Week 9
It was a nice surprise to come home to stairs at the beginning of the week! The day before we had a bedroom loved and shared by our boys, the next it housed a staircase in a room that would work equally well as a study or even a mudroom.
I LOVE the idea of mudrooms - a drop space for bags, shoes and jackets, and in our case, away from the eye as its located in a room that is not the main entry of the house. It will bring some order to our hectic lives of work, school and sport.
The morning after the stairs were installed, we woke to a beautiful stream of light coming from the upper stairwell window. That has removed all concern that the space would be dark with the removal of the lower window that let in the majority of light while the boys were in the bedroom. It is great to see we still have lots of light streaming in, just at new and interesting angles.
The view of the staircase from the far end of the hallway is striking, even raw and unpainted. Once the door frame is removed, we hope to have a full appreciation of the the first landing of the staircase, which will be home to a wall sconce and piece of artwork that can be admired walking toward the staircase. It is a space that will be hidden most of the time given its location, but should be no less beautiful.
The stairs, other than being the gateway between downstairs and upstairs will also provide the function of additional storage space, with a large cavity beneath being fitted with cupboards that will hold everything from the ironing board, linen and camp gear - we like to multi-task our cupboards!
Later in the week, walls, ceilings and everything in between came down!
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| From this... |
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| to this.. |
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| and this... |
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| And finally this! |
The space, light and proportion is a revelation. Every corner and vantage point is new and exciting especially the view to the deck and backyard. Needless to say we are thrilled with the result. We just need to get past this derelict-looking stage!
Dust followed the walls and ceilings coming down. Luckily we invested in an air purifier to catch residual dust etc as a result of the demolition. Longer term, it will continue to do the job of ensuring good air quality inside the house.
The bathroom upstairs also got some love with black hex tiles on the floor and large white tiles on the wall. It's good to see progress happening on both floors, all the better to get us to the end of the project!
Needless to say with the downstairs demo and my kitchen looking like it had been nuked, I skipped cooking of meals (much to the delight of my kids - McDonalds should make us VIP breakfast customers!). The kitchen during demolition has only been used to make school lunches - less work, less fuss!
Stay tuned next week as we progress to the final finishing stages.
images: Shelley Stephens for Little Elm House
