Sixth House - Bedrooms, Basement and Broomsticks (Needed)

Hi. I'm here earlier than usual this morning with what I think will be a quick post because I need to take my daughter to get her second Covid-19 vaccination this morning. In the last post I showed what the main floor of our house is like currently. I had been very hesitant to show the house it in its current state of blah and then ultimately decided that it makes sense going forward for you to know what I'm working with so when we start talking about the decorating plans you have a complete lay of the land.

The upstairs and the basement have had even less attention lavished on them than the main floor since we moved in, if that's possible. You will see the bedrooms and basement "untouched" - hence the need for broomsticks! I did not re-make the beds or straighten anything up or move anything from the rooms for the pictures - this is it as it is! In the introduction to the upstairs post I titled my younger daughter's bedroom as Bedroom 1, my older daughter's bedroom as Bedroom 2, and my son's bedroom as Bedroom 3 and the master is The Master. I will keep those same titles and add a little commentary about each room. Deep breath, Kerry, dive in....

Bedroom 1

This is the same furniture that was in my younger daughter's bedroom when we lived in Holland. The bureaus were in my parent's first apartment and the desk was my mom's when she was growing up and later mine. The mirror is the only thing we have hung on the wall in the upstairs. You will notice artwork on the floor in almost every picture.

Bedroom 2

The antique brass head and foot board you see glimpses of leaning against the wall in these pictures was from my parent's house. They purchased it in the mid 1990's from an antique dealer in Woodbury, Connecticut when they were empty nesters living in West Hartford, Connecticut. The bed is made for a mattress that is slightly larger than a twin/not quite as large as a full. When we moved here and the furniture we had in storage from my parent's house was delivered I had a modified frame made to accommodate a full size mattress and still connect to the head and foot boards. That was months ago and I still haven't even assembled it. Ridiculous, I know. There are reasons though, maybe lame ones. The mattress on the bed in this room is an oversized full mattress, made specifically for it's own platform that my daughter had at her apartment in college. We did not move the platform home, only the mattress and since the mattress will already protrude slightly over the width of the head and footboards, I do not want to exaggerate that. Secondly, I think my son should have a full size bed since he is entering middle school and growing taller by the day and Bedroom Two should have twin beds in it - I will expand upon that in another post. Nevertheless, there sits that beautiful antique bed on the floor.

Bedroom Three

This is the same furniture as the Grosse Pointe and Holland bedrooms for the youngest. You may remember that the bed is one of a set and these beds were my beds growing up. Not the same mattress though! The chest is from the attic of a house we looked at that was for sale in Grosse Pointe. We bought the chest, although not listed for sale. We did not buy the house, which was listed for sale. The wicker chair is from an antique store near The Farm.

Here is a link to the renovation plans for the upstairs hall bathroom (no need to show that again here!). The bedrooms will receive cosmetic updates only - to be revisited in the decorating posts.

The Master

The master is John's office more than anything. Looking at this picture showing the office/sitting room area, I realize I did pick up a little (a lot) in there. The majority of the furniture is the same that we had in our bedroom in Holland. The chest is from an estate sale held on our street in Grosse Pointe. We placed it in the living room of that house. The little peek of the toile chair in the office space is another piece of furniture that was in my parent's first apartment. It also happens to be my older daughter's favorite chair which is why we keep hanging on to it. It has seen better days. My younger brother lived in that chair everyday when he came home from football practice when he was in high school (it has been slip covered a few times since then).

The master bath is as of yet unchanged. You can see the bathroom and renovation plans for the entire master area here.

The Basement

Yikes, right? This is our son's domain right now. You can see the renovation plans for these spaces here. John said he wants us to do the basement ourselves so that we can get something done before next year. Stay tuned to see if it happens.

It's a crapshoot whether the house looks better with our things in it or in the listing photos. Sometimes it's said that "the house will look better when it's lived in." Uh, maybe not here, not yet. All kidding aside, I am very grateful for this house. It is spacious, has everything we need and more, and is a diamond in the rough - my favorite kind of house. I am looking forward to and anxious to transform this old girl and I am so glad that you're here and I hope you stick around to see the changes coming.

Until next time,

Kerry