The 2nd Floor Plan (Moving On Up!)
Rebuilding a Beautiful, Vacant Historic Detroit Home (Episode 11)
“There’s a spirit borne out of near-death experience and make-it-happen Midwest culture.”
-Tony Fadell, Nest CEO and Google Exec. on Detroit
Our 2nd Floor Plan
With all of our major framing complete on the 1st Floor, I figured now would be the appropriate time to give a run down of our plan for the 2nd floor. The 2nd floor is compromised of 4 bedrooms (one on each corner) and 2 full baths between each set of bedrooms. There’s a wonderful landing space as you come up the stairs to the second floor with higher-than-normal ceilings, light coming in from the stained glass windows, and big enough to actually hold some furniture. We will be removing the wall paper, repairing and repainting plaster, and refinishing the floors as well as the staircase.
Master Bedroom
The first time we walked through the house with the previous owner, we found a rogue squirrel in the master bedroom who was turning some of the leftover trash and shag carpeting into a lovely nest behind a desk. As we chased him out of the room, he sprinted into an open hole in the wall of the guest bathroom, never to be seen again. It was a wonderful introduction to the project that we were about to undertake.
Our master bedroom is a wonderful room. Sitting directly above our large living room, the bedroom has a substantial footprint. The old aged wallpaper and yellow matted shag carpet really sets the whole room off on a great start! We quickly tore the shag out and immediately the room started to feel much cleaner and its potential started to show with the lovely bay windows on one end.
We plan on removing the wallpaper, repairing some water damaged plaster, and taking the existing box around the chimney in the room and extending it so that it is centered in the room better. We’ve been discussing thin bricking that new wall so that it creates a nice exposed brick chimney in the room.
Master Bathroom
Our master bathroom is probably one of the most disappointing features of our new home. As a Jack-and-Jill bathroom which is positioned between the master and one of the other bedrooms, it really isn’t a true master bath. The original seafoam green tile, while pretty, unfortunately is cracked in many places, and a slight remodel from the previous owner to allow her to more safely get in and out of the shower has left us with dated new white tile shaped like seashells in the shower space.
Longterm, we have a layout and plan to remodel this bathroom and the other bedroom attached to it to create a beautiful master bath suite. We planned a walk-in closet, claw foot tub, glass shower, and double sinks and vanities that would really bring some updated usefulness and luxury to this house. Unfortunately, due to our financing path, this plan wasn’t able to be fit into our budget just yet, so we will be cleaning up this room, and mostly using it as-is with minor updates like removing wall paper and updating fixtures until we can gather the funds for a full suite remodel. Thankfully, the Historic University District is seeing a huge up-swing in home values, like much of Detroit now, and so I think we’ll be able to justify this remodel soon.
Other 3 Bedrooms
There are 3 other bedrooms on the 2nd floor that need some work. For the most part the rooms themselves are in good shape, just in need of carpet and wallpaper removal. Sanding and refinishing flooring will make these rooms good as new! 2 of the 3 bedrooms even still have their original chandeliers.
One of the 3 bedrooms however was also destroyed by the water leak that destroyed the kitchen. This bedroom is currently down to studs and brick and will need new walls, floors, ceiling, and wiring. This room has a bonus little porch that comes off of it that looks out to our garage and backyard.
Guest Bathroom
Our biggest point of disagreement in our new home has hands-down been over our guest bathroom. With its original pink/purple blush tile, there’s a lot of controversy about whether it should stay or go. I am in the “keep it” camp, and Brandon would really prefer to see this bathroom completely redone, but I’ve won the battle for now, and we are moving forward with the intention of keeping the tile. It’s only original once, so we want to be sure we can’t make it work before we walk away from it completely.
We will be converting the tub into a working shower/tub, and therefore, need to tile the upper 1/2 of the room. Brandon and I agreed on a charcoal colored tile to go above the pink with a new charcoal shaped-edge tile piece to connect the two colors all the way around the room and tie it all together. We’ll be replacing the toilet and lights/faucets in this bathroom, repainting so that the room isn’t so drastically pink, and we’ve also considered staining the grout in this room darker to make the tile more graphic and match the new tile above. Brandon is skeptical, but I’m confident we can make it work by giving it some fresh updates!
So that’s our 2nd floor master plan! Feel free to send us suggestions and/or questions/comments about the space!
This week, we have rough plumbing to begin, some 2nd floor framing work, and maybe even some electrical, so we’ll be updating on that progress soon.
-Miranda
Our Journey isn’t over! We’ve been working hard since we purchased the home in November 2016 and are writing updates on our progress roughly every week. Make sure to check out our latest updates on our homepage!
