Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Porchlandia: Downstairs Bedrooms and Bathroom

The downstairs far corner of Porchlandia houses two bedrooms and a bathroom. When we first viewed the property it felt a little like a drug den. Okay, a lot like a drug den. It was dark, dingy, and really disgusting. Let's review the guest bathroom, which had pretty stellar wallpaper, you may remember.


Below, the vanity is from Home Depot and I fell in love with it while searching online and then luckily found it in-store just to make sure I really did love it. I think it's important to see a product first hand, if you can, before purchasing it because things can look one way online and different in-person. What I love about this vanity is that there's ample space for towels below, soaps and whatnot behind the doors but because it's not a solid, to-the-floor vanity it doesn't feel hulking. The room still feels spacious.


Now you may remember that the guest bath tub looked like a tub of death. As a reminder, this house had been empty for seven years so who knows what went on, but it certainly was not cleaned in almost a decade. Looking at it gives me shivers.


The showerhead my father picked out is about ten times bigger than my apartment shower head (that's not an exaggeration, my apartment is pathetic). I grouted the tile on the wall where the showerhead and faucet are and I do not like grouting on a wall. It's a pain in the butt and makes a mess. I'll grout the floor any day though. But getting back on track, I mention the showerhead because a guest bath should still be a lovely bathroom, since it'll be where your family and friends clean up. They should feel treated, and in this bathroom they would be.


The smallest bedroom looked out on the back porch, though not really because the sliders had been boarded up. But in theory it did and now it does because there are two windows (taken from the kitchen) that look out onto it. This room was the blue room. Blue walls. Blue carpet. It felt small, like an oversized closet.


It's amazing what a coat of paint, new rug, and new window panes can do to change a room. We salvaged the closet doors. They just needed to be cleaned and painted.


With renovations you want to save as much as you can, so being able to just clean up and restore a closet is the goal. These closet doors were a pain in the butt to paint though, because of so many slats. 


I'm including the photo below just so you can understand the extent of the room, how dark it was, the level of poster-coverage on the walls, the mouse poop, which is darkening the carpet if you look closely. 


Apparently I didn't take a photo of the sliders before they were taken out, but here are the blue room windows now, looking out on the back deck. This is the room that I'd make into a guest bedroom because it's set away from public spaces so your guests could sleep in undisturbed.


Lastly, we have the biggest bedroom, which had boarded up windows and just as many posters, though this room had duck wallpaper, which I realized while removing, had four different types of mallards on the top trim. Not my personal favorite, but to each his/her own.


Larry, our marvelous carpenter, replaced the broken window panes and said let there be light. I think a buyer could make this a bedroom or a den with a sectional and a big TV. You could make it whatever you want, depending on your need, since it's a big room.


My dad had planned to carpet this room (to have all the bedrooms carpeted) but somehow he mis-calculated the amount of flooring to order and so we ended up with extra red character oak and so we had it continue into this room. Because why not? Everyone loves hardwood.


So anywho, this room is big enough to fit a California King and still have room to move around and it gets great light so personally I'd make it a bedroom but I won't be living in this house so my opinion doesn't matter (unless of course we can't sell it and then I'll probably have to move in - twist my arm). 


Next we'll head upstairs to take a look at the master suite and extra space, which would be a great TV room or office space or even a play room if you have kids.

~Stephanie

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1 comment

  1. The transformation of these three rooms is just incredible. I am obsessed with that bathroom vanity!

    ReplyDelete

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