Again, more demo

A coat closet off the entry way. When we moved in, we immediately converted it to a pantry/storage closet. Now that my snazzy new pantry is complete (see below), this closet is comin' out.

Gone, just like that!

But why stop there? My parents came to visit for a wkd in January and chipped right in at chipping away the floor.

Then the shower...we (a family of 6) used this bitty shower daily (well, not all at once; you know what I mean) when the upstairs bath was under construction. Time for it to go to make room for our bigger plans.

Still to go: the rest of the ceiling above the washer/dryer and the rest of the drywall beside it, the old vinyl flooring, the cabinet there and another above the toilet, and though you can't see it from here, another wall.

Pantry

We used to have 2 sets of stairs that led down to the same level of the house and ended up about 6 feet away from each other- waste of space! So we took out the stairs (which opened up the area above them in the bathroom and that project really deserves some better pictures...later) and added a pantry on the kitchen level.

How else do you get out stairs? A chainsaw!

After drywalling and rearranging some elctrical to add a motion sensor light, here is our new pantry/girl's art/project supply closet! I think, looking at the picture, that one more shelf would fit in there...hmm....

New Entryway!

Ok, a bit behind. The house had a nice size entry way (foyer?) off the front door. The walls were covered in paneling, the floor was faux pebbles, and this built-in planter (pictured belowed) had real dirt (very dirty, musty dirt) and fake plants. By the time this picture was taken, I (actually my mom) had cleaned out the dirt and put in my real potted plants. Anyway, Jake got busy taking the paneling down. There was drywall underneath that, so he left it in place with a bit of patching. He did all the mudding, taping, and sanding. Then I primed and painted (a nice yellowish/tan called Buttered Up). The Advanced Woods Class at school needed some projects, so we gave them sketches of what we had in mind, purchased the wood, and voila! A snazzy, extremely practical entry way.

The planter is gone! These are mine and Jake's cubbies and our coat hooks. A wide bench is planned for below the hooks to make more "sitting and putting shoes on" room. Yes, missing a vent cover up there... The cubbies are birch with a dark stain called Jacobean.

A cubbie for each girl and coat hooks. Have 6 more hooks to add on the end for guests. Would also like to add a low shoe shelf about 6 inches above the floor, the length of the wall, to double the shoe space. The angle of this picture doesn't show it, but these cubbies are centered on the wall.

We have yet to add a new floor in here and a heat source. The ceiling is already lowish and the front door (which also needs to be replaced) is already shorter than normal. Soooo we're thinking a vinyl directly on the concrete and baseboard heat. We had wanted infloor heat here, but I don't think the height issues of the space will allow it. Check back later for the rest of the work we've been doing in the this space.