Wednesday, March 21, 2018

My Favorite Room - The Freezer

This will be a lovely house with a beautiful new kitchen and bathrooms and lots of brand new finishes.  But the room that I'm really excited about?  The office.


So why you ask, do I like it so much?  Well, it's a great room off on its own - separated a bit from the rest of the house.  It has 7 (that's right seven!) windows  As well as built in, floor to ceiling bookcases.  The sun pours in all day and it's just this great spot.  Seriously, I'd be in here all day if it was my home.

But there are some issues.  First and foremost, we nicknamed it 'the freezer', because I had stored some cleaning supplies in there and they all froze solid.  Yikes!  The radiator doesn't work and apparently there isn't any insulation in the floor, walls or ceiling (not to mention the drafty windows).  

So it needs some updates (now we know why there were so many heaters in there when we bought the house!).

We quickly got the steam radiator working.  It helped a lot, but it was still cold - particularly on windy days with the drafty windows.

Next, the insulation team came out.  This was quite a challenge - there was no access panel to the crawl space, so we had to cut one into the siding.  And poor Chris drew the short straw and got the job of insulating the crawl space.

Big smile when you're the guy handing the insulation to the guy in the crawl space!!

But we also needed to insulate the ceiling.  To accomplish this, we cut an access hole in the adjoining bedroom.  That let the guys blow in insulation to achieve a R-49 (modern building code for attic insulation) rating.
Paperback bookcase - 10" tall shelves!
And of course we insulated all the walls with the blown in insulation.  See all the wooden plugs that they use to fill the blown-in holes?

And while the bookcases are nice, they have an issue that is one of my pet peeves.  Each shelf is only 10 inches tall - that's simply not tall enough for your typical hardback book.  This seems more like a paperback bookshelf.

So the guys pulled out the old shelves and we added them back with much more generous dimensions.

















In addition,  tan office really needs some closed storage, for things like printer paper and stuff that isn't attractive enough for open shelves.  Chris custom built cabinet doors for each side and then added a custom radiator cover.  Once all this gets painted, it will be a beautiful storage wall!














Ta da!!!
And we have new electrical outlets as well!!


For lighting, I bought this great flush fixture.  The Edison Bulbs will look so nice in there!

Or course paint will make a big difference - but the room is already looking good and with our recent cold temperatures, it's still nice and cozy!  I can't wait to see it all come together.



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10 comments:

  1. Looks fantastic, I love that light fixture! Curious if you're going to stage it as a home office or as a library.

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    1. Excellent question! Although I think of them as sort of the same thing. How would you do them differently? More books???

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    2. I guess I picture a library as being more books and maybe some free-standing shelves and a couple armchairs, maybe with a small secretary desk tucked under one of the windows, whereas an office might have a big partner's desk right in the middle. A difference of presented use; one primarily for relaxing, one primarily for working.

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  2. I think a library is cozier(and has more books). If you put pillows and a cushion on the radiator cover, it's a library. Looks great either way!

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    1. I gave some thought to doing a cushion on the radiator cover - but it's not really deep and I wasn't sure it would be a good idea to build it out too far. So I guess it will be an office!!

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  3. I bet it was fun painting over that green! Looking forward to the new color scheme. Re the above comment, I would think a library would have cozy seating and maybe a game table (chess or checkers). But it seems like you have space to do whatever you want. Love watching this one come together. Thanks for sharing with all of us, especially those of us still in the corporate grind.

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    1. Ha ha - I spent decades in the corporate grind! And this is a whole lot more fun!! I'm planning to put a desk in the room, so I guess that makes it an office? It will be interesting to see what people think. There does seem to be a lot of interest from prospective buyers for a home office - lots of people work from home!

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    2. Absolutely. My office is critical even though I usually go into the office for work. And everyone pays bills. Dual offices are not uncommon either. My husband has a desk in a guest room where he works. I got my own space.

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  4. The room seems to be a good size....could it be both an office and library? Desk on one side, comfy chair with lamp on the other for reading while sipping tea (or coffee, if you like that sort of thing). :)

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    1. It is a good sized room! And that’s how I was planning to stage it - desk at one end with a chair on the other side, next to the bookcase!

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