Master Bedroom: Before and After

The bedrooms didn’t require many changes.  In the master bedroom, we increased the size of the closet by taking some space from the second bedroom closet.  We installed shutters in the windows, purchased a new light fixture and painted the walls Benjamin Moore’s Athabaska.

Before:

After:

 

Nothing to Hear Here!

Today we installed our sound barrier solution in the master bedroom. Since we don't want to lose too much space from the already tiny room, we decided to add some 2" sheets of polystyrene insulation to the wall that separates us from our neighbours. This product is meant for insulating basements, but we figured it would help provide some sound insulation.

The existing wall was plaster directly on cinder block, allowing no room for electrical boxes. By using the rigid insulation, we can now add electrical boxes to this wall. The drywall can be placed directly on top of it, which means we'll only lose about 2 1/2" of space from our room.

We plan to put this in the second bedroom as well, since it also shares a long wall with the neighbours. It's hard to judge how well it will work because the house is empty and echo-y, but hopefully it will provide a bit of a sound barrier when it's all done.

Closet Space

One would think that moving from a condo to a house would give us more storage space. However, that doesn't seem to be the case! The bedroom closets were especially small, causing Jen some serious stress. While it was clear that there would not be room for the walk-in closet we were used to, we had to do something to make some more storage space.

In the master bedroom, we were able to expand the closet a bit by taking some space from the closet in the second bedroom. By opening up the wall, we were able to make the door a bit wider as well. The only question remaining: where is Dave going to put his clothes???

The Results Are In!

Thanks to everyone who voted in our poll. The race was very close! We continued to flip flop on the decision throughout, but we think we've finally come up with a solution for the upstairs bedrooms.

We think that this plan will allow us achieve most of what we hoped for, while causing minimal damage to the exisitng floors. While the "leave as is" option won out in our poll, we've come up with a plan that is a bit of a combination. We'll call this "partial gut."

Here's what we're thinking:

Master Bedroom

• Add "foamed in" insulation with minimal damage to exterior wall
• Leave the adjoining bathroom wall as is
• Add sound insulation to the party wall
• Gut the wall that is shared with the second bedroom to gain more closet space

Second Bedroom

• Add "foamed in" insulation with minimal damage to exterior wall
• Add sound insulation to the party wall
• Steal about 12" from the closet to add to master closet
  

Third Bedroom

• Gut the entire room (this room has two exterior walls, so it makes the most sense to gut it completely)
• Drywall the ceiling (this has been done in the two bedrooms already)
• Insulate the two exterior walls with spray foam
  

After doing some research and talking to lots of people, we think that this plan will work best for us. It will be less work (and less messy) than completely gutting the bedrooms. We'll still be able to insulate the exterior walls, as well as get some sound insulation between our house and the neighbours.

Before: Bedroom

There are three bedrooms upstairs.