For the Lady of the House: A Bedroom

When I bought this four bedroom Cape Cod in 2011, two of the bedrooms (upstairs) were an utter disaster, and two (main floor) badly needed paint and furnishings.

It was really important to me the boys felt welcome and excited about their new home, so we started with their bedrooms first.

We went in a fairly rapid sweaty pace from this in the twins' bedroom:

to this:

Noah's room got paint and a few spiffs for this: 

Grant, my oldest son, got a school-colors-but-not-overtly-sports-themed room here: 

The lady of the house (that would be me) started with this: 

I am still trying to figure out why a Viewmaster
disc is on the floor at the bottom of this photo. Weird.

Well, sorta. The photo above is an actual improvement from where it was originally. The walls had been covered with cheap glued-on vinyl wood-paneling. Instead of tearing out old carpet and pad before replacing with new, the previous owners had slapped down another layer of padding and another layer of carpet OVER the top of the old. They did this three times and yes, you read that right. The entire floor was a malignant spongiform growth of disintegrating padding, smelly carpet, dirt, cat hair, and..... yeah. My skin crawled just being in that room. For awhile my "bedroom" was actually in the dining room downstairs; it was that bad.

In this next paragraph I will use the word "heroically" three times. Please reference the picture above one more time so you understand why.

My son heroically tore out vinyl paneling and three layers of nasty carpet and pad; my sister heroically sanded the entire blackened stained mystery gook (pictured above) down to the solid plywood subfloor, and my sister and I both heroically sheathed the walls in 3/8 inch sheetrock to cover up all the damage. 

I then plastered, sanded, and painted the alcove to end up with this: 

And that is where it stopped. I've been living in a construction zone bedroom ever since. 

The bedroom consists of the alcove in the front gable of the house, facing east, along with a larger, partially full-height ceilinged room that is accessed from the hallway. 

There's a north bedroom window on the house end gable: 

That's closet door trim stacked up in the corner. This girl knows how to accessorize. 

Here's another shot showing how the parts of the room connect to each other: 

Over on the other side of the alcove, we have the bedroom wall that had to be demolished because a slow sink leak on the bathroom side had gone unnoticed long enough in the unoccupied house to ruin the drywall: 

....Along with a stray bookcase crammed with clothes I mean to consign, and my motley crew of second hand dressers. The wall framing and plumbing run is a look I've lived with since we moved in. I'm not sure I really have to point this out, especially to my female readers, but this is NOT glamorous. 

I'll admit I've allowed this room to become some sort of horrific teenage girl's wasteland/construction zone mash-up of the worst conceivable kind, only I didn't have the guts for those kinds of pictures on a blog. I tidied up for the photo shoot. There's only so much reality I can cope with. It's why I drink wine. 

Perhaps my little touches look silly in a room with unfinished walls and floors, but it's my way of keeping my future hopes for the room in front of me, even in some small way. Sparkly lamps! Precious babies! My friend Kristy calls it the future "lady lair." I sure could use one. 

Still, I've got miles to go before I can even hang a curtain. 

In my new spirit of "progress is progress," I'll be working in small steps toward the distant landmark of the finished room. The next time I blog about the bedroom we'll be taking on one of them, to complete the alcove. Let's make this lady lair happen.