Pink Bedroom Renovation

As most of you know, we call the bedroom above our garage the "pink bedroom" because the walls are painted a pale pink color.  This is the one room in our house that we haven't done much with.  The previous owners used this room as their nursery, but the room is always at the extreme end of the temperatures, either too hot in the summer or frigid in the winter, so I don't think using it as a baby room is the best idea.
Greg and I have always wondered what was beyond the walls and why the builder didn't take the walls out further to follow the roof line and extend the length of the room.  Last year, Greg did some extensive research and decided that the space should be open behind the walls.  We drilled a hole in the laundry room side to hopefully peak into the space, but we hit some plywood, got scared, and didn't go back to the project for a year.  I decided at the time that the project was over our heads, but now we're back at it, and there's no turning around now!

It all started when we helped a friend move, and she gave us her double bed, and we moved it into the room, and saw that it took up half of the space.  Then, I also use this room to do some sewing, and it was a disaster with all the fabric everywhere.  I always wanted a "bonus" room in a house where you have a hang out spot to watch TV, use the computer and have room to do some crafts.  This was what I wanted this room to be, and there just wasn't enough space, so it had to change.

I showed Greg a picture on Pinterest of the room that I had in mind, and he agreed that we didn't have enough space.  Last year Greg drew up a concept design for the room where it had large built in drawers and an entertainment center.  He wanted to continue with this design and then build some simple desks that weren't built into the walls.  I agreed, and we cut a bigger access hole in the wall and confirmed that there was nothing behind the walls, so we moved forward with the demo...

So, maybe we didn't move forward right away with the demo... For those of you that know Greg, he doesn't jump into anything.  He wanted us to research every SINGLE detail and have it all planned out.  God love him for that, but it's so hard for me to read on the computer what is the best practice rather than asking those I work with, or the friendly man at Hope Depot, or frankly just go with my gut feeling.  However, Greg wouldn't go for that, so I tried to assist with the research, but ultimately, it was Greg who had to get a comfort level with everything.

Needless to say, we did move forward, and started the demo.  The first big obstacle that we came across is that we couldn't decide if the wall was structural or not.  I emailed a structural engineer that I worked with on a past project, and he had us measure the joist spacing and size of joists, horizontal distance from the peak of the roof to the exterior wall, and let him know how many layers of shingles we had on our roof.  We gave him the information, and he replied to my email with "Take the wall out. Your roof can handle 3 layers of shingles!"  Good enough for me!  But of course I asked a couple more questions for Greg just to make sure that he considered snow loads for the crazy winters we have been experiencing.  So, he went into a little more detail, and Greg was good with it.

We have made some good progress on the room.  We have purchased a ceiling fan, 3 can lights to match the one that was in the room, and Greg used this opportunity to buy some better lighting for the garage as well.  We hauled out all the demoed materials to the garage over the weekend for a big trash pick up this week, and we even pulled up the carpet.  Just look at all that space!

The first step in the build back was installing some baffles to allow air to flow along the roof line.  This is something Greg learned in his research.  You can ask him more about it.  Then, the next step is installing insulation to get the desired R-value, but I think I'll leave that for another post.

We pulled up one of the floor boards to make sure that there was insulation above the garage.  We confirmed that they installed R-19 fiberglass insulation, so we were happy to see that there.

We had a plan to get everything done before Thanksgiving, but it's not looking so great, so maybe the next goal will be Christmas.  We will definitely keep you updated on the progress.  Wish us luck!