Oliver’s Room – Green Bungalow Craftworks

Room to Roam

Fripm08 Jun200863012 2008America/New_YorkpmFri, 06 Jun 2008 12:50:00 -0400Thupm19 May201953103 2019America/New_YorkpmThu, 30 May 2019 15:34:03 -0400 Christine

I’ve expanded Oliver’s daytime area. He normally has access the long, narrow room at the back of the house that used to be a porch, and the adjoining bathroom.

Last night, I moved his gate so that he now can roam around the kitchen, dining room, Oliver’s room, and the bathroom. He was a bit confused this morning, even though I showed him what we were doing last night, and he watched with curiosity as I cleaned and moved things around. (Actually, he mostly barked and chased the vacuum through the cleaning part.)

Mostly, I’ve done this because the only air conditioner that is installed is in the dining room, and we are having a bit of a heat wave right now. I don’t want my little boy to be too hot while I’m not home.

So, cross your fingers, and let’s hope he didn’t find anything naughty to get into today.

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House Tour: Oliver’s Room After

Fripm07 Nov2007113005 2007America/New_YorkpmFri, 23 Nov 2007 17:00:00 -0500Thupm19 May201953103 2019America/New_YorkpmThu, 30 May 2019 15:36:17 -0400 Christine

Oliver welcomes you to see his room. Some doggies have a crate, some doggies get full run of the house. We have found this to be a happy medium. He has limited room to get into trouble. Oli gets to stretch his legs, look out the window, and from the gate he can see straight through the house to the sidelight next to the front door.
This is Oliver’s gate from the kitchen to his room. The door right behind him leads to the back yard (after you go down some scary concrete stairs).
Oli can look out over his back yard from this vantage point…

This area used to be the back hall, but we took out the wall dividing it from the back porch room. It was not a load-bearing wall, and it opened up the space. Now you can do figure 8s around the downstairs. Which does happen sometimes, if I am chasing Oli when he has stolen something. He thinks it is great fun, I think it makes it hard to corner him.

We had to replace about four feet of floor boards in the back hall. They are not a perfect color match to the rest of the back porch room, but they are mellowing with age, and after only two years it isn’t nearly as obvious as it was when the floors were first refinished.

We removed all the paneling: 1950s and 1970s. We took out the drop ceilings and gained 18-24″ of height. And we added three spots of recessed lighting to this room. Mom had Jeff, our fabulous electrician, put nearly every light in the house on dimmer switches. A bit overboard, but often appreciated. … or get a better view by perching himself a little higher while sitting on his chair.

You can see the radiator in the picture above, sporting its shiny new paint job.

All the trim work in this room is new pine. We tried to replicate the original profile as closely as possible. I can see the difference, but I doubt most people notice. We did not put new and old side by side anywhere in the house for this reason.

The tiny, non-opening trailer window was happily replaced with a beautiful set of new exterior French doors. They are wood with the exterior clad in metal. No, they are not true divided lites, they are double pane thermal, and they don’t let a peep of cold air in during the winter. Right now they don’t go anywhere, but someday I would like to put a porch on the back. Not a deck. A porch.

Now this space is light, bright, pretty, and gets great air-flow in the summer. Oli approves.

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House Tour: Oliver’s Room Before

Fripm07 Nov2007113012 2007America/New_YorkpmFri, 23 Nov 2007 12:55:00 -0500Thupm19 May201953103 2019America/New_YorkpmThu, 30 May 2019 15:36:22 -0400 Christine

In September 2003…
The view from the kitchen to the back hall. The open back door leads to the back yard.

This is the back hall, a tiny space with a big radiator, 70s paneling, vinyl flooring, and drop ceilings.

I suspect the wire hanging above the radiator was a place to dry clothes.
The back hall is adjacent to this room, which we called the back porch room for the two years before Oliver arrived.

The back porch room suffered many afflictions: 1950s paneling, no lighting, an ugly ceiling fan, no heat, another “trailer window” which did not open, a lowered ceiling covered in tiles. Remember my previous owner’s affection for wall shelves?
However, this room did have some snazzy built-ins. Monsterously heavy drawers, built out of plywood and paneling, sometime in the 1950s. These had to go, but we kept the drawers, built new frames for them, put them on heavy-duty gliders, and they now house tools, painting supplies, etc. in the basement.
Take a close look at the floor in the photo above. That is a change in the flooring. On the left is the portion that used to be part of the dining room, then there was a transition strip of duct tape, then the original porch floor. They just had a piece of carpet loose over this floor- no padding.
The lovely French doors, painted white, that lead to the dining room.