Finishing the attic. Part 1.
When we started this house, we began on the third floor.
I do not have one single photo of the attic that is a true “before” picture. Part of that is because this was my very first project, and I did not understand how quickly things would change.
Part of it is how I was still trying to find the coffee pot, and Paul was already ripping and gutting and tearing and throwing out of windows.
Part of it is how I did not understand that I needed to take a picture of the whole project.
When I did take pictures, I took them of the exact thing we were working on. A corner, a wall, a hole in the floor… I have 1,000 photos of walls being gutted, and not one where I stood back and took a picture of the entire room.
If you’ve looked at my about the house page, you’ve seen that our previous owner painted every room in this house a different color.
A different blindingly-bright-vivid-neon-color.
I guess he felt this somehow compensated for the repairs he wasn’t doing.
Sort of like – yes. The house is falling down. But isn’t it snazzy?
Paul and I had two goals in the attic.
One – seal it up: fix the holes, insulate…
Two – make it mine. All MINE.
My place to make uncontrolled piles of paper.
My place to start projects that I will not finish.
My office, my library, my tower, my castle.
The only thing I am missing is a moat.
And a dragon.
Originally you would have been able to look from the third floor all the way to the foyer. But at some point, someone enclosed the stairway to the attic.
That enclosure is what I labeled “box” in the drawing above.
When you are in the attic, you can see that it is just a squared off box. And since they kept it level with the ceiling on the second floor, the top of the box is raised above the attic’s floor.
Even though I would love to see the stairway restored, the box does serve a purpose and we decided to keep it… It seems likely that a future owner might use the third floor as a master suite, and that those people might expect bedroom-related amenities. Like doors.
Although, hopefully they will not be too picky about things like closets…
It looks “fine” from the second-floor hallway.
Right? Doesn’t this look fine?
But the real reason we kept the box is something you do not know about me:
1. I have super sonic hearing.
Like Batman.
Or a mole.
2. Noise makes me want to gnaw my own face off. (I realize that makes me sound like some overwrought crazy woman from a Jane Austen novel… Which we will get to in a minute.)
Noise-induced face-gnawing is a foreign concept to Paul. Or, rather it was… After he married me, he got a lot more familiar with the phenomenon.
Chainsaws, leaf blowers, unloading the dishwasher, dogs barking, the kid who sat next to me during the SATs with a runny nose AND NO TISSUES.
I spent all four hours fantasizing about leaning across the aisle, plunging my pencil into the side of his neck, and hissing – STOP SNIFFING.
I am fairly sure I would’ve gotten into Harvard if I sat next to someone else.
So even though we talked about removing the box, it was never a real option.
If anything, we might have replaced it with a steel vault.
A SOUNDPROOFED steel vault.
With a laser-tracking system that would allow me to target the noises that were irritating me and annihilate them with rockets.
Hopefully soon, something like that will be available at Home Depot.
I will love you EVEN MORE… if you share me with your friends.
November 13, 2013 @ 11:22 am
Sniff! Our daughter goes ballistic on noises too. In the summer when I am trying to concentrate on the blog I go nuts with the mowers and chain saws, but my worst is the woodpeckers hacking the house apart outside my window. Very hilarious and entertaining attic post, as always.
November 13, 2013 @ 11:24 am
Hey there,
Im with you on noise and sounds. My hubby will sit at his desk and click a pen or get out the nail clippers and Im in the other room working on something and I will yell “STOPPIT!” down the hall. Or the dog shaking its head outside in the early am making its metal dog tag clank. And it seems when Im about to fall asleep, everything gets amplified noise wise in my head so tv volume and everything if someone else is watching needs to be at Volume 1. Or its like its blaring in my head. I hear everything…… Thank the Lord the last owners of our home installed new double pane glass in both bedrooms of our historic home, Id have gone mad from noise. I close them and its like a sealed bubble.
November 13, 2013 @ 11:25 am
Wish I could see it better so I could give you a better description, but… I think you could create a door at the bottom of the stairs to the attic. Finish off the dead space next to the stairs with a built in book case to help hold all your fun clutter.
November 13, 2013 @ 11:29 am
Noise in general doesn’t bother me, but the sounds of people chewing, or making gross smacking, wet noises with their mouth – or mouth breathing or stuffy noses – Ugh! It’s like nails on a chalkboard for me… Anyway, I’m ridiculously envious of your attic space. Florida houses don’t really have them. Or basements. Two fabulous places to go to get away from mouth noises.
November 13, 2013 @ 11:41 am
I can not imagine what your future holds-I am 73 and I have seen, heard, and read the creative and intellectual product of a lot of people and you are a very, very impressive person in a way too small pond. I hope you get your own variety show and ultimately a Kingdom! Are you sure you couldn’t actually step through The Kingdom Mirror to ????? Kidding aside yours is the best blog I have ever come across.
November 13, 2013 @ 12:12 pm
Ditto!
November 13, 2013 @ 11:51 am
I share terrifyingly good hearing (combined with awful, mole-like eyesight) with you VEB – but this box still would have to go! If anyone in the future will have their bedroom in the tower, they will not be bothered with doors – I have been flat-hunting in an old house in Switzerland and NOT ONE of all the appartments over sometimes several floors (the largest was over four floors and the ‘ground floor’ had to be accessed via a stone staircase with already 21 steps!!!! Only for an Olympian roadrunner…. but I digress 😉
No, honestly, you want that light in your home and you can train your loving Hero even more to be quiet(er…)! Since I’m never sleeping (I’m so noise sensitive), I’m automatically the first and only one to ‘start’ the day…. So, *I* decide when and if the dishwasher is being emptied.
Secondly, we have NO TV – a big bonus on the ears… But I guess for most people this is not an option.
Anyway, please dream up another solution and kick that box out! Good luck – you probably have a husband who’s NOT snoring! Just think of how much worse life could be, if…. 🙂
November 13, 2013 @ 11:56 am
I just watched this yesterday. I think this is you. It’s called misophonia. It has a name. That means it is legitimate and not unreasonable, right?
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/ripa-kelly-misophonia-medical-mystery-disorder-mental-health-2020-16383771
November 13, 2013 @ 12:01 pm
Lots of older houses used to have a door at the top and bottom of the stairs, which kept the heat / cool within each level. If you ever do decide that the box just has to go (and I can understand why!), you might want to think about adding doors to keep the heat from rising up all the stairs and causing heat exhaustion at the top level. That would block the sound from travelling up levels too – complete bonus and your highest priority I would think?!
I used to own an 1850’s cottage in England which had those doors at the base and top of the stairway. Best thing ever.
November 13, 2013 @ 12:13 pm
Get rid of the box and get a sound machine to cancel out the noise.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/07/garden/noise-cancelling-devices-for-a-good-nights-sleep-home-tech.html?_r=0
November 13, 2013 @ 12:17 pm
Get rid of The Box. Get earplugs.
November 13, 2013 @ 12:32 pm
I am very jealous of you that you get a place of your own to “make uncontrolled piles of paper”! I would LOVE that!
November 13, 2013 @ 12:46 pm
I am so relieved that it isn’t only me who goes ever so slightly (or a lot) insane with persistent low level noise!
The worst thing at the moment is that my 7 year old son has developed a vocal tic this year which means that he is constantly humming. And I mean ALL THE TIME (unless he is really, really engrossed in something). He can go to sleep humming, and then wakes up humming. And we aren’t talking whole tunes, but just monotonous patterns, or short repeated riffs. I love him dearly, but he drives me up the wall! 🙂
November 13, 2013 @ 12:59 pm
I took the SAT three times in 1990. The first time was just to take them. The second time was to IMPROVE on my first score, which I did not, POSSIBLY because of the coinciding distraction of singing from the BARBERSHOP QUARTET CONVENTION scheduled on campus the same day. Sounds like a nightmare and not a real story, but no, it is a true story. I went to the next public session School Board meeting and went on record about this incident. Administrative heads ROLLED for the overlooked scheduling conflict. Days later, everyone who took the exam on our campus that day was offered a free retake. I took the dreaded exam a third time. I STILL didn’t really improve but for maybe 10 points. Still, I think I prevented any future coinciding Barbershop Quartet Conventions/SAT Testing at Abington for the rest of eternity. Score one for appreciators of silence during exam taking.
Interesting side-note, in 1978, my father, during his only break while taking the PA Bar Exam, went to a hardware store to buy WD-40 and sprayed creaking door hinges and squeaky chairs in the room so HE could concentrate in peace while tackling the second half of the bugger. Luckily for Dad, with that WD-40 in hand, he passed the PA BAR, ONE and DONE.
Silence is GOLDEN.
November 13, 2013 @ 1:01 pm
One argument against being able to see all the way to the foyer from the 3rd floor: children dropping things. On people’s heads.
Your blog is delightful.
November 13, 2013 @ 1:42 pm
I MISS my attic office. 🙁
Maybe someday I’ll have one back.
November 13, 2013 @ 2:54 pm
That kid who sat next to you during the SAT? He sat right behind me for the entire YEAR of world history in 10th grade, during which he sucked snot down his throat every. single. day. More than 30 years later, I still feel scarred by it.
November 13, 2013 @ 3:52 pm
Hail, fellow noise haters! SO happy to hear there are others out there. It was a happy, happy day when the whistle on the teakettle broke; now it just boils quietly instead of causing me to leap onto the ceiling hissing and baring fangs and claws. Must figure out how to break the whistles on any future teakettles.
I stuff earplugs in my ears to sleep. And keep a pair in my purse. And a pair at work. And a few more scattered around the house. They don’t fix everything, but sometimes they help decrease the homicidal fantasies.
The attic is beautiful. I have attic envy.
November 16, 2013 @ 5:30 am
Buy an electric kettle. Bliss for the hearing-enhanced according to ultra-sound-sensitive husband. Who can hear me tiptoeing across the kitchen from 50 yards away and doesn’t hesitate to let me know I’ve just broken his concentration. Again. For the gajillionth time. (And who snores loudly but refuses to believe that’s him on the voice activated recording. Hmph!)
November 13, 2013 @ 4:26 pm
Did you know that without a closet, a room can’t be listed as a bedroom? At least not where I live. That might be something for Paul to work on in case you ever want to sell someday.
November 14, 2013 @ 11:01 am
Very true, but “bonus rooms” excite people! Specially if there are already enough boring bedrooms.
November 13, 2013 @ 4:37 pm
I thought it was just me. I have a kid who can read peacefully in the midst of a riot (i.e. her older sister’s bonfire party, for example). I can’t read if there’s conversation three rooms away.
Regarding your attic, I think it’s kind of amazing, and I am kind of envious about you having a space like that for your projects. In fact I fantasize about when one of my kids moves out and I can have a work room again. Not that I want the kids to move out one moment before they’re ready, but I’m tired of sewing in the basement and beading on the dining table. (I HATE the basement. It is unfinished. There are spiders, and sometimes centipedes. This is not conducive to producing beauty and art.)
Noise really only bothers me when I’m trying to concentrate. If I’m doing something mindless, like knitting or washing dishes, I’m not too annoyed. So really, I’m just highly auditory- distractible.
Keep the posts coming! I love reading them!
November 13, 2013 @ 4:37 pm
I have the same issue. Writing is one of my hobby’s and any noise makes me crazy. I wear headphones while listening to the sound of rain. It is a great “white noise” and also seems to put me in the mood for writing as well!