Backside of Forty: a room of her own

This old house that I call home was originally built as a three bedroom up. Along the way, someone placed a two-story addition on the back, adding a family room down and a fourth bedroom up. The downfall to this idea is that the hallway only accessed the original three bedrooms, making the third bedroom a walk-thru to get to the fourth. My original intent was to use bedrooms three and four as a master suite, with the walk-thru being a sitting room/home office.

But... that was when there were two kids.

Along came FOUR kids and the plans had to change.

Lily ended up in the walk-thru, with eventual plans to modify the floor plan to include hallway access to all four bedrooms. This was a fairly sizable undertaking, because the room needed to be completely gutted, reframed, rewired, and drywalled. When the boys room was gutted and remodeled, their layout changed slightly, which included one new wall with a closet for Lily's room phantom-framed about 18 inches behind her existing wall.

Standing in Lily's doorway, just prior to demo... the closed doorway beyond is the fourth bedroom.

These DIY projects always take longer than I anticipate and hope, and this was no exception. Two and a half years ago, I moved Lily "temporarily" into the family room downstairs. I took a few days off work that summer and the boys and I got a good start.

My demo crew, summer 2014

Graffiti fun... then let the demo begin!

Pieces of a room

Reframing the room and rerouting the hallway

Inside the room, looking to the hallway

The boys and I got enough done that week to get the new hallway functional. Not done, but functional. From there, things moved slowly. I wired the new area myself, which was my first somewhat significant electrical project. I pulled the proper permits and passed my inspections. Then came insulation and drywall hanging. I also did the drywall finishing, which was another slow process.

The trouble with DIY projects and four kids is that a lot of life happens that slows progress down. Trying to balance working to support a family, spending time with that family before they grow up, and trying to get a major DIY project done is not easy.

Inspections passed, getting ready for drywall

At about the one year mark, I put Lily's room project on hold to rebuild a porch with a poorly designed and leaking roof that began quickly deteriorating and needed to be addressed. Though I contracted the majority of this project, I still did the design work, all the interior demo, and the stripping and salvaging of the original siding for reuse on the new project. By the time I worked closely with the contractors to wrap this project up, months had been spent... months NOT working on Lily's room!

Before and after

I'm not proud of it, but quickly a year turned into two. As the two year mark approached, I knew I had better git er done! But, the aforementioned porch had weathered a year and needed to have the exterior buttoned up and all the wood acid washed and stained... another project that took several weeks of working around a job, four kids, and the weather.

When the porch was sealed from the elements, I stepped up efforts on Lily's room. When asked what she wanted this past year for Christmas, she responded, "my new room!" Uh-oh... yep it had been too long since she had moved into her "temporary" family room accommodations. I did everything I could to make the deadline, but a few weeks before Christmas, I could tell I wasn't going to make it. BUT... Lily's birthday was mid-January, and I was pretty sure I could make that.

With the exception of trimming the window, I got it all done and moved her belongings into her room the eve of her 12th birthday. She spent the night with her grandparents and it was ready when she arrived home on her birthday.

As usual, it took too long, but the home is now truly a four bedroom and Lily no longer lives in a walk-thru bedroom... she has a room of her own!