Maggie's New Room and Upstairs Reveal

Well this has been a project two months in the making!  

Maggie used to sleep in the landing of the hallway upstairs, while the five boys shared the two upstairs bedrooms (the master bedroom is downstairs).  I've said it before that Maggie prayed for "walls" and a new bedroom for awhile and we finally saved up enough money to make the renovations a reality.

Here's her bedroomarea before:

Then we cleared it out and the kids went nuts.  Open spaces have that effect.

See that column they are all standing in front of?  That's an unused chimney that was walled up.  That railing to the right actually prevents kids from falling onto the stairs behind.

So we hired Maggie's friend's grandpa to do the work, and on the very first day, he had the drywall delivered.  He had done his measurements and figured out a way to get it all the way to the third floor of our house (our second floor is actually the house's third floor because there is an apartment on the first floor...got it?).  I was very impressed with the whole operation.  The truck delivered the drywall....

... I watched it get lifted up past our screened porch...

...and in through the bathroom window on the third floor.  Our hallways and stairways are too narrow to carry the drywall up through the house (our house is over 100 years old) so I thought this way was pretty ingenious.

And then the work began!

That white square on the floor was where the chimney used to be.  I think the hardest part was getting rid of that thing, brick by brick, and then carrying it down two flights of stairs.  Whew!

I wasn't able to take photos of every step along the way, but TADAAAA, the finished product!

^ Maggie is standing on her side of the room above, and below she is standing on the future baby's side of the room.  The paint is Benjamin Moore's Linen White, and my mom gave her that comforter from Pottery Barn Kids (but thrifted!).  We had to get her an armoire since we didn't build a closet, and a headboard with storage because she's a packrat :)

While we were creating her bedroom, we also decided to rip up the carpet and put in laminate hardwood floors throughout the second floor.  They came out so nice!

We painted the little boys' room too!  Before:

After:

Paint is Benjamin Moore's Colorado Gray and I love it so much!   Declan's crib is gone (moved to Maggie's room) and he's in a bed now.  I got them really soft comforters in a pretty shade of light blue to pull the room together. 

The big boy's room got a slight makeover too.   We sold that huge bunk bed because the only way it fit in the room was in front of the window and it just overpowered the room.  

Before:

We got a hand-me-down bunk bed set that ALSO didn't fit in the room (darn you slanted ceilings) so we just kept the beds separate.

After:

I found inexpensive bedside tables that are coming soon to help hide some of their junk.  Perhaps I am an enabler.  Pretty much all of the furniture and beds in the kids rooms are all hand-me-downs from generous family members and friends, so nothing really matches.  I like to think of it as vintage eclectic and pretend it's my style :)

Out in the hallway, across from Maggie's room, is a little library area we set up.

It's just two of these shelves side-by-side with a rocking chair in the corner, but the kids all love it.

And that's it!  Next up is the kitchen and master bedroom renovation.  There's nothing like adding a 9th person to the family to motivate us to finally get the work done we've been talking about for years!