room for one

What is now guest room 1 started out as my office (aka place to store all my text books and college paraphernalia). It was merged with Bryce's stuff into what is now the office, some furniture was moved around and this was turned into a guest room. It's on the opposite side of the house and the same shape as the office but slightly larger with a mirrored layout. It also had a shoddily built in closet that was removed.

This photo is from standing in the doorway looking to the right. Look familiar?


You may have also noticed many smoke detectors in the before photos; if there's one thing to be said about the previous owners it was that they took smoke detecting seriously.  I'm not saying it's a bad thing but I believe there was one in every room of the house, including the bathrooms.  They were in weird locations and tobacco yellowed so we removed them all and purchased new ones, a total of 3.  I hate to admit it but for one reason or another we didn't get around to hanging them for a year or so...oops.

This photo is taken from in front of the window in the last photo. The left side is where the closet was and you can see the piece of trim that had been removed when it was built. We painted this room with leftover Behr 'Garden Wall' from the kitchen with Behr 'Decorator White' trim. Of course, blinds and lace curtains were removed, carpet torn out, hardwoods refinished, and a new light fixture was installed.


This is a close up of the damage done to the wall to build the closet.


Most of the house is lath and plaster with a few exceptions where it was, for one reason or another, replaced with drywall. It's always a trick to figure out what you're drilling into to hang anything since drywall and plaster are treated differently and different hardware has to be used. We've learned that stud finders don't work well with lath either.

Plaster is incredibly long lasting and more sound deadening and fire resistant than today's drywall. I also find the character of plaster appealing and don't fret over its imperfections. I'm glad as much of it still remains in the house and wouldn't dream of replacing it unless absolutely necessary.