the upstairs

About three weeks ago I gave a very late "tour" of the downstairs of our home. Last year you endured countless updates on the house we bought and some of the renovations we did, so it only seemed fair to finally share some of what it looks like now that we've moved in. You know. 10 months ago.

Sorry about that.

[By the way, can this be the point in the blog where I suggest that some of you give virtual tours of your homes? Please? Seeing the inside of other houses is one of my most favorite things. I blame my mother, who shamelessly led me in smashing my face against windows of perfect strangers' homes as a child just to get a glimpse of how the furniture was arranged or what kind of kitchen sink they had.]

**Disclaimer: these pictures were taken over the course of several weeks and are not staged. I do have the kids pick up their bedrooms each morning. But I think the girls were even mid-play and I had them step out of the room while I took the pictures.**

The upstairs of our home is a classic 1850s farmhouse: every single room has a slanted ceiling because these rooms were never designed to be grand, but tucked in and functional. I think the result is cozy and sweet, but you won't find french doors leading to balconies here. Simple. Five bedrooms, one of which is a walk-through.

The stairs leading to the upstairs are fully enclosed off the dining room. They remind me of the stairs in the Almanzo Wilder farmhouse, except not quite as steep or narrow. Not grand. Again: simple.

At the top of the stairs, there is a small landing that was made smaller at some point by the addition of a linen closet. That closet is well worth the space it takes up, though of course I wish there was a way to have both the closet and more landing space.

 coming up the stairs: the little boys' bedroom is straight ahead and our bedroom is on the right

the landing where I'd love to eventually get simple built-in bookshelves made to fill the space a bit better (these shelves are where we keep our not-in-use homeschooling materials and they are already bursting at the seams)

standing in the landing and looking down the hall opposite the little boys' bedroom: linen closet on immediate right followed by the second-floor bathroom, Bronwyn's bedroom straight ahead, and the little girls' bedroom on the left. Our attic stairs pull down.

We'll start at the end with the little girls' room. It basically mirrors my bedroom. When we purchased the home, there was a shared walk-through closet. Daniel did put up a wall in order to divide the closet in two and allow us to change the direction things were hung to make better use of the limited space.

the girls room as you enter

the girls keep all their toys in their room: dolls, dollhouse, dress up, Calico Critters, legos. A strict "one thing at a time policy" has to be enforced or this room can become a WHIRLWIND of toys in about 15 seconds flat. It's incredible, really.

yes, they share a bed. no, they don't really like it. it's what we have.

Next is Bronwyn's room. In our old house, the three girls were all in one room. Here, that felt like a tight squeeze since none of the bedrooms are quite the size of their old room. Giving Bronwyn this room meant losing a guest room, but her absolute delight in having her own space (that she keeps shockingly tidy for the most part, I have to say) makes up for that. It's a tiny room and just perfect for her.

looking in from the hall

her double bed fills most of the room and she chose the position: looking out the window as she wakes up

Now I'll take you back down the hall and to our bedroom:

looking in from the hall, right at the top of the stairs. like, LITERALLY the top of the stairs and the main reason we took this room for ourselves instead of giving it to a toddler. Daniel is a good sport and makes do with that desk when I'm sure he'd rather have a designated home office.

that's the closet door Daniel built for me out of leftover shiplap after getting instructions from Rick Haller. I love it so much I've asked him to build a similar one for the linen closet at some point. This is why you don't want to be good at stuff, people: they'll keep asking you for more!

looking back toward the hall

The little boys' bedroom is next and is the walk through room. Their room and the older boys' room are both over the kitchen/family room and have a lower roofline and different feel than the other rooms. It quickly became the boys "wing". Together but separate. Everyone is happy with the set up, especially the older boys who used to share a room with Elliot and are thrilled to be able to have lights on later into the night, etc.

looking in you see Elliot's bed tucked under the eave. Right now he's small enough that the height isn't an issue, but at some point I'd like to get a thinner box spring to lower the bed and make it a bit more comfortable for him.

facing the door toward the hall-- the room is about 10x14 and required the panoramic setting to actually get a good angle of it all

in looking at old pictures of the house, it looks like that north-facing window was originally a full-size window; my hope is to replace it at some point in order to let in ALL the morning light

a little shot of the door that leads to the older boys' bedroom...

Gabriel and Jack's bedroom was definitely originally an attic of sorts. When we bought the house, it still had the narrow, attic-like stairs leading from the family room up to it. In order to open up the kitchen/family room and put in the big island I wanted, we needed to take those stairs out. One of the benefits was that it allowed us to put a closet in the bedroom. Since only 2 of the 5 bedrooms had closets at that point, gaining a 3rd was a pretty big deal.

Along with removing the stairs and putting in the closet, Daniel spent a lot of time removing brick from an old, no-longer-used chimney, patching ship lap, adding more insulation to the crawl spaces along the eaves, putting in new light fixtures, and painting the whole thing.

standing at the door between the two boys' bedrooms, looking in

that closet is exactly where the old stairs used to be, and to the left of it is where the old chimney was. When Daniel removed the shiplap in the closet area, he saved it to put up where the chimney had been, and now you'd never know the difference.

It's a big closet! All four boys keep their clothes in here, along with legos, action figures, the trampoline, indoor hockey gear, playmobil, and more. We laugh that it can be a sixth bedroom if we ever need it.

One thing about my boys is that they don't accumulate much in the way of cute decor-- not like my girls do, anyway. But they have these awesome pictures of a fun fishing trip some friends took them on!

opposite the closet. One would think dressers would be used for storing underwear and socks, but the truth is they're chock-full of wiffle balls, silly putty, joke books, old sports uniforms, and SO MUCH other random stuff. I don't complain because at least I can't see it all.

There.

The tour is done.

Only 10 months late.

If you're reading this, it's your turn now! :)