The Upstairs BEFORE

Warning: This post is going to be long and photo heavy.  You have been warned.  :)

Today I'm going to take you on a tour of the upstairs of our new home as it was when we purchased it.  I will try to explain some of the changes we are going to make, but it may just end up being very confusing.  We shall see.

So let's start with the hallway to get our bearings.

The foyer stairs lead to this point: the upstairs hallway.  All of the current bedrooms are accessed from this hallway.  Before we check them out, take note of the big square thing on the ceiling.  That is a house fan.  When it gets hot upstairs, you can open a bunch of windows, turn on this fan, and it will suck air from outside in and act like a big fan.  We tried it out and it actually works!  I could feel the temp fall almost immediately.  But it's really loud and I really doubt we will ever use it.  And the way we plan to reconfigure this space will render it almost useless, so it will be gone.

Next, check out the message center.  I'm not sure why it's upstairs instead of perhaps in the kitchen, but I do know that the message light has been blinking for months.  Previous owners, someone is trying to get in touch with you!

Okay, let's move on to the bedrooms.  We'll start with the one directly behind where I stood to take the hallway photo.  It is currently the "master" suite and will become Dixon's bedroom.

The room itself has two windows that let in a lot of light and overlook the stream.  But do you recall how I said there were lots of "interesting" features in this house?  Well, get ready for perhaps the MOST interesting one of all. . . .

Why yes, that IS a toilet!  And yes, it is in a little closet all by itself IN THE BEDROOM.

No one could explain why the toilet was placed here instead of in the bathroom.  So.  Odd.  Even more strange is the fact that you couldn't even close that door if you wanted privacy.  There isn't enough space once you sit down to do your business.  And let's not even discuss the floor stains . . . *blech*

That toilet will be gone.

Now for the actual master bathroom.

This space requires numerous photos so bear with me.  This is the view of the room from the bedroom.  It is at the end of the house and is a big space.  Two vanities flank a tub that is right in front of a window.

Don't YOU want to bathe in front of a window like that?

The closets - and I use that term very loosely - are on the sides of the room and feature built-in drawers and custom (heh) hanging rods.

Check out this sliding closet bar.  Pull it out to access your clothes then push it back into the tiny corner.  Nifty.  Clever.  A real space saver.

The other closet has more hanging space utilizing the previous owner's favorite closet supply: pipes.

And now for the Green Monster.  Brace yourself, because it's about to get ugly.

Honestly, this photo doesn't even begin to capture all the breathtaking O.M.G. that is the shower.  It literally looks like a tiled time capsule.  I'm not sure which decade brought it to life, but it needs to die.  Now.  I can't even bring myself to step inside of it with my clothes on, let alone ask my child to get inside of it naked.  *shiver*

It's time to leave this dated mess.  Back out to the hallway we go.

This is the second full bathroom that is directly at the top of the stairs.  It serves as the kids' bathroom.  A view of the second vanity:

A bit outdated but not terrible, this room will remain mostly intact.  We'll do a few small things to freshen it up but that is about it for now.

On to the bedrooms.  There are four additional bedrooms upstairs which sounds great.  But let's take a look at them, shall we?

The "red room" is closest to the bathroom and will become Tessa's room.  I had to stand outside of the room to take this picture.  It is THAT small.  I haven't measured it yet, but I'm going to guess that it is about 9x10.  It is just big enough to put a bed and maybe a small nightstand and that's about it.

Remember how the floors in the living room had wood around the perimeter and that's it?  The same money saving trick was used in these bedrooms as well.

The closet in this room is also very small with just a little hanging rod and some shelves tucked into a space on the side.

Beside the "red room" is the "blue room".

It is nearly identical to the previous bedroom but has a slightly larger closet space.  This will be Clara's bedroom.

Now if we go back to the top of the stairs and focus on the right hand side of the hallway we will see two additional bedrooms.  The first one is the "green room".

The green is actually a bright lime green.  There are two dormers in this room, one on either side of the central closet space.  It is an architecturally charming space but obviously a challenging room to place furniture.

Here is another quirky feature of the house:

This is a BIG pull-out storage space that slides into the "dead" area under the roof.  I'm not sure what was ever stored here, but I will say it's an awesome place to stick your little brother and "put him away" for a little while.  Heh-heh-heh.  There is another one of these sliding doors in the next bedroom.

We'll call this room the "Williamsburg room".  The built-in headboard and canopy really are pretty, but so not our style.  I would feel like I was sleeping in a Colonial inn, and that is definitely not the vibe I'm going for in this home.

Another view:

Now for the confusing part.  The green room and the Williamsburg room are going to become an open study for the kids.  We are going to remove the back hallway wall to make Tessa and Clara's bedrooms a bit roomier, and the front hallway wall will become the divider between their rooms and the study.

Confused?

We will have an opening at the top of the stairs to access the front of the house where the study will be.  The doors to Tessa and Clara's rooms will be in that space.  I know it's hard to visualize, but trust me: It is going to be fantastic!

So you've seen Dixon, Tessa, and Clara's bedroom spaces and we are now out of bedrooms since the front two are going to be a study.  Where will Sasha sleep?

You likely didn't take notice of the doors in the Williamsburg room.  Well, one of them is a closet door.  The other one,

leads to this:

This is the space over the garage.  It is totally unfinished, as you can see.  As soon as I saw it I knew it needed to be finished and used as bedroom space.  I mean, look at how big it is!  WHY was it never finished?  We found out that it doesn't have the support beneath it required for a finished space and can only be used for light storage as is, but we will add support beams in the garage to take care of that problem.

Now you have to use your imagination again.  The roof line and wall on the right side of this photo are going to be moved to create more headroom and overall square footage.  This will allow us create a small storage room at the top left of the photo, a walk-in closet at the top right, a higher wall on the right to place Sasha's bed, AND will allow us to add a must-have element in the house.

Look closely at the little spot between the door and the Williamsburg bedroom.  Do you see what that is?  Let me show you.

Oh yeah, baby, those are back stairs.  They lead down to the kitchen.

I was DETERMINED to keep these stairs.  They are so incredibly charming and I LOVE the idea of having a second set of stairs in my kitchen.  I fought for these stairs when our designer wanted to remove them and use the space for kitchen "stuff".  But ultimately I had to let them go.  They are very steep and narrow.  Most adults have to lean down to avoid hitting their heads along the turn and I can imagine the kids (and me) falling on them all the time.  They clearly don't meet code and there isn't enough space to rebuild them to code.  SO  . . . by changing the roof line of Sasha's room we will be able to add a new staircase in an even better spot.

I have zero photos of what I'm about to describe because it doesn't yet exist.  There is currently a sun room downstairs beside the family room.  That sun room is going to become a mudroom and a laundry room.  We will then build a master suite addition off of that space.

Sun room above, gone.  Addition goes in to the right.

This is great because I really need my master on the ground floor.  My knees are already arthritic and I don't want to worry about stairs as I get older.  BUT, doing this addition means I'll be far away from my kids at night.  Adding the second staircase that goes to the mudroom will give me quick and easy access to the upstairs and much needed peace of mind at night.

One other change to the upstairs that I didn't mention.  The oh-so-swanky bathroom beside Dixon's bedroom is going to be split in half.  One side will remain a bathroom with the tub (converted to a tub / shower combo), a sink, and a toilet in the closet space.  The other side will be opened up and become a part of Dixon's bedroom.  There will be a closet at the end and the rest will be used for playing, reading, or whatever he decides to do there.

We will also build a wall through Dixon's bedroom so the bathroom can be accessed by Tessa.  The second laundry will go along the front wall of the current bedroom.

I know, I know, it's REALLY hard to picture what I'm describing.  I promise to update with photos as we make progress.

There's lots of work to be done, folks!  And with that, I'm off to take Clara to guitar lessons and then head over to the house to do more demo.  It never ends . . .