Hello all! I hope you’re having a great week during this “almost” Spring season. We had several inches of snow last weekend—and dogwoods are beginning to open their buds today.
And while the seasons are a-changing outside, we are making more old house changes inside!
It might help you to have a little background so you can see the method to our madness.
In the ’80s—two owners back—our sunroom (which I’m told they called a “breezeway” and used as an office) plus a 3-car garage addition were added to the back of our small-town Victorian. Then, 20 years later, the next owners enclosed two bays of the garage and turned it into a family room.
We use this space as a sunroom. Click on the picture to read about the surprise we discovered in this room!
On the other side of this door is the 3-car-garage-turned-family-room. From Day One, it’s been my least favorite space in the entire house. While the original 1908 house has high ceilings, the space beyond the door has 8-foot ceilings, bad lighting, blah-colored walls, and no heat. But it’s sure been a blessing to have it for storage while we worked on the rest of the house!
Even so, this is what my brain saw every time I looked at that door.
But you won’t be surprised to learn that we had a plan!
I already gave you a sneak peek of what’s been accomplished so far, but here’s a recap:
Only one thing on my wish list was impractical, so I’m a happy camper!
Knowing we’d have some helpers soon, Renaissance Man and I got busy preparing the antique windows for installation. If you’ve been a visitor here for a long time, you may remember that these beauties were salvaged from an old train station in the Northeast. I started restoring them four years ago—back when we were living at the farm in our little 300 sq. ft. fifth wheel and preparing to build the Finally Farmhouse that wasn’t.
For three days last week, we had extra help and made quick work of this room—and several others!
Goodbye to the window AC and aluminum window.
Hello to the wide header!
And hello to the wide opening!
This day was a long time coming, and I am very grateful it finally arrived!
When the windows on the east side of the room were installed, we repeated the steps on the west side.
And then the interior portion of the mini-split was installed.
This is what will provide a comfy working temperature year-round. And anyone who knows me well knows that’s critically important because I’m a grouch otherwise!
The exterior unit will be connected next week, and then it should be good to go. We’re also waiting on some help with sheetrock finishing so we can move on to paint and final trimwork. We’re checking things off the list!
Even though there’s more to do, I can both see and FEEL the progress. Today was a gray day here in East Tennessee, but the light flowing into this space was uplifting to my spirit—even while doing laundry.
I’m imagining the drop zone with bench on that wall between the window and door . . .
The most important part of design is finding all the issues to be resolved. The rest are details.
Soumeet Lanka
Co-founder, Better By Design
I think we’ve found the “issues” in this space and have just about resolved all of them.
Beautiful solutions that will make such a difference in this space! I’m excited to watch it come to life.
Thank you, Megan. That means a lot coming from a pro like you!
Wow! I am wanting a bench for inside our garage to open family/kitchen area. I’ll be curious to see what you’ve found. You guys are amazing.
Found? LOL nothing yet. Well, actually I’ve found some inspiration pics but haven’t decided if we’ll build something ourselves or support a local business. That will be one of the last things we do in that space, so I’ll think about it awhile.
I didn’t know you were putting windows on both sides. Love it!
Thanks. It makes such a difference!
You are such a hard worker, Susan! And a skillful one too. I love all the windows!