it your house. Now paint, all your rooms. You'll have to paint again someday after you renovate further, no biggie. Then relax and really enjoy it for a season or two, see how you live in it. This will be an eye opening experience. Once you learn your house, it will tell you what to do. It's an awsome cottage, I love it! To neaten up the look of the outside, I'd clear out 2 1/2 feet of the grass around the perimeter of the house and put down a weed barrier and mulch. This will set your house on it's foundation visually.

Enjoy, I'm jealous!

I wonder if you installed a pocket or bifold door, or even reversed the way it swung, would you be able to install a sink in the bathroom at some point? If so, I'd leave the vanity as is for now and save your money for that project.

Congrats on the cottage!

Why don't you put a pocket door in at the bathroom doorway. That way you have room for a sink inside the bathroom along the wall where the door currently swings. There are plenty of cute little sinks out there that would work in that tiny space.

You haven't said what is the condition of the exterior elements - roof, siding, soffit & fascia, gutters.... I'd assess those needs first, because you have to avoid water damage.

Then the big inside stuff.

If it were mine, I'd probably hire an architect to get things prioritized.

Have fun!

I think this house is amazing and will look great once you fix it up a bit! I definitely agree with everyone that the bathroom and kitchen needs some work, and thats where i would start :)

Here's an idea for making the bathroom not halfway in the guest room. Put in a pocket or sliding door from the kitchen, close off the existing bathroom door, and then there would be room for a little sink where the door used to be - and the existing pipes could probably be used with just some new pipe extensions. Yes, it would be a little odd having to go through the kitchen, but probably better than having to go through the guest room (and then you could have a double bed in the guest room.)

Then, to help the galley kitchen, cut a hole through the wall between it and the living room and make that a counter-height eating area. Even if it is weight bearing you can frame it so that there is still plenty of support. It will also give you more prep area, and maybe then you could move the fridge down near the door (so the new door to the bathroom doesn't get too tight!)

I just did a fairly quick renovation on a bathroom using stick-on vinyl tiles that look like slate. I used some grey grout between them which really made all the difference between them looking like vinyl vs. possibly stone. And, I could cut them down with scissors instead of having to get a ceramic saw blade. Dark grey makes any tile color look a little classier! What a difference in one day - and for less than $50.

Here's the quick and dirty.

Judging by the form of the roof, mainly that pitch change in the original structure, that wall at the kitchen could very easily be structural. I'm not a registered architect, and if you want to take out that wall you should consult one please for safety reasons.
Remove the bathroom door that's in a bedroom, fill the wall with 2x4 framing and drywall to patch it. Take out the current wall between the bathroom and the kitchen and put up a new wall 18-24 inches farther away from the bathtub giving you room to put a sink in the bath. Put a door in the new wall so you no longer need to go through bedroom. Here's the splurge. Get rid of the upright fridge and get an under-counter refrigerator, and put it under the counter at the dining room end of your kitchen. It's a cottage so you might not need as much storage space.

Remove the window that looks from the living room into the dining room and the wall underneath the window and a little above the window, so this becomes a passageway between the spaces. Remove that extra little bit of wall that is in between the dining room and the kitchen. The part that is touching the cabinets. More visual connection.

If you can take out that kitchen wall, put in a peninsula. A building inspector can also tell you weather or not that wall is structural. If it is not, (but, i bet it is) then you can take that wall out yourself and put in a new peninsula. and get more kitchen storage.

While it's impossible to say for sure without seeing the house, from your floor plan it looks as though the load-bearing walls are the ones that run vertically from between the two living areas and between the central living area and the kitchen, across to the upper exterior wall. If that is true, it would be easy enough to extend the bathroom out to just past the current refrigerator, giving you space for a sink right where there is already plumbing (to the sink in the storage area, which you can share). Then you could relocate the door to the newly extended wall, meaning you wouldn't have to cross a bedroom to get there.

I'd be tempted to relocate the kitchen to what is now the dining room, which looks big enough for an eat-in, and would only require extending the utilities a few feet. The former kitchen could be a useful hallway with built-in storage closets or shelves.

It would be nice to extend the opening between the present kitchen-future hallway, which would require a support beam but could be disguised by a lovely archway of some sort.

In my opinion, something must be done about that bathroom. The placement is terrible and the sink in the guestroom simply will not do.

I agree with the above comment to hire an architect and handle any structural, plumbing, or electrical issues first.

Considering layout. If you need a bed for guests I would look at some type of fold down beds for the office/living area. The area with a small bed and the bathroom sink could have hooks along the short wall and some sort of closet/shelves/clothes storage system. i would definitely go with a pedestal sink there.

Other than making sure that the house is sound, the first year I would definitely put in a patio/porch/deck.

Oh, If you don't have A/C get a BBQ and new peel and stick for the kitchen. Live with the kitchen for a bit. Unless I used an oven a lot I would think about putting in a just a cooktop or something sized for small spaces.

Great post and really great comments.
lisa in Montreal: I agree with your suggestion to live in the place a while and figure out what works and what doesn't.
Enmnm: thanks for the link on that school house/cottage conversion. I remember that post and those guys did a manificent overhaul of that property. it took two years and a boatload of work. Dad and and uncle provided additional labor.

My initial thoughts: clean your a$$ off and paint everything to freshen things up. Hopefully your furniture and storage choices will bring a sense of calm and cozy to the space.

Next: address the choppiness. I don't believe all of those little rooms and spaces are necessary. Figure out how to create a great room. I concur with the suggestions to knock out walls or create wider openings in existing walls. The kitchen would benefit from being open to a great room and to the outdoors. The location of the bedroom doors is odd and requires that the living room furniture be "floated" rendering that space cramped. The 2nd living room and office could be combined into a great room. Do you really need two bedrooms with walls and doors? I could envision one large open space and only the bathroom (redone of course) would be enclosed.

If it were me, I'd gut it and start over focusing on the kitchen and bathroom first. Those two rooms absolutely need an upgrade and you'll use them the most. Other functional spaces will emerge naturally as you use your cottage, live there, entertain and escape the city.

The connections to the outdoors need help. Looks like there are at least two maybe three doors to the outside. Those doorways could be widen creating more of a connection to the outdoor space.

For the first summer season living there, plant colorful flowers in window boxes. It will be a world of difference. You could have a really cool patio area incorporating the chimney.

Great suggestions all. AT readers are bomb.

I agree with one commenter that the lean too that I think houses the kitchen and laundry/storage area is right up against a load bearing wall, namely the former outside wall of the house itself so opening up that wall will require someone w/ some structural knowledge to know how to do it and maintain safety, so is the front wall where the chimney is and the window to the left of it that looks into the dining area. The rest of that wall that separates the dining area from the kitchen may or may not be load bearing but is attached to the original exterior walls of the house so get an assessment of what can/can't be done there before you do anything else.

At this point, clean really good and paint everything, including the cabinets in the kitchen but leave the counters and applainces for now and if you need to, move the fridge into dining area where convenient and make room for a pocket door on that wall that abuts the bath and add a small inexpensive sink in there for now and then live with it until you get a feel for what really needs to be done w/ the place.

I'm assuming this is a year 'round residence, right?

The front living/den area needs to be better encorporated into the space and someone else may be correct in that the wall there between it and the living room may also be load bearing.

For future plans try to open up the space as much as you can and utilize the laundry/storage into the existing living space and if you need to, have a small shed w/ some kind of simple heat nearby for extra storage and I'd look into putting in a new front screened porch and entry way across the front but not do all that now and just live with the space and let it "tell" you what should be done.

Good luck and it looks cute in a country home kind of way, renter's stuff not withstanding.

Another option for more room in the bathroom is you could replace the tub with just a shower. I know, it lowers the property value, but so does a sink in a bedroom.

After serious cleaning and de-cluttering....I think you'll begin to have a good vision on what you want to accomplish. Sometimes, it's the odd things that gives vintage homes like this the feel and character we all love. Don't make any changes, other than cosmetic, until you've lived in it and given it a lot of thought.

You should be able to make this a lovely home well below the budget you've allowed yourself.

I agree with the idea of a good cleaning, some paint and living with what you've got for awhile before making major changes. In the meantime I would use the bedroom with the sink as a dressing room/closet (it looks like you might be lacking in storage space). Set it up with mirrors and lighting so you can "do" yourselves--and it will make your bathroom seem big enough and your bedroom more serene.

Trust me. You need to gut it. I had an old catskills cottage that I didn't gut. I did it a little at a time to save money. I missed a spiked wire, and it burned to the ground. GUT IT. EVERY INCH OF IT. Then you can start fresh.

On this topic, I am an expert.

Go look at the posting about the adorable motor court cottage above this one.

This may be outside your budget, but I think you should move the kitchen into what is now the dining room and make it an eat-in kitchen (it's a good enough size for that).

I then think you should move the bathroom into most of what is now the kitchen, and square off that small bedroom properly to turn it into the bigger bedroom.

I also think you should take a little bit off the bottom of what is now the kitchen so that the new bathroom doesn't open directly into either the kitchen or the living room (here that is a planning requirement).

The new bathroom would only be a little bigger than the existing one, but a pocket door in the narrow wall would mean you'd have enough room to put in a sink.

Your second "living room" (slash porch) space looks a bit strange and I think it would not be used as a sitting area. Instead I would enlarge the "office" space to be the same depth as the two other bedrooms, so it could become a small single bedroom (it looks like you'd have to include one of the porch windows). Then I would turn the rest of that space into a proper entry way.

I imagine with a house in the Catskills you'll have a lot of visitors, so the extra bedroom capacity, a bathroom that you don't have to go through a bedroom to access, and an eat-in kitchen seperate to the living room (so you can have two groups of people a bit seperate to each other but still connected) would all be worth it. I also think this rearrangement would add value to your property for the future.

Of course all of the above depends on structural assessment.

Is this going to be your permanent home, or a vacation cottage???

If it's for vacation, I wouldn't spend a ton of money on cosmetic things such as highest-quality floor tiles.

In any case, take care of any structural issues, if any, first. Make sure the furnace, water heater, electrical, plumbing, septic, fire place, windows/screens etc, are in order. Also any outdoor necessities such as clearing brush, trimming trees, etc.

Inside, the bathroom and kitchen floor tiles are inexpensive to replace. Wood flooring in the kitchen would be nice, and it doesn't have to be identical to the livingroom. I'd paint the kitchen cabinets, update the hardware, replace countertop. Replace the bathroom vanity. For the windows I'd hang identical bamboo or grass roman shades throughout the house.

Then live in it for a while and decide what comes next. I think removing the kitchen wall, or at least cutting out the top half and creating a breakfast bar would be a great idea.

Very sweet cottage you have there.

It's adorable. (I was glad to get to the part in your post where you told us the stuff in it doesn't belong to you! Before knowing that, I was feeling despair. . . .)

I agree with the idea of emptying it out, scrubbing the daylights out of everything, and then waiting for the house to tell you what to do with it. There are lots of good ideas posted here to float in your mind while you do. I think I would think about extending the bathroom into the laundry room. The bathroom as is will probably drive you nuts.

The place has great Catskills charm. I hope you keep us posted as you fix it up.

Welcome to the Catskills! We live in Brooklyn but have a vacation spot up in Phoenicia and absolutely LOVE it. What a great looking cottage. Congrats! I definitely agree on living in the space for a bit before you do anything drastic. Sometimes a house reveals itself to you slowly. Good Luck!

Adorable cottage! To those who suggest major overhaul, hello!, they bought a funky cottage because they liked it? This should be a place to relax, so don't do anything too fussy that requires a lot of maintenance. Once the renter's clutter is out, I'd give the walls and trim a fresh coat of white paint or primer (you can add a color later) get (white? natural?) slipcovers for any furniture you're keeping, and get colorful and inexpensive rag rugs for all of the floors. How about one large (so it doesn't need watering very often) pot of low maintenance annuals near the door? Plant hardy perennials and bulbs. Get a weed whacker for around the foundation and clippers for the shrubs. Make sure you have a couple of comfy chairs outside and maybe a good old redwood picnic table. Take your time adding personal touches and don't do anything major until you've lived in the place (as so many wise people have already suggested). Have FUN!

OMG ... just took another look at the bathroom: get a white toilet seat (yikes on the flowered one) and a fresh simple shower curtain.

I am def going to put my cottage up on APTT, this is great advice!

Hey, it's such a great house!!
By looking at the floor plan minor changes will really improve the space. If you consider just moving 1 or 2 walls that could great a seperate bathroom and 2 larger bedrooms by getting rid of the "office". As well combining the 1st living room with the fireplace room will make the space much larger and easier to decorate as well as a better flow. The fixtures and paints are "decorative" and can be purchased for little cost. But once the architecture is really in place then you can start moving furniture!
For the floor, wood in main area including the kitchen (so it does look bigger to have a continous same material throughout the main living space) and sisal in bedrooms. Simple Mosaic tiles (glass or cement) in the bathroom. Keep the colors on the walls simple and light and paint the ceiling the same as the walls.
the deck can wait next year!!
Keep the kitchen layout the same as existing.
Good luck it's a great place!!

Disagree about the eat in kitchen. We have a wknd cottage and we NEVER eat in. If we do its super casual in the LR. It's all about the outside deck for us. We did a ton of landscaping and built a deck and patio and its priceless. For NYers its the ultimate escape....
We also redid an attic space for the guests that inevitably come...despite the fact we didn't have room for them. However, we are near the ocean not the mountains so perhaps you won't have the same problem??

I agree no need for an eat-in kitchen, however you may want to consider taking some of the space in the storage room to enlarge the kitchen and have a direct access to the outside.

To expand on Max's comment, it appears from your floor plan that you may be able to cut a niche into the storage room, rather like a closet. If so, you could frame a box there open to the kitchen and flush mount your frig in the box. Since you wouldn't be removing the wall, you should be able to work around any structural issues.

You wouldn't gain any counter space but you would gain some additional room in the kitchen. Perhaps there would be enough room to add a corner shelf or small cart to give you a spot to park items you are gathering from the frig for meal preparation.

I stuck my frig into a box I built that stole a corner from the adjacent garage and it made a huge difference in the way my kitchen looks and works. And it shouldn't be an expensive fix - some framing and sheetrock, maybe move an outlet or a wiring run. That could tide you over nicely until you redo that whole part of the cottage.

With the age of the house and the issues of how it got that way -- additions, subtractions, etc -- there's really only one place to start: with an architect. This doesn't mean, though, that you have to pay a huge amount and/or are tied into anything. Just call up a local architect (someone local to the Catskills, that is, who has enough experience to have seen a few houses or more that are similar) and ask him/her to come out for an hour, two hours, what's his/her rate?

Most architects are willing to do so -- and if too busy, ask if you can hire one of their apprentices for that 1-2 hour space, since then if it's a question the apprentice can't answer, there is a master architect on call. The average prices I've seen (and paid) are from $50 to $100 an hour, and it's worth Every. Single. Penny.

Architects don't just know how to design houses; they're veritable fountains of ideas when it comes to how houses are built, too. When we had an architect show up to tell us whether we could knock down our kitchen wall, we also got loads of info on how to retrofit windows (not that hard), what places we could expect trouble (based on other houses in region of same age), what was probably hiding under that rug and behind that drywall, etc, etc.

Once he got all that out of his system (including a trek to the attic and a 10-minute instruction about what those beams are doing over there, and what this means here), then he went into full-architect-mode and started telling us what he'd do if he were in our shoes. Just tossed out idea after idea and idea, and we soaked it all up; some ideas we eventually discarded, some we used, some we edited and then used... but it was all good.

So, find a young, slightly hungry architect with a lot of imagination (which nearly all of them have, anyway), and invite him/her out to do a walk-through. Maybe that is a load-bearing wall along your kitchen -- and I'm willing to bet pizza money it is -- or maybe it's one that wasn't load-bearing when the house was built but is now thanks to years of settling (a situation in my house, incidentally, because things do settle into place after 30 years). And maybe the architect will look at it and say, "oh, yeah, that's load-bearing, no doubt," and you'll think: "oh, well, that's that." Just keep listening: any good (especially if extroverted) architect will follow it up a hundred ideas, because for most architects it's limitations/obstacles that get their juices going, not the blank page. Which means you might get next, "so instead I'd knock out THIS wall, move the fridge to here at an angle..." or maybe, "but that's no problem, we just sister a sandwiched ten-by over the joists and open up the entire stretch, with columns on either end..."

You know that old phrase, "whenever a door shuts in your face, a window opens somewhere else"? For architects, those windows open in what -- to the rest of us -- looks like a blank wall. So, get an architect, and use that experience and authority as the foundation of your brain-storming. After two hours with the architect, you'll have a lot more info (and ideas), to be able to come back and read through the ideas here with a better sense of what can, and can't, be done.

And, I expect, any architect worth his/her copious amounts of imagination would have an absolute ball going through your house and discussing what-ifs. Good luck, and when the architect is talking, take notes -- even record it, if s/he will let you, if you think it'll be good to refer back. But at least take notes!

I too would start with a good cleaning in and out....glad to read none of the 'furnishings' are yours! WOW
Once you do an interior cleaning, (trash those appliances, toilet sinks and bathtub as well), focus on clearing out the landscaping to start fresh. Doing so inside and out will give you an idea of how much of your budget will have to be spent in structural repairs. Just looking at the pics, you would do well to have an architect or even a local renovator/rehabber come out to give you an idea of the structural problems (roof line and some windows seem to be drooping and are not level) that seem to be present.
It appears that you will need new windows, doors and siding and maybe even a new roof, depending on leaks? Once you are sure the structure is sound and you replaced the items above, you can focus on the interior. What good would painting and decorating cosmetically be if your cottage is not structurally sound and airtight?
For the first vacation season, I would focus on the basics to get the house into a safe and livable situation. Would be interesting to look into the attic for any beams that may be deteriorating/leaks in the roof. Because it is a wood structure and is located in that rough climate, there may be some rot issues that would require immediate attention.
I may have overlooked it, but how much of a DIYer are the two of you? The fun part of living in a cottage like this is doing the work yourself instead of takin the 'city route' of hiring all work to be done by a contractor.
Once the major rehab work outlined above is complete, it should be fun to do the cosmetic stuff.
I hope I haven't been too critical, but I have rehabbed homes for over 25 years and learned early on if you don't start on the outside and work in, all that painting and cosmetic work is a waste of time and $$$. Good Luck and take your time on this rehab. Done correctly and intelligently you will have a nice place to relax!!

I find that there is too much lost space in this house, and at the same time, many things are in the way. The office space to the left of the master bedroom has a lot of potential, and so does part of the storage space behind the kitchen.

I bet the wall everybody is telling you to knock down is load-bearing. Having the kitchen in the living room may be messy - I find that large, open spaces that have more than one vocation tend to erase necessary boundaries. I would keep that kitchen wall either way. BUT...

Do you need all of the storage space behind the kitchen? If not, you could extend the bathroom into the storage space by a measly two feet. This would allow for a vanity in the bathroom but you could still keep the storage space intact and it would shrink by only about ten square feet - no big deal. I would also switch the bathroom access from the bedroom to the kitchen. Oh, and I have pocket doors in the guesthouse - they're the best! However, if that wall is load-bearing, you may not be able to put a pocket door there. But you could install pocket doors on the rooms. It may not look like it, but you would save a ton of space in the bedrooms.

If I had your budget, here is what I would really do:
1. Move the wall between the toilet and the fridge so it is flush with the living room wall - you get a bigger bathroom.
2. Extend the kitchen out into the storage room - you would then need to overhaul the kitchen, but then, your washer and dryer would be conveniently placed in the kitchen. You can most likely reuse your kitchen cabinets for the first year or two. Later, if you don't want to spend a fortune, you can get some nice cabinets at IKEA for about $1500.
3. Replace the kitchen and bathroom floors with dirt cheap lino - you can live with it for a few seasons. Once the house starts coming together, you will have a better idea of the kind of permanent flooring you would use in those rooms. The rest of the floors is fine, I could live with them forever.
4. Merge the two living rooms into one by extending the bedroom wall all the way to the left wall of the building. This will create a more comfy living room but you would also have better options for placing your sofa compared to now.
5. Enlarge the office corner a bit to make a new master bedroom. The second bedroom could be left open (in the back of the living room) - if you are a couple, you already have your bedroom, and if people visit, it's OK that they don't have a separate bedroom if it's only for a few days. This opens up the entire back area of the house, and it gives you easy access to the bathroom from all parts of the house.

I would do this in more or less the order suggested above. This should be within your budget provided you do most of it yourself or with the help of friends who are eager to pass the week-end at your place.

Second thought... This is a bit bolder!

Move the bathroom to the office area (I know - you will need to do some plumbing), make one big living room with access to the new bathroom, then open up the kitchen into the old bathroom and hook up your washer and dryer there. The plumbing is a bit tricky, but on the other hand, you wouldn't touch any of the walls, load-bearing or not (except the bit you would remove between the kitchen and the old bathroom, but I doubt that would have any consequences).

Then, you only need to paint kitchen cabinetry, change some windows, fix the kitchen floor and build a new floor for the bathroom (keep the bathroom equipment for now - better think of that when the house starts coming together).

Remove the window between the living room and the dining area, and replace that with an open doorway. Then, replace the door between the kitchen and the dining area with a wall and install a window there. Having the living room and dining area connect in a subtle way will most likely make it all more pleasing to the eye and comfy.

Move the bedroom doors so they are in the corners of the living room. It is important to have a fairly wide wall with no door or windows in every living room - you need room for the sofa, the TV, etc.

The deck can wait. In the meantime, though, you could make a small patio with Dek-Blocks (wood tiles that don't require digging a foundation - you can easily do this yourself, it is cheaper and more temporary since the lack of foundation means you can move it if you don't like it where it is).

One last thing. You may want to remove the window of the dining area next to the chimney and place the entrance door there (replace the old entrance door with a window). You will gain a lot of room in the dining area.