The Big House List, Part 2: Upstairs

Back in June, I posted The Big House List, Part 1: Downstairs, and, while I didn't actually say it, I think I gave the impression that parts 2 and 3 (3 being the outside areas and basement) would be coming up fairly soon. Like before four months had elapsed. Oops.

I actually could legitimately do a post revisiting part 1 before long, I think; I was looking it over, and we've made decent progress on it, surprisingly. But I won't let myself do that until I've posted parts 2 and 3 at least.

Onward to Part 2! Featuring never before seen on this blog parts of my house (somehow I neglected to put them on the house tour page. Probably because they are sort of shameful). Fairly self explanatory, but this is a big list of all the projects we have in mind for the next thirty years or so for this house. It's possible it will change some over the course of those thirty years. Possible.

Upstairs Hallway

Never before seen part of the house the first! First picture is the view from the top of the stairs. Then a shot of our ceiling with brass boob light number one. Then the view looking out of Ari's room (to orient you, Ari and then Milo and Gus's rooms are at the end of the hall, opposite the stair landing. If you're walking from their rooms toward the stairs, you have the guest room on your right, the hall bath and laundry on your left, and the master bedroom/current nursery straight ahead).

This is a big wide hallway, and I kind of hate big, wide hallways in theory because they're such a waste of space. But I do like how open things feel up there. So I'd like to USE all that space, so that I can have efficiency + openness. Best of both worlds! As you can see right now we're "using" the space as a warehouse for every bookshelf we don't have a space for in some other room.

*The main thing I want do here is switch those bookshelves out with some simple but nice looking closed cabinets that can be used for books, kid toys, whatever else we need storage for. I'm thinking halfway up the walls or so (they can't really go floor to ceiling easily because there are a million light switches in there) and then pretty things can go on top.

Mine won't be just like these, but Katja at Shift Ctrl Art's amazing upstairs hallway cabinets are my inspiration:

Built in cabinets at Shift Ctrl Art

*pretty pictures above said storage cabinets, of course!

*paint...not sure about color....it will continue from the stairwell, so it has to flow with the Nantucket Fog downstairs. But probably not exactly the same color. I may go lighter and more neutral. Or I may get crazy and go darker.

*I have other ideas swirling around....like maybe leaving some open space for a countertop type desk so a kid can work at a computer out there (esp. since Milo and Gus share a room) or for an interruption in the cabinets to put in a comfy chair for a little reading nook. But I might be overestimating the size of the hallway in my head with all these ideas.

*all the doorknobs are mismatched and need to be replaced eventually. Oh, especially since this happened:

There was an...incident involving locking the guest room door (which, for some reason, had a lock that needed a key to open. A key that we didn't have). Wow. Looks like "clean all the doors" needs to go on that list, too.

*Or maybe paint all the doors. Like dark gray or black. Depending on how I paint the hallway.

Ari's Room

This might be the shortest list in the whole house, because we're pretty well finished in here. I would like to get him a small rug for the end of his bed maybe.

Milo and Gus' Room:

This one's also fairly finished for the time being, although I'm not sure what the life expectancy on this particular incarnation of their room is. There are a few things I'd like to get to in here, though:

*We'd love for Dave to build them bunk beds to replace the cheap (kinda wobbly) Target ones

*They would like some chairs for reading, and I'd like to make that happen, although I'm not sure where to put them

*I have a few pictures that still need to be hung up in here

Kid Bathroom

Look at that. "Take better pictures of this room" should be one thing on the list. But, yeah, other than that, this room is closer to finished than it has any right to be. It's one of the rooms that had a lot of updating done before we moved in, so the lights, faucets, etc. are pretty nice.

*paint cabinets

*some kind of window something

*hang some pictures

Laundry Room

Our next never before seen space! This is a pretty big room, but kind of awkwardly shaped. Long and skinny. I really have no idea what to do with it at this point, honestly. I admire the attempt someone made to infuse it with character with that wacky tile. But I will still be taking that down at some point. 

*paint

*do something about floor. Like maybe something like this?

Painted vinyl floor at View Along the Way

This is the only vinyl flooring in the house, and it's a small area. I think I could handle painting it.

*.....yeah, that's all I've got so far. Oh. A new light fixture, I guess, although I don't hate the one that's in there. It's pretty inoffensive. But I guess since I'm just making a someday kind of list, I might as well shoot for awesome.

Guest Room

Last of the never before seen areas! And a tricky one to photograph. This is our smallest bedroom (something like 9 by 11, I think). It was the guest room for awhile, but now it's more a spare room for Milo and Gus to hang out in. Which is why it's a big mess most of the time. Broken chair! Also, our current arrangement is that Ari sleeps in here (that's his old bed) when we have guests, and said guests sleep in his room (where there's the queen bed we originally bought FOR the guest room). Eventually, this will be Abe's room. So...

*move Abe in here

*probably his nursery will mostly be transported as is with plans to redecorate it as a big kid room in a few years. 

*There does need to be more toy storage, though, so something there

*This room has a small walk in closet that I'd like to do something fun for him with 

Master Bedroom/nursery

Right now Abe's nursery is in half of our master bedroom. If you'd asked me a few months ago, I'd have said he'd be moving in a few months, maybe around his first birthday. If you asked me now, I'd tell you that he stopped sleeping through the night as soon as he started teething and that I'd rather not talk about that painful subject anymore, thanks. Sigh. But. Eventually....

*Master bedroom side of things is annoyingly close to finished. I need pretty baskets for my bedside tables

*A few pictures still need to be hung

*I either need a different curtain rod or different curtains

*We have a super secret DIY project that we've been putting off forever, even though it's not that elaborate

*In the current nursery, we'd like to make a sort of multi purpose office/craft room/hanging out area. I'd like some comfy seating and a TV, so that we can sometimes cede the downstairs TV to the kids for the evening and hang out up here. A home office that Dave can use in the event that he ever has a job where he can work from home sometimes. Somewhere to set up my sewing machine. Ha. and then maybe I'll use it sometime, if it's staring me right in the face like that.

Master Bath

Ha! What do we NOT need to do in here? But we'll make a list, just for fun:

*rip up carpet

*paint

*replace all fixtures: light and plumbing

*take down shower door and replace with curtain

*do something about cruddy cabinet doors

*maybe some storage furniture on that long wall?

*nice stuff on walls

and then, SOMEDAY:

*expand shower

*replace old tub with freestanding tub

*replace sinks/counters with...something better

The Whole Upstairs

*floors, basically. Hardwoods eventually, but that's likely a few years away, so I'm toying with the idea of ripping up carpet and painting subfloors. We'd start with our bathroom and then maybe Abe's room before we move him in there.