The fourth day of this week of 5 articles in which I try to summ up what renovations we had done to our home last winter and spring.
In an article in November last year I explained what was going to be done and why. But I never followed up on this blogpost like I woud’ve wanted to.
So to catch you up I’m doing this so-called article marathon (because one single article wasn’t going to do it).
I’ve divided it to write one article per ‘section’ of the house. On Monday I started with the 2 bedrooms and their small hallway, the newly created living room and entrance on Tuesday and the fireplace project and dining room yesterday. Today is about the mezzanine and I should complete this series of 5 articles tomorrow with the exterior (and everything that still needs doing).
Does this still make sense to you?
So, lets move on!
One of the features that we really liked when we first visited this house before buying, was the mezzanine.
It’s like an second living room, which is perfect as a TV room in which we could put the home computer as well. I really like the american notion of ‘family room‘ and that’s exactly it.
Sound isolated.
With planning renovation works, we decided at the same time to try to acoustically isolate our tv room from the living downstairs.
Closing it completely seemed a little too drastic. It wouldn’t be great aesthetically and also it would block the light. The trapeze window we were installing in the new living room gave us the idea to do something similar for the mezzanine. We have brougt the glass wall trend into our home.
There was however, a gap between where the ceiling ended and the mezzanine floor ‘started’. That’s why we had the mezzanine extended by a little over 50 cm.
Now, the ceiling and the floor were aligned.
Glass wall.
Before the official start by the builders in november, they had already been to install a new wooden beam and the flooring board to extend the mezzanine. To do so, they had to remove the wood railing and that was already so much better.
Such an improvement (because the wood railing was so present).
When everything then started, there was no more heating downstairs and we still had to wait 6 weeks before delivery of the windows. The mezzanine was closed off with a huge black plastic. During the renovation we continued living in our home (upstairs) and the mezzanine was our temporairy living room. I admit the large very dark plastic wasn’t very pretty to look at and it didn’t keep out the cold as much as we would want to.
So I don’t have to explain to you how happy we were when, just before the Christmas break, they came to put in the glass wall (and the other windows too)
We chose glass panels from floor to ceiling of 80cm wide. One of the panels has a window that opens so we can the heat from downstairs come in, when necessary.
Decorating.
In the mezzanine the cast iron radiator has been dismantled (like everywhere else in the house for that matter). That’s already a great improvement.
Now, our ‘family room‘ is on our to-do list; We have to paint the walls, the railing and the stairs.
And there’s decorating to be done as well. We will probably start by replacing of the 13 year old carpeting. This will be necessary anyway because of the extension.
I’ve been reading a lot about the new sustainable laminate flooring with cork. There are so many advantages to this material and it also has many aesthetic possibilities.
As for the rest of the decorating plans, I’d like to create shelving for our books and an original way to store the many plaids (for Netflix, you get it, right?) I’d also love to change the lighting and put some personnal items on the wall.
And of course there will be plants.
By now you got it, our mezzanine is a story to be continued, work in progress …
Eventhough our glass wall is already such an improvement.
By now you got it, our mezzanine is a story to be continued … Eventhough our glass wall is already such an improvement.
Tomorrow I’ll publish the last article in this series of 5. In it, I’ll explain how these changes have affected the exterior of our home and I’ll briefly summ up what remains to be done in the near future.
Anyway, if you are a homeowner you’ll know this, a house is never finished!
See you tomorrow?
