Renovating the second story of a 1940s bungalow

When I first met my husband a few years ago, he had just bought an old 1940s-era home in a really desirable Michigan neighborhood. The main floor of the house had been mostly remodeled, but the upstairs was a bizarre mix of flavors, including some kind of fiber wallpaper (maybe bamboo?) on the ceiling, vinyl parquet floors, and a weird closet that made no sense.

I got excited to help him renovate after a few dates, so my involvement came in after the demo phase was done. He knew he wanted to create another bedroom space up there, but just something that was updated and matched the rest of the house.

At that time, he was considering changing the roofline to add more space to the second story, but after we realized he’d likely be moving in with me at my house, we went the easier route (hey, when you know, you know!).

Turns out this was a good decision as well because we ended up needing to work with the city for getting a permit for something else and they were incredibly difficult to work with, so it would’ve been quite an ordeal to do major work on that house.

So, the end result we went for was a nice blank slate for the next family that moved in, starting with a lovely couple who rented it from us for a bit.

The end result

Built-in shelves and a few snuck in storage options for a huge, bright master bedroom

Demo

Where it started...ish

Cheap paneling, bamboo wallpaper, tile ceiling, asbestos linoleum? Hot dog, this place has it all!

Nick found an old attic fan that hadn’t worked in ages.

Surprise, it's a dead attic fan!

Removing the tile ceiling allowed us to drywall right to the original studs, giving us another 6 inches height in the room.

After demolishing the paneling, he got a good look at that super unstable and not-to-code railing and realized it needed to be reframed to be safe.

Reframing

Safer railing and new closet with new plywood covering the asbestos tile

We presumed the tile flooring was asbestos tile because it was the old 9x9 tile, so we minimized disturbing it and covered it with plywood just to be safe.

We had to rebuild the railing (that shit was NOT safe in the original build). Wanting to sneak in some storage up there, we also framed in a small closet over the stairway since it was wasted space as.

There was originally a small closet at the top of the stairs, to the right, but it was one step up from the landing and incredibly awkward. We ended up taking over that space and making it part of the narrow closet to the right of the staircase. I’ll show you that part in just a bit.

We ended up choosing a track light for the top of the stairs so we could have multiple directional lights to aim at the landing of the stairs and to serve as overhead lighting.

And, since we took it back to the studs, we decided to do a little built in shelf for books or decorative items to add a little character to a fairly blank room. That bookshelf concealed access to the rest of the roof and some first floor ceiling electrical and the vent pipes for future work, should anyone need it.

Over the stair closet

The existing insulation was very thin so we increased the R value when reinsulating and it reduced heating costs.

We had a very weird, narrow and deep closet to contend with, but we figured some storage was better than no storage.

We chose a solid wood floor and a neutral grey paint since the rest of the home was very neutral and classic.

All done!

For that weird closet, we added a light and some small-space hangers for clothes that fold up when you need access, and then fold down when you don’t.

In the closet over the stairs, we added a couple shelves for shoes and a basic clothes rail. In this neighborhood of homes of the same era, people have to get creative to make storage space a reality.

Nick also said his rough construction of that closet was especially rough now that he's looking at it years later. :)

And we ended up with a nice fresh space for our renters! Eventually we sold the home to a lovely family who really enjoyed the friendly neighborhood, great schools, and vibrant foodie scene.