The Interior (part 2)

 There are two interior 'rooms' in the house...meaning rooms with actual walls.  One is the bedroom, which is small enough that I can't take a pic that encompasses the whole thing.  So the first pic is from the doorway, looking toward the two windows, and the second pic is from the corner between the windows, looking back toward the living room.  There are exposed beams in the ceiling, which I love, and an area above the small closet, as well as two transom spaces above the door and in the wall.  I think these also add a lot of spaceousness to the small space.

 Although the former owner had her queen-sized headboard against the wall next to the door, we intend on putting a smaller full-sized bed in this room for company (although we may stay in it initially ourselves), and the headboard will be inset into a niche in the wall next to the closet, so we can lay in bed and look out the windows at night.  From the window facing down the drive, we should be able to get an amazing glimpse at the sky.
The other room is the bathroom, which has a small closet area ajacent to it that contains the washer/dryer combo.  After much deliberation, we have decided to leave it there instead of moving it downstairs, but I will go into much more detail on all these plans as we work on them.  I will say, however, that the plan that I think will be final is my idea, and I love, love, love it.  In the meantime...what you see here is the washer/dryer, and a small linen closet next to it, which will be removed.  As it stands, you have to walk through this little area to get into the bathroom, the door of which is just beyond the washer/dryer.

 Looking through that door, you can see into the bathroom, which is probably about ten times the size of the one in the camper that we're used to.  And I do love that window, which overlooks the back side of the house....the only side with no long-range view....but it's full of huge rhododendrons, which you can see in this pic.

 There is also a full-sized tub in this bathroom...with a FULL-SIZED SHOWER.  And that shower contains HOT WATER....in abundance.  After two years of standing under a warm trickle, that alone is worth the price of admission.  And I cannot stress that enough.

I haven't spoken much about the kitchen, but I have included a pic of it here, because it too will be getting a huge transformation.  As with all the other plans, though, we have decided...for the moment, at least, to scale back in this area, too.  (We can always add more later, but we really, really want to get in this house as soon as possible!)  So instead of tearing out the wall you see in this pic, I think we've pretty much decided to work within the space we have.  We will still be tearing out the cabinets, but the sink will stay in the same place, so we don't have to reroute plumbing, and we'll have a bigger window over it.  The back door (beyond the refrigerator) will be removed, and the kitchen will take on a U-configuration that will wrap around the walls for more counter space.

In the loft, we'll be removing the railing (at least initially), so that we can expand the floor all the way to the wall above the kitchen.  That will remove our open beams (sigh), but the beams will still be visible, and that's more important.  Here in these pics, you can get a better idea of the views we'll get sitting on (or in) our bed in the loft, which is why we want our bedroom up here.  We'll figure out something for privacy screens, which will have to be worked out eventually, anyway, just for when we have company, if for no other time.  With just the two of us living here, it really won't be an issue most of the time.  One thing I do want that Keith is working on is to install a horizontal fan across that open space above the living room, and remove the two ceiling fans that are there now.  They don't move much air where they are, and are impossible to clean.  I want them gone.

Here, you can see the beams looking down into the kitchen area.  This will all be floored, and it's this area that will become the upstairs powder room (waffling on the shower, still, but only because we really want to keep the view on that side of the house).  Looking over the front railing, though, you can see how much larger the living room looks.  Keith is standing in what will wind up being our dining nook. He's going to make me a wide-planked farm table to go there.



As I've said all along, the best asset of the house is the breathtaking roof line.  It's by far one of the most unusual ones I've ever seen, so whatever we do, I want to be able to enhance that, which is why I want to get rid of the ceiling fans and add a beautiful paddle fan across the space.  It will absolutely be beautiful, and functional too, and one heck of a lot easier to clean!  Below, you can see where the stove pipe goes through the ceiling...I'm really hoping that the stove works out, since that would mean we wouldn't have to figure out how to plug that ugly hole in the otherwise breathtaking ceiling.

The head of the bed will be against the door-windows in the loft, and I'm not sure how we'll go about treating them to keep out the cold. I haven't actually brought it up, but I'm almost hoping that we will rework that to regular windows so that the head of the bed will be against an actual wall, with windows above it.  We shall see, I suppose.  This is also the back of the house, with no long-range view, but lots of rhododendrons.

One of the coolest things, though, is the idea I had for moving furniture into the loft.  Since we're not sure what kind of stair treatment we'll have, or whether it will be feasible to utilize it for moving furniture, the only other alternative will be to move it up and over the loft railing from below.  I came up with the idea of installing a rustic barn pulley for hoisting things with a rope, etc, that we can attach to the main ceiling beams on a track that can be moved back and forth.

 Then it will always be available for whenever we need to move stuff, and the rest of the time, it will just sit there and look cool.  Here is the centermost point in the ceiling, and I just love the way the massive beams come together to form it.  I just hope that all our ideas will come together to really showcase the workmanship to it's full potential, because for all the crappy things the builder did, he did do an outstanding job on the roof!

The Interior (part 1)

 The house was built square....26 ft. by 26 ft. on the outer walls, which makes it quite interesting in terms of interior layout.  All the windows consist of varying styles and shapes, which makes for a very eclectic blend, to say the least, but we want to preserve some of that, as it actually adds to the charm of the place.  The only thing is....a lot of the 'windows' are not actually windows...they're doors, and interior ones, at that.

This translates into single panes... not good against the wind and cold.  So at some point in the future, we will need to address that.  

The single biggest challenge we face, though, is not the windows....it's the stairs.  In a space as small as this one already is, there was never any thought as to the stair design.  Meaning that there was never any place to put stairs....kinda important in terms of reaching the loft.

And since my bed's gonna be up there....not like we can just chuck it and make do.  When we first came on the scene, the stairs were only partially built.  They had never actually been completed, and were of very poor construction, so Keith just tore them down and built a sturdier version temporarily.  A lot of things were done temporarily, just to get the house to qualify for financing, but we have intentions of tearing most of it out as we go.  The stairs were definitely in that category. 

 Considering that space is at a premium, we have waffled constantly about the stair treatment, and even thought for a while about going with a very compact spiral staircase in the corner.  Although that would be awesome in terms of visual appeal, it would be very hard for me to navigate, especially as we age.   It's been a huge challenge to come up with a design and layout that would meet all our needs....functional AND visual...without eating up all our floor space in the process.
 I do think though, that we have finally managed to come up with a plan, thanks to a four-part brainstorming session held with Irb and Jessica, but more on that later, as the time comes to actually work on it.

One of the things we have also decided on is to keep the existing walls intact in this room, instead of bumping the large wall out for the fireplace.  We will be placing the fireplace in this corner, instead, which will also serve to maximize our space, while at the same time, making the space look cozy and intimate.  It will keep our view from being blocked, as well as channeling the heat toward the upstairs.  And placing it there will also give us a better view from upstairs of the fireplace itself, without sacrificing the window view. And believe me when I tell you that it is spectacular. From upstairs, looking out three walls worth of windows, the entire Holston mountain range is viewable.
 Well...during the colder seasons, at least.  In the warmer ones, all we will see is a wall of cool, refreshing green....delicious!

Below the existing stairs is a tiny area between the bathroom door and the bedroom door.  It's an area that used to contain a small wood stove, until poor design almost burnt the entire house down and it was removed.  (It now holds a place of honor underneath the house, but plans are to resurrect it and reinstall it upstairs in the loft. Not sure if it will stay there, that is to be determined...but it's a lovely little stove that deserves a chance, and since the pipe's already in the ceiling, we might as well give it a shot before we close that off.)  Right now, that funky little space is being taken up by stair supports and a propane wall heater, but that will also change with the new stairs, and the addition of a monitor heater until the fireplace can be built, which will be our main source of heat.

 Since these pics were taken, Irb has been a busy bee, tearing the stairs and the railing out, so none of this even exists anymore.  I'm so glad I got the chance to take these pics for comparison...this journey's gonna be awesome!