Old House, New Feel...

Living in a 100 year old house is a is an interesting experience and it demands constant upkeep fairly frequent renos to remain functional and enjoyable. I actually really like our house. It has character :)

I wish that I had more of an "eye" for interior decorating, but I don't believe that is one of my gifts. I can appreciate a beautiful room when I see it, but often don't feel motivated to transform my own living space because I don't have the energy, nor do I know where to start!

Here are the changes we have made over the years... When Mitch and I got married, we painted most of our main living area on the first floor, had new carpet put in, and put laminate flooring in the kitchen and our bedroom. A few years ago, we put a half bathroom on the second floor of our house and renovated the main bathroom. Before Jett was born, we renovated what has now become our baby room by laying more laminate flooring and painting the walls.

Adding another individual to our family and our home has once again raised the need to make some changes to our house.

Here's our old layout.

I'm not a great artist, but hopefully this gives an idea of what we're doing to our home! The first major issue  of this old layout that jumps out at me is that the corner room, formerly known as our "walk-in closet" has no access to the landing. This hasn't been an issue while Jett has been an only child, but as we inhabit more rooms, this becomes a problem. Our first thought was that this "closet" would become Jett's room, but I didn't like the idea of Jett having to go through either our room, or his little sister's room to get anywhere. Night time potty-training would be a nightmare with this situation! Also, there is no door between the baby room and the corner room. It's actually a larger passage than most doorways. The thought of Jett being able to access his baby sister's room without Mitch and I even hearing or knowing, did not sit well with me. I could totally see Jett trying to bond with his sister by throwing all of his stuffed animals and other possibly more solid/hard toys into the crib.

So... here was the solution we came up with:

The long and the short of it is that we extended the landing to cut into what was formerly Mitch and my bedroom, forfeiting some space, but giving each of the rooms their own access to the landing. We also decided that we (Mitch and I) should occupy the room between our two children and Jett will have his very own L-shaped "big boy" room.

We cleared out the two rooms on Monday, February 20th and had our new walls framed up by the end of the day. In less than two weeks, I'm very pleased with the progress we've made. Luckily, we were able to move into my in-law's basement, which is just on the other side of the hedge from us. This is the most convenient way to renovate, for sure. You can tear apart your house and not have to live in that chaotic space. We are incredibly grateful for the hospitality of "Papa and Mamey" Schultz. I don't think they minded a little extra time with their grandson, either. :)

Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me to take "before" pictures of our old set-up, but I did take some midway pictures.

Here is our new hallway; the extension of the existing landing.

This is the view from the new hallway, looking back into the original landing.

Again from the new hallway, this is a look into the corner room; Mitch and my new room.

Still our new room. These closet organizers were what we had lining the walls of our large "walk-in" closet. They have found new homes; some in Jett's new room and one section in the baby room.

This corner may look simple enough, but there was an old closet built into the wall that was a poor use of space and not very functional. We opted to take it out, but that is easier said than done. As many other century old houses, the original walls were made of lathe and plaster (sp???) but had since been covered by drywall. Needless to say, theses walls were thick and strong! During the demolition process, a letter that had been written in 1935 was found in a crack! That was an interesting find and it makes you wonder what else is lurking in theses walls! I am not sad to see this closet go and I look forward to the wardrobes arriving from Ikea that will  be installed in its place.

I am still standing in our new room as I take this pic. This is the opening that joins our room to the baby room. We opted to not do anything to block this access route... time will tell if we regret this decision! We do have some long/heavy curtains that separate the two rooms and provide a measure of privacy.

That new drywall in the corner of this room (Jett's new room) is to cover the place where there used to be a door that led out onto a second floor balcony/veranda area. I WISH we actually had a functioning second floor balcony! That would be awesome. However, that space has not been used since long before I entered the scene on the Schultz Family Farm. 

Two sunny windows in the corner of Jetty's new room. I love how bright and cheery this space has become. I'm impressed with how well we were able to cover the dark red paint that used to adorn these walls. Hat's off to General Paint.

There has been lots to explore at the back of our house as we've done much purging of old furniture etc. during this process.

And... the "AFTER" pics. (After, although not completely done.)

Our "new" room. I love how fresh this space now feels, although we do need to have some blackout blinds installed in those windows so that our yard lights don't shine so brightly in our windows at night!

I am really enjoying this stand-alone full length mirror I found at Leon's. We have also pulled out our moses basket basinet as we eagerly await the arrival of our sweet girl!

There's not much room to spare, but our bed fits in tis space just fine. I found a new duvet cover and bed accessories at Quits Etc. in Midtown Plaza. I walked in on the right day because I got 50% off of a price that had already been marked down! I am loving the accent pillows. I will be on a search for pictures/art to fill the bare spaces on those walls that you see. I also would like to find a fabulous bedside lamp to put on that floating shelf I put up to serve as a bedside table.

We are not doing much to change the baby room seeing as it was newly made less than 2 years ago! We will be adding several more feminine accents and touches to the room, though. I did get rid of a wooden shelf that was behind the door and I replaced it with a section of one of our closet organizers. I am liking this arrangement much better than the old wooden shelf. Having the baby's hanging closet there will be very accessible and functional.

This next picture is taken from the new hallway/landing area looking into Jett's new room. As you may have noticed, we've hung on to the hundred year old doors/frames. I actually really love the feel they give to our little space. 

This is Jett's new "big boy" bed. He loves it, but is not quite ready to actually sleep there. We won't push the issue.... yet. We got this bed from Ikea and it took Mitch and I at least 4 hours to put it together! In the end though, we are fairly impressed with how sturdy it feels. It has two large drawers that will hold Jett's clothes and the whole bed actually pulls out so you can lay a second mattress down. Those decals on the back wall are of Curious George, which is Jett's favourite show. The were a gift from a friend who's son has outgrown them (Thank you, Katrina) and Jett loves them.

Already Jett is loving this floor mat we got from Ikea and he also enjoys sitting in his little chairs. I think this will be a fun space for him.

We moved back into our house on Thursday (March 1st) this past week. It feels good to be living in our own space again, although it was incredibly helpful and convenient to move into my in-law's basement while we blitz renovated our house.

Here is our list of things that are still to be done in our upstairs living space, preferably BEFORE our sweet baby girl joins us:
       - Lay new carpet down on the landing (original and new) as well as down the stairwell.
         (We have the carpet on order from Braid Flooring. They will also be laying it for us.)
       - Put a final coat of paint on the dangerously high walls that line our stairwell.
       - Tack up a wall panelling over top of the old/peeling wallpaper that is still on the walls in the original
          landing.
       - Assemble/Install our new wardrobes from Ikea.
       - Install some floating shelves (already purchased from Home Depot) in the new landing/hallway area.
       - Find a light shade/fixture to cover the plain light bulb that hangs in our new bedroom.
       - Find and hang some great pictures in all three rooms.

We are very blessed to have amazing family who have helped us on this journey. From the cleaning and purging of the former rooms, the framing of the new walls, taping and mudding drywall, the painting of the walls and all the electrical work, not to mention meals that were provided along with childcare of our active munchkin, we are grateful for how our families came alongside us.

While I will definitely not be making a career out of renovating, this has been a fairly painless process and I am already enjoying the results. If anyone has any suggestions for pictures, art, or accessories let me know!