We have many challenges upstairs. (understatement of the century!)
First, the layout at the top of the stairs into the guest bedroom and bathroom needed to be addressed.
Next, the floor needed to be leveled. Badly! That would then require the stairs to be completely rebuilt to match the new floor height. But that will come after the rest of the upstairs projects are complete.
Layout Plan
When you reach the top of the stairs, the guest room is immediately to the right, at the front of the house. When you exit the room, you literally fall into the top two steps. So, we knew we needed to change the layout.
The plan was to add a wall next to the top steps and then add an entrance into the bedroom where the bathroom vanity used to be located. We would add a new bathroom door directly in front of the top of the stairs. By re-configuring the layout, we would also gain space for a linen closet, where the entrance into the bedroom used to be (entering from a hallway), as well as some additional square footage in the guest bedroom. There was also this strange little window looking into the stairwell. That would now be enclosed into the linen closet.
Reconfiguration Pt. 1
If you spot the heating vent in the pics, you can get an idea of what's happening. It used to be under the vanity in the bathroom. It will now be in the guest bedroom entrance.
Reconfiguration Pt. 2
New bathroom entrance is cut open and framing begins.
Floor Leveling Pt. 1
The principal bedroom was a newer addition to the home, with new construction material, so the floor height was higher than the original house floor height. Whoever did the addition, made a ramp into the hallway and in the bathroom to compensate for the difference.
Since the floor in the guest room was already very much out of level (it made me sea sick), we decided it was best to match the floor height of the new construction and completely level the entire second floor, beginning at the ramp.
The floor at the top of the stairs would wait until we tackle the rebuilding of the stairs.
Floor Leveling Pt. 2
The guest bedroom floor turned out to be so bad that it will still end up being higher than the hallway floor, just to get it level. We will have to work some magic with a transition strip when we install the flooring.
Andy's already proven his magic skills with this floor, so I'm not concerned. His favorite saying is, ″buy a farmhouse they said. It will be fun, they said!″
Floor Leveling Complete!
The floor in the bathroom will wait until we figure out the shower pan height, etc. With the floor now level in the guest bedroom, hallway and new linen closet, we can now rewire outlets, hang and finish drywall, and then make everything pretty in the guest room! Stay tuned!!!