The great remodel and new baby room

Our house is (was) a two-bedroom. With a second wee one on the way someday soon, we needed a third bedroom. Luckily, we had a fairly easy way to do it. Our garden level was pretty much one giant room. And I do mean giant -- 500sf, bigger than most apartments I lived in back in my single days. It was finished, but just one big, mostly empty room, furnished with all the mismatched, leftover junk we'd never gotten around to putting away or getting rid of when we moved into the house in 2003.

We decided to divide it up to make a smaller family room and a 3rd bedroom. I think it worked pretty well! Unfortunately, I didn't think to take "before" pictures, so the one below is the best I can come up with. It's taken from just inside the bathroom door, looking down what is now the hallway into the side of the old room that's now the family room. See that metal pole? You can see it from the opposite side in the 5th picture below. The igloo is pretty much sitting in the middle of what's now the 3rd bedroom.

The Bedroom

DURING: The framed new wall from the bedroom side (imagine the edge of the igloo in the bottom right-hand corner, with the tunnel running up the right side of the picture):

AFTER: Same view -- the new wall finished, from the bedroom side:

We put in built-in shelves because it's a pretty small room, and added a desk in case we still live in this house when she's old enough to be in school & needs a place to study. (Ahem...in the interest of full disclosure: when I say "we put built-in shelves," I mean my husband, of course. I did finish them though.)

The south wall of the new bedroom (the windows will eventually have velvet roman shades in the same color as the purple behind the shelves...I'd better get sewing...):

And here's our wish for our daughter -- peace, love and happines:

I'm eventually going to paint this on the walls in our bedroom & the Bee's too. We all deserve peace, love & happiness! (I cheated on this -- I bought a stencil for it at Michael's.)

The bedroom is currently in use as a guest room, so it has a double bed in it. That will get replaced either by a crib or the twin bed I slept in as a girl, depending on how old our daughter is. There's also a beautiful quilt in the works from Grandma; stay tuned for pictures of that. I just realized it still looks a little naked -- it's getting there though. At least it's a bedroom now, and not just half of a humongous, badly-used room!

The Family Room

DURING: The framed new wall from the family room side (imagine the igloo inside that framed part -- the new bedroom -- with the tunnel running down in the picture toward the photographer):

AFTER: Same view -- the new wall finished (except for hanging up all that art you see stacked against the end table), from the family room side:

And a view of the opposite side of the new family room: