There Are No Flowers In This Attic!

Up The Crap Staircase

Recognize those colors???? 1975 is calling, they want their carpet back!!!  These are the wonky Seusslike stairs leading to our attic space that we plan to turn into livable space.  The previous owner of the house carpeted the stairway from a carpet sample book....so, no Muppets where skinned it is just shag and sculptured carpets in lovely colors that you probably saw while watching "That 70's Show." What you cannot see is that each and every tread and riser is different....some are shallow, some are steep...which is why we are opting to toss things out the window...actually slide. It gets worse.................

What you first see ...red indoor outdoor, but that's not the bad part!

When we first bought the house we knew we would have to gut it and truly, right now, 4 years later that is what we are attempting. We have been stripping out drywall and insulation.  I am afraid that the enormity (nastiness)of the task puts us all in a bad mood. If it were up to me and the boys we would just rent a huge dumpster and toss it ALL out, but the hubs prefers to do it in small bits.  Beats me......but this spring we gotta get cracking on it.

This is a view towards the back of the house. Past the doorway is a bedroom area with a window.  It is a decent sized room needs a new window and to rework the closet situation as you can see from the photo below.  It has some sad built in cabinets that we will remove (which you cannot see at this time).  For some reason there is a different type of paneling in this room. Sadly, none of this is salvageable due to damage from humidity and lack of upkeep (not on our part).  We are also working toward re-insulating this whole area. It is not heated or cooled at this time.

This was closet space with vinyl accordion folding doors

Insulation that we plan to reuse...

Really groovy built in seating with very Mod fabric cushions... there is a red rotary telephone ...will have to incorporate it into the decor! Oh, yeah and I am going to refurbish the lamp you see there...it has naked little cherubs ...how fun!

The attic runs from the front to the back of the house almost completely. In the very front is a sunken area which will serve nicely as an entertainment area. There is a length of space between the front sunken area and the bedroom space that due to the slope of the roof is a bit awkward to have anything but a sitting /desk area.  I am hoping to vastly lighten up the space because right now it is very dark and brooding with the dark tone paneling and red carpet. We will be insulating as I mentioned before, recovering the walls and probably some rewiring ...then fixtures, paint and flooring!  Ooops and I need to figure out how to economically heat and cool this area! Then will let one of the boys move in which will open up another room for renovation!

So, that is what is going on right now.  We need some good time off and nice weather to be able to accomplish these current projects.  We haven't been able to work on the back porch/greenhouse lately either...but I am growing anxious for a big push this Spring Break!  

I have pics of the outside of the house but I need to do the inside so that I can go ahead and give you the "Big Picture Tour"  ughh....a good task for these next few last cold weeks of winter.