Lay of the Land, Part II
We are officially 10 days into our suburban adventure. Ty and I spent the week commuting from downtown to the house so he could go to camp and I could get work done (actual professional work, not house-related work). Here's what we've learned:
1) Traffic in Denver indeed is awful, and Melinda is unlikely to ever like driving everywhere.
2) The house is really going to be great.
3) Even in crazy heat and without air conditioning, the house is very comfortable--probably due to the cool nights and lack of humidity.
4) It's beautiful. This is the view on Gabriella's new walk to school.
Construction status: We finally have bids from multiple contractors. In a surprise to absolutely no one who knows us, the scope has ballooned and we are no longer "just doing cosmetic renovation." (See previous post where we mention the wine room.) So in all likelihood, we will be phasing the work. Everything from the last post and this one will be done first, while we live in the other (less-nice) side of the house and figure out when the budget will allow us to fix it up.
Murphy scale: Only one glass of wine each because we've discovered that at altitude, two glasses of wine can take their toll. 🍷
On to the house. Today's tour is of the bedrooms. The kids' rooms are at the far end of one side of the vee. They are the ground floor. This does not make Melinda happy (Babysnatchers! Teenagers sneaking out! A really long way to run when a kid pukes in the middle of the night!). An excellent alarm system is definitely part of the plan.
Here is Gabriella's room. It is currently two kind-of-attached rooms with--you guessed it--more horses on the walls. We will be closing off the half-wall in order to make two rooms--one smaller guest room and then Gabriella's room in the corner. We will add another bathroom so Gabriella has her own (must have parity with brother!). That will involve moving some walls (scope creep again...) but thankfully the current closet is actually plumbed.
What will become the guest room. Both kids love the window seat so much we are adding them to their rooms as well. (Also, by now it should not need to be said that any tile floor pictured will be replaced.)
Looking from the guest room into Gabriella's future room. This door will be closed off.
What will become Gabriella's room. Obviously, there will not be horses. She is advocating for a hanging swing chair but we are hoping to keep her to just a fuzzy bean bag and maybe a lava lamp.
And here's Tyler's room. It needs the most work for oh so many reasons. First, the sliding glass doors are a hard "no" from the over protective parent in this house. Second, the bathroom has not been touched since we don't know when. It's...dated. So that needs an update. And there is an old sauna that was turned into a closet. We'll close off the sliding door and turn it into a wall/window, update the bathroom, and turn the sauna into a laundry room. That will actually involve punching out another wall since we'll make the laundry room accessible from the hall.
These people had a lot of stuff to clean out! Note the windows. Not cool.
Check out the linoleum. And the tilling. The dirt probably stuck in that grout makes me shiver.
The sauna closet. SO. MANY. QUESTIONS.
Finally, we come to the master suite. This is basically above the kitchen. There is a study for Matt, the bedroom, the master bath and a massive closet. All of it just needs cosmetic work (truly!). This is the part of the house that was added on in the 1990s, and it shows.
The study. It's really nice, especially the woodwork.
The master. Definitely needs new paint!
The master bath. The view from the tub is amazing. We will replace with a clawfoot tub, though. And the arch is not our thing (nor is the floor) so we'll smooth that out and also put in a counter/sinks so they don't jut out in that weird way.
Finally, the closet (actually, this picture is only of part of the closet! It's multiple rooms, which is insane). Although we'd love to combine it into one big closet, in all likelihood, we'll leave as is because really, it's massive and functional and so much better than anything we had in NYC.
So that's Phase 1. Next time--Phase 2, aka where we're going to try to live.
1) Traffic in Denver indeed is awful, and Melinda is unlikely to ever like driving everywhere.
2) The house is really going to be great.
3) Even in crazy heat and without air conditioning, the house is very comfortable--probably due to the cool nights and lack of humidity.
4) It's beautiful. This is the view on Gabriella's new walk to school.
Construction status: We finally have bids from multiple contractors. In a surprise to absolutely no one who knows us, the scope has ballooned and we are no longer "just doing cosmetic renovation." (See previous post where we mention the wine room.) So in all likelihood, we will be phasing the work. Everything from the last post and this one will be done first, while we live in the other (less-nice) side of the house and figure out when the budget will allow us to fix it up.
Murphy scale: Only one glass of wine each because we've discovered that at altitude, two glasses of wine can take their toll. 🍷
On to the house. Today's tour is of the bedrooms. The kids' rooms are at the far end of one side of the vee. They are the ground floor. This does not make Melinda happy (Babysnatchers! Teenagers sneaking out! A really long way to run when a kid pukes in the middle of the night!). An excellent alarm system is definitely part of the plan.
Here is Gabriella's room. It is currently two kind-of-attached rooms with--you guessed it--more horses on the walls. We will be closing off the half-wall in order to make two rooms--one smaller guest room and then Gabriella's room in the corner. We will add another bathroom so Gabriella has her own (must have parity with brother!). That will involve moving some walls (scope creep again...) but thankfully the current closet is actually plumbed.
What will become Gabriella's room. Obviously, there will not be horses. She is advocating for a hanging swing chair but we are hoping to keep her to just a fuzzy bean bag and maybe a lava lamp.
And here's Tyler's room. It needs the most work for oh so many reasons. First, the sliding glass doors are a hard "no" from the over protective parent in this house. Second, the bathroom has not been touched since we don't know when. It's...dated. So that needs an update. And there is an old sauna that was turned into a closet. We'll close off the sliding door and turn it into a wall/window, update the bathroom, and turn the sauna into a laundry room. That will actually involve punching out another wall since we'll make the laundry room accessible from the hall.
These people had a lot of stuff to clean out! Note the windows. Not cool.
Check out the linoleum. And the tilling. The dirt probably stuck in that grout makes me shiver.
Finally, we come to the master suite. This is basically above the kitchen. There is a study for Matt, the bedroom, the master bath and a massive closet. All of it just needs cosmetic work (truly!). This is the part of the house that was added on in the 1990s, and it shows.
The study. It's really nice, especially the woodwork. The master. Definitely needs new paint!
The master bath. The view from the tub is amazing. We will replace with a clawfoot tub, though. And the arch is not our thing (nor is the floor) so we'll smooth that out and also put in a counter/sinks so they don't jut out in that weird way.
Finally, the closet (actually, this picture is only of part of the closet! It's multiple rooms, which is insane). Although we'd love to combine it into one big closet, in all likelihood, we'll leave as is because really, it's massive and functional and so much better than anything we had in NYC.
So that's Phase 1. Next time--Phase 2, aka where we're going to try to live.
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