Is there a realtor in the house? (semantics: finished vs. unfinished space)

[laura*]

Hmmm, which common house plan could this be...

(I grew up in SW Michigan.)

I assume your upstairs is a T shape, with gable ends at each tip of the T, and a (nearly) flat roofed bump out along the top of the T. The big room is at the base of the T, the itty bitty room is the left half of the top of the T, and DS's future room is the right half. Further, the base of the T has the tallest gable and points to the street, and the bump out overlooks the back yard. Yes, no?

I suspect the bump out might have been just a gable end originally. Also, you might be able to have a normal ceiling height in the hall.

How about moving the door to DS's bedroom into the hall, thus combining the two rooms. I think the door could swing into the bedroom against a former hall wall and not block anything. Then configure the itty bitty room as a closet and computer nook for DS.

I see no point in definishing the itty bitty room. Livable space would be better than totally unfinished attic.

You probably want some sort of proper flooring upstairs. Carpet is probably the cheapest option. It'll also feel warm on cold Michigan mornings. A hard surface upstairs might be very noisy downstairs.

[zoom-zoom]

Hmmm, which common house plan could this be...

(I grew up in SW Michigan.)

I assume your upstairs is a T shape, with gable ends at each tip of the T, and a (nearly) flat roofed bump out along the top of the T. The big room is at the base of the T, the itty bitty room is the left half of the top of the T, and DS's future room is the right half. Further, the base of the T has the tallest gable and points to the street, and the bump out overlooks the back yard. Yes, no?

I suspect the bump out might have been just a gable end originally. Also, you might be able to have a normal ceiling height in the hall.

How about moving the door to DS's bedroom into the hall, thus combining the two rooms. I think the door could swing into the bedroom against a former hall wall and not block anything. Then configure the itty bitty room as a closet and computer nook for DS.

I see no point in definishing the itty bitty room. Livable space would be better than totally unfinished attic.

You probably want some sort of proper flooring upstairs. Carpet is probably the cheapest option. It'll also feel warm on cold Michigan mornings. A hard surface upstairs might be very noisy downstairs.

Ha, you pretty closely described our upstairs floorplan. I never realized it was that common!

We'd actually considered seeing if we could knock out the wall between the larger room and the hallway and making it a really nicely-sized room with a walk-in closet (the smaller room), but we're at the point where we aren't going to do ANYTHING that involves knocking out walls or building new ones. I doubt we would do carpeting, either, though. The previous owners of this place put in the lowest-rent carpeting before selling it to us and we had it out within 2 years. It was just awful. If the next owners want to put in carpet, they can, but I'm not going to make that decision for them.

I think we'll probably not do anything to unfinish that smaller room. I've asked a few other people and generally people are suggesting that it's not necessary to list a room as storage, rather than bedroom.

[laura*]

The entire house was apparently laid out by someone with half a brain (on a good day).

It was designed for different needs and customs.

Wow, I think our downstairs is maybe 900 sq. ft...geez....

Aah-yup! It was built as a two bedroom house. The attic upstairs was the storage area - probably meant to be filled with steamer trunks and such. Hence, there's no storage on the main level.

Our current dining area is basically a glorified hallway and having even our small table in there is a major PITA, since the room has 5 entrances (living room, sunroom/office, kitchen, stairs, bathroom). To get anywhere in the house one has to walk around the damned table.

The dining area would have contained a stove of some sort. It provided heat and cooking. The area now take up by your kitchen, bathroom, and sunroom/office would have been the second bedroom and a pantry. The "bathroom" was out in the back yard.

we aren't going to do ANYTHING that involves knocking out walls or building new ones.

If that's the case, then why do the bedroom shuffle? If you need to vacate rooms to renovate them, then the shuffle makes sense, but otherwise not. Right now you could claim three bedrooms - one downstairs, two upstairs, an office, and an itty bitty storage room.

[zoom-zoom]

It was designed for different needs and customs.



Aah-yup! It was built as a two bedroom house. The attic upstairs was the storage area - probably meant to be filled with steamer trunks and such. Hence, there's no storage on the main level.



The dining area would have contained a stove of some sort. It provided heat and cooking. The area now take up by your kitchen, bathroom, and sunroom/office would have been the second bedroom and a pantry. The "bathroom" was out in the back yard.



If that's the case, then why do the bedroom shuffle? If you need to vacate rooms to renovate them, then the shuffle makes sense, but otherwise not. Right now you could claim three bedrooms - one downstairs, two upstairs, an office, and an itty bitty storage room.

The house was definitely designed by short people. The tallest room in the house only has 7' ceilings. Hubby used to hit his head coming down the stairs when we first bought the house. At 6'2" he's not excessively tall, either.

Yep, bathroom and rear mudroom entryway were definitely not original parts of the house. We're pretty certain that the sunroom was not original, either.

We do have to vacate rooms to repaint and do trim and finish some flooring, so rearranging rooms won't be a big deal. Our living room is currently too small for us to ride our bikes on the indoor trainers without taking one part of our (stupid) sectional sofa and putting it in an odd part of the room. Because our current bedroom only has one entrance we can put the sofa in that room in such a way that we have more room to use our bikes indoors or do other indoor workouts with weights and yoga ball. I'll also be able to store my workout gear in that closet, instead of shoved in a corner and looking unsightly.