Making My Suite
Linda has been asking about my plans for the Long Room…
As large as the Cross House is, it originally only had three bedrooms. Three large bedrooms!
There was:
- Round Room
- Octagon Room
- Long Room
There was also the Sewing Room which could, of course, been used as a bedroom.
My plan from the start was this:
- Round Room: my office
- Octagon Room: storage for my business (boxes, bubble-wrap, photography backdrop, etc.).
- Long Room: my bedroom.
- Sewing Room: guest room.
I have had no reason to alter these plans, save my cutting the storage room in half, so the other half could be used as a suite with the Sewing Room.
When I purchased the house, each of the four rooms on the second floor had an en-suite bathroom. One was large and was the original bathroom. The other three were really tiny and shoe-horned in place in 1929. Two of these were windowless.
I loathe tiny, windowless bathrooms. Like the one attached to what would be my bedroom.
Oh, the horror.
So, I knew something had to be done about this.
The “chamber” is the Long Room. The red lines represent how the small closet was enlarged in 1929 to create a bathroom. The blue line is where I will build a wall with a door (the blue line does NOT die into a door as shown).
With the new “blue” wall in place, there will be a private hall connecting the Long Room with the original Housekeeper’s Room (upper right). The latter is flooded with light, and will be my spacious spa-style bathroom. The original closet to the Long Room will be, again, a closet (although, as my previous post stated, it has had all the plumbing roughed in so it could effortlessly be converted back into a bathroom).
The new “blue” wall will not damage any original trim, and could be easily removed.
The entire history of the Cross House has been one of endless changes. Yet, almost all the changes were reversible with little damage to the original layout and fabric. This, too, is my aim.
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That looks like a good and reasonable plan. Can’t wait to see how the bath shapes up!
This reminds me to ask you: in the original plans of Cross House, where were the servants’ quarters?
NEVER MIND. Should have read the post before commenting.
Hey Ross,
As thorough of a roadmap of what your doing to the Cross house that no doubt will benefit future stewards, have you do you secretly… for instance when you left the trim inside the wall in the octagon room leave personal messages for them to discover? If fifty, a hundred years from now if any of your work is removed, to find a personal message from you would be I think amazing as I think you would if you had/have found something like that in your restoration work. After all you are the one that has saved this beauty from possible destruction and bits and pieces of it being found in a salvage yard.
Stay safe stay healthy.
Thanks Ross! Your plans are always well thought out! I look forward to every post you give us!
Great plans! What’s your vision for your spacious spa-style bathroom? And what was the original flooring in the servant’s bedroom, which I’m sure would not have been carpeted. Being in the middle of the country, I can’t help but wonder if you’ve got Pacific Northwest straight-grain for from my neck of the woods, or pine from other regions of the country. And did it get oak when the other rooms did?
I completely agree with you about windowless bathrooms…just yuck.