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Here is how the window-seat area in the girl's room looks like right now.
Sky built-in bookcases on each side of the window seat area, and built the window-seat out, making it wider and more comfortable to sit on.
We need to find a cushion for the seat.
Oliver finds it plenty comfortable, it seems.
Here is the best "before" photo I could find.
This is the room before the great "sleeping-loft" project began...notice no bookshelves flanking the window, and the seat is not very deep.
Sky has accomplished much this week. Day 1 of the project, he took the day off from work, to give himself a running start. Here are a few photos of how it is going...
After the demolition of the ceiling, we decided to build the sleeping platform out into the room two feet and some inches...it was just too cramped up there, I thought. By pushing the platform into the room some, they gain some headroom and more light.
The old insulation came out, and the air-conditioning ducts were moved, and another register was added to get cool air into the loft.
Sky tells me that there is a moment in every home renovation project he does, where time seems to stop...as he pauses, with sledgehammer in hand, to ask himself...."Do I really want to do this?" Such a moment occurred as he lifted a power-saw to poke a hole in our perfectly good roof - to add a fireplace; as he took a jackhammer to our front stoop- to build a front porch, and as he took a sledgehammer to the perfectly whole shower tile in the bathroom-before building *this.
That moment was here, as he stood in the girl's room and prepared to remove the ceiling fan- step 1 before demolishing the ceiling.
The fact that it is a perfectly good room, a very nice room, really- kind of gives you pause.
We joke that I am the idea person, and that Sky takes my ideas and makes them work- (and beautifies them, he is really a construction artist).
I have the power to set him on a project- he is usually happy to get me what I want, if possible.
So, comes the cliche...
with great power comes great responsibility.
Is this really what I want?
Well, it's kind of too late now, babe...
The really funny part, sometimes I suggest a project and Sky begins work, and we find out half-way through that we were both envisioning something different. It's always worked out somehow...
eeek!
Funny thing about being married to an incredibly capable, construction-talented man...
You have to be very circumspect about the projects you suggest.
Our last house, we had about 989 square feet. Think about it; 4 kids, homeschooling, 1 bathroom. It was tight. We were also a very broke-young family, so we talked and planned all the time how to add on to our house with the least expense. As in, not changing the roof-line. We became really inventive about how to get more space. But, when the time came for action- we decided to move instead.
I'm still congratulating myself.
We more than doubled our house size- our current house is about 2400 square feet. And yet, ironically, it is getting a little tight now. Building a second story would be ideal, but we cannot comfortably do that right now. We could comfortably do it when the kids are college age, probably...but then, what would be the point?
So, I saw the magazine photo above....mentally pictured our roof peak in my mind, and decided that Sky should do this (a sleeping loft) in the girl's room. He didn't seem very interested.
Until this week.
He decided it was a great solution to our space problem and ordered me to empty the girl's room the next day so he could begin. He wants to utilize the help of our house-guest, one of the Bible college boys- who is leaving this coming Saturday.
Here is the before photo of the girl's room. The 3 girls share the room, we have a bunk bed set with a pull-out trundle bed for Amie.
The problem, the trundle bed is almost always pulled out and so there is very little floor space.
Meg and Josie each have a desk, flanking a dresser (not pictured). We then had a bookcase overflowing with books and 'stuff'. There is no room for a desk for Amie. My idea was to build a small loft, sort of a cubby for one bed (our roof-line is not high enough to be able to stand in the attic, it is more a crawl space) and thus get rid of the trundle, leaving only the bunk beds and thus opening up more floor space.
Sky took the idea and enlarged onto it...why stop at one bed, when you could put all 3 beds up there?? Since we do not have as much space as shown in the magazine photo...I'm still unsure how this is going to turn out. It will either be a really great idea, or a horrible idea. I hope it comes out the great idea, because construction has already begun...
oh the mess, the mess. Here is Amie's stuff, sitting in the family room...where am I going to put all this stuff?
We are either very creative
or crazy.
I had a few requests for pictures of the finished bathroom, so...drum-roll please...
I was only waiting to show it off to blogland-because I was waiting for the curtains I ordered- to arrive. They arrived, but are not in these photos because they were too sheer (very cute sheer white with little embroidered green poka-dots) Sky thought they were too sheer for this window, so we hung the new curtains I had just purchased for our bathroom (ala Target..) and they happen to go very nicely in here. Our bathroom has a frosted bottom window so we will put the sheer curtains in there.
We have marble tile on the shower walls, a small ledge on 2 sides to put things on, the marble is really lovely. Sky did this all himself, my dad helped him with the tile and plumbing. Sky took the room down to the studs. (Still waiting to go get a nice white terry-cloth shower curtain at Crate and Barrel, just haven't had time...)
And did you notice the whirlpool tub? We've never had such a luxury...it is not a real deep or wide one, because the kids still need to be able to step into it to shower. But, it is deeper and wider than the normal sized tub that was there.
Here is a view of the vaulted ceiling Sky created, and the interesting shower rod contraption we needed to order, because the shower has only two sides and a short pony-wall. The shower rod is connected at the front of the shower wall, on the left side wall and at 2 points on the ceiling.
You can kind of see the pony wall between the tub and toilet here on the bottom right. We had to decrease the space area around the toilet to fit in the wall...so we decided to not install a paper roll holder- it was a little tight there and someone might knock it off the wall or something, the paper roll is in a basket on the pony wall..we'll see how that works out. We also installed two double towel racks (needed for the 4 kids) and it was getting a little tight on that wall...
The blue/green color scheme idea I stole, uh borrowed from OC Mom's house. I'm going to stencil words to a song along the top..but we'll see when I actually get that done...
We wanted a one piece double vanity like we had before in this spot, but the price for two separate vanities was very convincing (big price difference). The granite tops were a nightmare...one was available when the vanities arrived, the other was ordered for us- so we thought, but was really put on raincheck for us. -it was then discontinued. The manager at the higher-class home improvement store finally tracked one down for us in another state and had it shipped to his store. It arrived the week before all our company was due to arrive. We also had a big headache ordering the tub from the same store. The second tub came in wrong again, but Sky decided to make it work and changed the stone design around it, rather than trying to order another one. The wood mirrors are from home depot- a good, easy, no-fuss purchase... I have to tell you that Sky forgot to calculate the backsplash for the granite here...and the mirrors would not fit, and the backsplash would not fit with the electrical outlets he had placed over both vanities. He had to rip out a good portion of this wall, after he had painted it and move the electrical-re-mud/sand and paint again. He's a good sport.
I really love the way it turned out, it's my favorite room in the house now...I'm going to start asking Sky when he's going to start on our bathroom...
You can click *here to see the before photos, or just click the little blue "home design" label at the bottom of this post to see a list of posts tracking the remodel...
Things are moving along very swiftly as far as the bathroom remodel goes. Here is Sky mudding the drywall. This is his first time doing this, and I have to say he did a great job.
Here is Sky after he sanded the walls. The photo does not do it justice, he was covered in white dust. He did wear a breathing mask, but safety goggles didn't work well.
The room is painted, the first time, ahem. We had to go back and pick out a different shade. Here is Sky and my dad laying the marble tile around the tub. They are working on a little pony-wall that will separate the tub from the toilet.
I will post more photos soon, they actually have all the tile done today and are grouting.
I had a few questions about how the remodel is going, so- I thought I would show you.
Sky took the room back to the studs -and- he took out the ceiling and vaulted it. Very cool, my husband is so talented! He had to move plumbing, electrical stuff and move the heating vent...he really can do just about anything he puts his mind to do.
Here is a shot of the plumbing work he did for the tub and shower. It's a little out of focus, sorry. We have a raised foundation, but not a basement, it's a crawl space. Sky and my Dad spent several days crawling around under the house doing whatever it is you need to do to move pipes around.
We have had a big headache over the tub, it took over a month for the store to get it in and then we brought it home, it sat for a few weeks while Sky worked on all the remodel stuff- and then he finally opened it up and realized it was the wrong tub. The store ordered a new one, but we were getting very nervous about how long it would take to get in, we are having 8 to 11 people staying with us for a winter Bible conference. We can't do that with only one small bathroom!! The tub came in rather quickly, but it was
again, the wrong one!! We decided to work with what we have,
it will only change the tile work around the tub...
And here is what the bathroom looks like right now, the
drywall is up, the taping is done and Sky has started
mudding. He took one weekend to take down much of the
drywall he had installed so he could put up wood behind
the drywall so we could hang towel racks and the shower rod. This is something he learned from his dad...make everything very sturdy....though his dad would have reinforced the whole room, not just certain spots....his house will be the last one standing in Orange County if the 'big one' hits. -Did you spot the new window? Our house was built in the 50's, this is the only window now in the whole house that doesn't let in drafts...
If you want to see the 'before' photos, click *here* for the before shots, and *here* for work in progress.
I really, really cannot wait till it is done! I have to go pick out paint colors now.
We were up to a little home decorating this weekend. The first photo is kind of embarrassing, we were trying out this "bellagio" paint treatment and in our zeal painted three walls. It just got worse and worse and we kept saying, "maybe it will lighten as is dries!", should have been our first clue things were awry... Next we were saying, "well, maybe once the molding is up it won't look so bad...". We finally decided it was scary and re-painted and tried again. I don't think the photo here does it justice, it was like dark mustard- brown and angry.
The next try came out so much better. We should have thought, small test area...
