Just like we did in our first house, we’ve been hopping from project to project and room to room—tackling the living room, guest room, nursery, bedroom, kitchen, dining room, office, laundry room, patio, deck, and more. After two years of living here there were still several spaces untouched (or slowly filling with clutter, as documented here).
Until about a month ago the untouched areas were:
- the sunroom
- the playroom
- the hall bathroom
- the guest bathroom
- the basement
- the carport (we plan to convert it into a more attractive structure)
- the front porch (we want to frame the columns and remove the scalloped trim)
That’s a lot of spaces to leave alone for nearly two years. Fortunately, in the last few weeks we started work on the hall bathroom and the basement, leaving these five still to do:
- the sunroom
- the playroom
- the guest bathroom
- the carport
- the front porch
Fewer untouched zones feels good, and what feels even better is that we’re finally starting on the sunroom. Whoop whoop!
We’re also eager to update Clara’s big girl room soon. When winter hits we tend to bite off a lot of projects (remember when we gutted the kitchen last Christmas? See the update here).
There’s something satisfying about staring at a room—at the wall, the trim, the window—and deciding “we’re getting on that.” That’s exactly what we did with the sunroom. Below are photos of how it looked the day we began. This wall looks out to the upper patio:
This wall to the right overlooks the side patio we added (a rough sketch of the lot helps orient things):
This brick wall to the right has a window into the kitchen:
And this wall to the right of the brick looks into the living room (a floor plan might help visualize the layout):
Not much to look at yet, right?
To capture a better sense of the space, we recorded a video showing the sunroom “before” (and explaining why the window between the kitchen and sunroom can’t be removed):
After standing in the room and saying “we’re getting on this,” we sketched a quick plan—not to scale, just a brain dump. The basic idea:
We knew the daybed best fit one wall (the brick wall made the most sense), envisioned a bar overlooking the patio through the large windows, and planned storage for the bare wall opposite. We also wanted to reuse existing items—our jute rug from the bedroom, bright blue stools from the kitchen, and floor pillows and daybed cushions—so layout took priority over paint and finishes at this stage.
First step: clear the clutter and decide what to keep, sell, or donate. After an hour of work the room looked like this:
We moved items that would return to the room into the living room so we could fully evaluate the space. It briefly felt like move-in day again:
Next we laid down the jute rug partially under the daybed. The rug’s scale and texture suit a sunroom and warmed the cold tile floor. Even though the wall color is a butter-cream that’s a little off with the rug now, once we paint and add accessories it should all come together.
Impatient to see a setup, I added floor pillows, the coffee table, and an array of throw pillows. Ignore the orangey drawers to the right of the daybed—they’ll be listed on Craigslist—and the stacked tables to the left will find a permanent home eventually.
We then pulled in the blue stools for the bar at the bay of windows and quickly realized it didn’t work—the seating felt cramped and blocked by the rug and the nearby heating unit. Back to the drawing board for that idea.
Experience has taught us the first idea isn’t always the right one, so we’ll rethink how to use the stools in a way that’s functional and avoids crowding the space. For now I temporarily placed them beside the daybed while we brainstorm better options.
I like the idea of tucking them into a corner with a narrow bar-height table in a worn wood finish—I’m planning to slide the rug further under the daybed to give that corner more breathing room. Of course, plans can change a couple more times before we settle on a final arrangement.
We’ll keep sharing photos and updates as the sunroom comes together. It’s exciting to start on another previously untouched space—progress smells good. Are you starting projects in rooms you’ve left alone? Do you sketch layouts only to find they don’t work in real life? And yes, the brick wall stops about seven feet up at the top of the window because that used to be the exterior wall where the roof slope began. We wish it reached the ceiling too, but we have ideas to integrate it better and will report back as we make changes.
Psst—Want to see what a typical Thanksgiving looks like for us? Here’s Clara’s rundown on Young House Life.