I’ve been meaning to post about this for a while now and it seems as though the time has finally come. After may years hiatus I’ve started visiting the “Mothering” discussion boards again. It seems that at Mothering “M” is for March and Master Bedroom Challenge and I’ve decided to join up.

I’m going to keep track of progress here as well as there. First I need to post a little bit of background information. As of the end of January or so, the upstairs was nearly finished. We had to do the finish work on the built-in bookcases, trim everything and paint/finish all the wood. The floor, walls, ceiling, divider walls and most of the bookcases were otherwise complete. We were so excited! It was great to be gaining momentum and feel like we were really making progress!

As so often happens we incurred yet another set-back. One morning, while laying on the floor playing with the boys, I noticed water stains on the ceiling. As it turns out the foil vaper barrier on the ceiling had a build up of condensation from warm air inside meeting the cold air outside right at that point. The condensation was staining the ship lap on the ceiling and making it vulnerable to mold growth.

We ended up hiring an old friend who is an air quality specialist to come in, confirm our suspicions and help us to decide the best course of action. While he was here he discovered the the ridge vent was venting adequately and the whole underside of the roof was covered in a sheet of ice, which was also slowly melting into the insulation. It was getting soaked from both sides! Agh! We need to find someone to hire to install a new ridge vent to help with the outside. On the inside we have to take down the whole ceiling, as well as everything attached to the ceiling, and replace it. This time building vents through it as we go.

In short: the bookshelves need to come down, the dividing walls around the wood stove pipe and the top of the stairs need to come down, the book cases need to come down. Then we have to do it all again. *sigh*

With all of that in mind here is our survey for the challange:
MY MASTER BEDROOM PICTURE TOUR

This is the side of the room where the water damage to the ceiling was the worse. In this picture we have already taken down the bookcase, part of the wall around the stove pipe and much of the ceiling.

Here is the north wall:
It’s a small room and our only bedroom. We store a lot under the bed. I just two weeks ago started working to organize that a bit more. Here is what was under the bed:

One of the small cardboard boxes is holding Christmas/Solstice decorations. The other is holding a bunch of wadded up sewing pattern pieces that the kids got into and made a mess of. The guitar and ukulele are pretty self-explanatory.

And inside the under bed storage:

One of those is my yarn stash and another is my fabric stash. Both of those are in pretty good shape. The third one (closest to the front in the picture) apparently was filled with random sheets and articles of clothing by the boys.

Here is the double bookcase next to the stairs:
The south wall, window and bed (complete with sleeping baby):

The east wall:
We don’t have a dresser or anything yet, so clothes come up in paper bags…and generally stay there…except when they get thrown on the floor….which makes Mommy sad.

WHAT I LIKE BEST ABOUT MY MASTER BEDROOM

I like our big comfy bed. It’s safe!!!! This is from both an air quality and baby proofing prospective. Beautiful views out the window. It was actually very cute and pleasant when it was close to being done.

WHAT I LIKE LEAST ABOUT MY MASTER BEDROOM

NO FURNITURE!!! It drive me crazy not to have a place to store clothes. I would love to have bunk beds for the boys. I’m so sick of having a whole stack of diapers tumble down on my head every time I go to grab one.

I’m also very sad about the prospect of going back to a more ‘unfinished’ room. Our whole downstairs is still foil covered. It was so nice to have the upstairs be a foil-free zone. It was all covered waaaa!!

HOT SPOTS (spots in your room that tend to collect clutter)

The kids seem to like to throw everything we own on the floor and sometimes the bed. The room gets used a lot. Then we it’s time to clean up everything tends to just be thrown haphazardly onto the shelves.

MY PLAN OF ACTION -

Ultimately there is a lot that needs to be done. There is a lot that we can’t do until we rebuild the ceiling and walls. But I talked to DH and got him on board and here is our plan for the month of March:

• We are going to try to replace the western slope of the ceiling. At least as far as our limited budget will allow.
• Rebuild the walls around the stove pipe
• Possibly rebuild the bookshelf in front of the stove pipe
• Re-organize everything as much as possible
• Sort through and remove anything that doesn’t absolutely need to be in that room
• Slowly start setting nails/filling nail holes in prep for finish work
• Try to personalize the room a bit more and make it both more ‘homey’ and more functional
• Deep clean everything

So there you have it. Looks like we have a lot of work to do this month!