The Attic Renovation:
Finishing the second floor of a 1½ storey house.

Our house is 1½ storey with two bedrooms upstairs in what is essentially a finished attic. Shortly after moving in, we became aware of a number of issues that led us to completely gut the second floor in order to address the ventilation, electrical, plumbing and structural problems that were far more extensive than we had expected. It took six years and several contractors while flirting with the very real possibility of facing bankruptcy before we were able to start living upstairs.

Layout

The layout of the second floor is relatively simple. The "u" shaped staircase is roughly in middle of the house with a landing at the back overlooking our scenic backyard. Once upstairs, the largest bedroom is to the right. This is our daughter's bedroom as it makes use of part of the back dormer which will be ideal for a study area. The other bedroom is to the left. It is the smallest bedroom in the house (while being as large as our master bedroom in our first house). This is the guest room, or possibly another child's bedroom in the future. There is also a larger side attic area off of this room (facing the front of the house), which now houses our air handler. A closet runs the length of the hallway between the two bedrooms.

Just Move In?

We honestly thought that the bedrooms only needed some minor drywall repairs and a fresh coat of paint. However, the installation of an air handler in the side attic set off a chain reaction that affected every level of the house. The second floor ended up being gutted to the framing. New insulation, vapor barrier and drywall had to be installed. The unexpected and costly renovations stretched out to arouund six years.

The Original Features

Please note that the pictures on this page were taken with a standard 35mm camera and, while the quality isn't very good, these are the only pictures I have of these features. The first three are pictures of the largest bedroom. The picture on the left shows the entry and closet. The photo on the right shows the alcove with the window seat-- the ideal study area.

These next two pictures show a couple of the "cool" features of the smaller bedroom. The first is the ceiling, which was in fairly rough shape. The suspended panels were lit by a fluorescent fixture attached to the peak. The result was that the entire ceiling provided light to the room. My wife, however, didn't like this ceiling, and the panels were old and discoloured. Still, it was a pretty interesting feature.

The other detail that stood out was the closet within closet. A single door allowed access to the main closet. Inside that closet, to the right, was an opening to a secondary closet. My wife was more impressed with this design than I was, although I have to admit there are a couple of advantages to this feature such as the ability to rotate seasonal clothes, or having a storage area for other items such as boxes of keepsakes, etc. I also thought the secondary closet would be the perfect place to hide a life-size Halloween figure like a skeleton or zombie, for when houseguests or kids start snooping through the closets... :-)