When we built this house, there was an option on the floor plan to add basically a 3rd floor unfinished attic room vs. having the pull-down in the ceiling that led to a traditional attic crawl space. We opted to have the room for easier storage (we definitely didn’t want the holiday totes, etc. to be taking up room in the garage like they did in our last house), and we thought it was worth the extra money because my husband could finish it and then it’s a 5th bedroom and added heated square footage when we sell the house someday.
After being in the house three years, my husband {finally} got around to getting it started (I’m totally kidding, he’s done so many other wonderful projects – like the porch! – and they all take time!) Here’s a look at what the space looked like before:
Pretty bare bones – but tons of potential! Plus if you can imagine, to the right of this pic and back is a little bit of a hallway that leads back to the area that has the HVAC unit and also had ample storage for utility shelves to store my holiday decor and other things, and that long hallway made a perfect closet as you can see below in the after pics!
My husband did such a good job! It was his idea to do the planks instead of plain drywall, which are actually sheets of plywood he painted and carved grooves into to replicate the look of ship lap. The costliest part of this renovation was the mini-split for the HVAC. Other than that, the labor was free a la my hubby!
Tanner is so excited to move into this space – the boys have been sharing since we moved here. He was in the downstairs guest room for a while before I turned it into a guest room, but the upstairs room they currently share is a very large room with ample space for their beds and dressers. He is 18 now and graduating soon though, so we are not sure how much longer he’ll be in it. After that, the use of the space is TBD, but we will likely keep some sort of bed in there for extra room for guests, or him when needed.
I would love to know what you think! This brought our home’s square footage up by an additional ~250 square feet. Well worth the investment! And we enjoy saying we have a 3-story house (LOL).
