Rooms! Glorious rooms!

Today was a glorious day, in that I got to go all the way up to the second floor AND wander around to my heart’s content.  It was truly wonderful.  As with the first floor, it was absolutely amazing to FINALLY see the rooms that were so familiar to me on paper and in my head.

A better view of the toy room (top of the stairs, to the left):

This is going to be a terrific, light-filled space for the girls to play in.  I’ve been looking at rugs and lights and think I’ve found some colorful options — but not too cutesie and kid-like.

See that long stretch of wall on the right?  Pete wants to put a small climbing wall there.  No, none of us climbs, although the girls have been learning in school.  I, on the other hand, remain unconvinced, as I feel that space could be better used for, oh I don’t know, toy storage.  Feel free to weigh in with an opinion.

A better view of the craft room (top of the stairs to the right):

Because of the staircase, this is really more of a nook than an actual room.   Without the cut-out for the stairs, the room would be about 10′ X 10′, but now it’s a wee L-shaped space where the girls and I plan to paint, sew, and more.

Moving down the hall, here’s the entrance to the girls’ rooms:

It’s a little alcove with doors leading to the left (older girl) and right (younger girl).  To make use of an otherwise wasted space, Jeff the Builder is going to build bookshelves on that wall.  The framing just beyond the wall is the girls’ back-to-back closets.  The dropped ceiling above is the Secret Attic.

Here’s the view of the older daughter’s room:

Our older daughter is 10 years old and a Nancy Drew wannabee.  A couple months ago, she came to us with a plan for her new room.  She wants a desk with lots of cubbyholes for storage, a file cabinet and hanging files for her papers, a stapler and other office supplies, and a recycling bin so that she doesn’t accidentally throw something away that could be recycled.  She plans to put her desk near the window so that she can look outside and think.

This is the view from the older daughter’s room:

Next door, is the younger daughter’s room:

The younger daughter is eight years old.  She loves art, so her plan is to turn her new bedroom into a revolving art gallery that will highlight some of her favorite artists — Van Gogh, Monet, Ansel Adams, and herself!

One issue that came up repeatedly early in the design process was keeping the girls’ rooms identical in size and shape.  They’re less than two years apart in age and tend to be somewhat competitive with each other over who has the biggest/best/nicest whatever.  Both bedrooms are 10′ X 11′, which is small but completely in keeping with our desire to stick with the tenets of The Not So Big House.  We put all the square footage into the shared rooms (living room, kitchen, etc.) and made the private spaces (bedrooms and bathrooms) smaller.  It’s because the girls’ rooms are so small that we were able to find space for their toy room.  I’m hoping that by NOT storing toys in their bedrooms that we’ll be able to better manage messes and clutter.  Yes, I realize that’s naive, but a person can dream, right?

I’ve mentioned the girls’ Secret Attic a few times already.  Here are some other photos:

From the older daughter’s room:

And from younger daughter’s room:

And here’s the entrance to the Secret Attic:

The ladder will be in the hallway.  We originally thought of having entrances from each girl’s room, but realized that could lead to privacy problems later on.

Here’s an illustration of what it will eventually look like:

There’s a window up there and there will be a vent so that fresh air will blow through.  The girls will also have an overhead light for late-night Secret Stuff.

So that’s the back of the house.  Let’s go across the hall, shall we?

This is the hall bathroom, which is next to the craft room.

Snug, but large enough for a sink, toilet, and tub.  When the girls are teenagers, they’ll just have to learn to share a small space, which will be great practice for college.

Next to the hall bathroom is the laundry/linen closet:

At the end of the hall is the master bedroom:

The closets (and younger daughter’s room beyond):

Again, a snug room, but there’s space for exactly what we need:  a bed and clothes storage. I’m pretty excited over the His ‘n’ Her closets, as we’ve been sharing one small closet for nine years.

Here’s the view from the bedroom through our bathroom and all the way across the front of the house:

The black thing is for the shower.  As with the hall bathroom and bedrooms, we didn’t put a lot of space in our bathroom.  We thought about giving ourselves more room, but the fact is that more space is not what we’ve been wanting — just more efficient space.

I think that pretty much covers the second floor.

In other news, the guys installed the stairs from the first floor down to the basement and also started framing the Man Cave.

Here’s a view of the stairs (and Tom’s back):

Moving slightly to the right, you can see the closet where the HVAC will go and then, back in the back corner, where Pete plans to put the movie theater seats.

I’ve given Jesse a mask and a superhero cape to protect his identity until I remember to ask the guys’ permission to reveal their faces on this blog.

On Monday, the HVAC and plumbing folks arrive to start doing their stuff.  I think at that point Jeff the Builder, Tom, and Jesse are moving outside to work on siding.