Just empty space where an office used to be.
And where crafting space and the dogs’ favorite couch used to be.
A couple of things to notice. The mop bucket which stays ever at the ready, because when it rains, this room continues to leak. And will do so for the foreseeable future, because Keith our Contractor is being stalled by the city in getting the permit to fix this as it needs to be fixed. That part is long and boring, but what’s longer and not quite as boring are the nights of rainstorms when Tom and I sop up water with towels that we then have to wash and dry, mop up water and drain the mop in the bucket, and wish we were sleeping. The electrical outlets are turned off in this room because if you squint, you can see they’re in the baseboard. Whoever built in the old patio to make it a sunroom did a crap job with their design. One day it will be so much better. Let’s hope that day comes before the one-year anniversary of Harvey’s 50 inches of rain.
The second thing to notice, if you will, is the plywood door (open in the second photo) that became Tom’s creative way of keeping the dogs IN this room when it was the only room of the house we were living in, and now keeping the dogs OUT of this room when the fix-up starts. The door worked beautifully and gave us the idea that we’d like a permanent door there. We suggested a Dutch door, so the bottom could stay closed, corralling dogs where we wanted them, but the upper half could stay open for air circulation and so I wouldn’t feel shut off from everyone when this is my office again–UNLESS I WANT TO BE SHUT OFF, and then I can be.
We discussed lots of ideas with Keith and Mike, and when I said what I’d really like is to get an old solid wood door and let them cut it in half to make a Dutch door out of it, painting it the same color as the kitchen cabinets but letting the wood stay a little rough under the paint, Mike said to go for it. So Tom and I found this 1910 door salvaged from an old house in one of our favorite Heights antique stores. The door has many coats of paint in different colors on both sides, so Mike said he’ll give it a light sanding and clean it up but not too much.
As you can see, the door still has its glass panes. LOVE! We are excited to see how this will turn out. How the entire room will turn out, in fact. At least this is one time when I have definite before photos!
SO much potential.
And it’s finally happening. Two months later.