On our last blog post, we showed off our baby girl’s nursery and the response was amazing. We are so grateful for each and every one of you who took the time to check out our work. We are still floored by the positive feedback we received from all of you! You made us feel so special! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Now, instead of giving you a full tour of our son’s bedroom, we would like to first ask for your help with making a fairly big decision. If you have been around for a while, you remember that we took a vote last year on whether or not to build a loft in our son’s bedroom. Originally, we thought for sure that every single person would vote “yes” but then the votes started coming in and you guys really surprised us. For a while, we thought the loft was quite possibly going to be voted down. In the end, you voted for happiness the loft and all was right in the world.

Since we were surprised that so many people voted against a loft, we reached out to a few voters and asked why they didn’t think the loft was a good idea. We wanted to be sure we weren’t overlooking something important, after all, and making a huge mistake by building one. As it turned out, people were concerned with the loft because of resale value. They worried that if/when we decide to sell the house, a loft would only appeal to a specific buyer. This is a completely legitimate concern and is a perfect example of why we love having this blog so much. We love knowing that there is a whole community of people with advice and awesome ideas out there supporting us. It’s a really good feeling knowing that you all have our backs and we really appreciate it.

OK, but are you selling soon?

That concern leads us to the topic of resale. It is something we should discuss with all of you because lately we have been fielding quite a few questions about how long we plan to stay here. The answer is (in true Ronan and Carolyn fashion) unclear at best.

If you have ever tried to nail down dinner plans with us, you have probably realized that our ability to commit to anything in the future is far from impressive. We should wear shirts that say “wishy-washy and unpredictable” or “it’s not you, it’s totally us” so people know what they are dealing with before they get involved with us.

Anyway, the point is that we are completely unsure how long we will be here, as of right now. When we first moved in, we planned on selling LAST year, yet yesterday we made plans for a few renovations we want to put off until NEXT year soooo here we are. Someone suggested to us last week that we put our house on the market as-is, right now since our area in upstate New York is becoming more popular than ever due to people attempting to move out of the city ASAP. Just the thought made me go into panic mode. We are happy here right now. We are having a blast making this house perfect for our little family in every way that we possibly can. We have lived through a few years of nastiness super dirty rooms SO MUCH DUST hard work and we are just beginning to see the fruits of our labor. A few rooms in our house finally feel like “us” and we can spend time in them and relax and forget about the 89473473 other jobs we still need to complete. For a few years there weren’t any finished spaces and everywhere we went felt kind of heavy. We are not in a rush to buy another house with room after room that feels the same way. Does that mean we will live here until we are 90, probably not. Does it mean we are selling it tomorrow? Also no.

Right now this house and this location are working for us, so we will stay here until they don’t and then we will try to figure out what to do next. I know that’s a stressful plan for some people, but for us (remember that picture of me 9 months pregnant standing in a nursery with no walls?!) it feels right.

However, we totally understand that you might think about resale when you vote on our home choices and that’s fine! We need planners like you to vote also! Do keep in mind that we do almost all of the work here ourselves (and by we, I pretty much mean Ronan) and we are capable of undoing all of the work as well (again, mostly me cheering, Ro undoing.) So if we were to list the house and a potential buyer said that they love it and would want it if it wasn’t for that dang loft, we would be able to get rid of the loft quickly. I would be super mad and try to convince them of all of the potential the loft has first, but we would do it anyway.

Our Son’s Loft and Bed

We are so happy with how the loft and bed turned out. We went back and forth on lots of decisions and were unable to find any exact examples that matched what we were picturing, so we did the best we could to create what we had in mind We really wanted all of the space to be usable right now. Since our son is only 5, we didn’t feel comfortable with him sleeping in the loft, but we did make it large enough for a standard twin mattress with a little extra room. It is entirely possible that he might sleep up there in the future, in which case we will likely turn the area below the loft into a desk area. Right now, we call his loft his “play loft” but he changes it’s identity weekly from an artist studio, to a pirate ship, to a birdwatching station, to something Star Warsy that I can’t name because I don’t know any Star Warsy words. He gets a ton of use out of the space and we love to see him playing so happily up there.

We decided to make the space under the loft big enough for a full-size mattress because we have lots of family and friends that live far from us and we really love when they come to stay here! We don’t have the space for a guest room anymore, but we wanted to be sure that they had a comfy place to stay when they visited and we designed this room to be big enough for many combinations of people. When our siblings and their families come to stay, we can fit two adults in the bed, a kid up in the loft, and a few more kids on the floor. (Take note siblings, we have room for you and your families if you would like to have even more babies!!) If other friends without kids come to visit, two adults could comfortably fit in the room with one on the full-size bed and one in the loft. Wow! This is riveting information, isn’t it?! Should we discuss any further possible sleeping arrangements? No? Well alright then, moving on…

We weren’t completely sure we wanted to build a base for a bed at first because we thought it might look too clunky. We thought about using a regular bed instead, but we very rarely buy new furniture and couldn’t find anything used that seemed perfect for the space either. After almost a year of living with the mattress on a metal frame with an Ikea cushion filling in as a headboard, it became clear to us that building a base for the bed was the best way to go. If you follow us on Instagram, you might have followed along with us a few Sundays ago when we completed the project on Instagram stories. We are so happy with the way it turned out and are thrilled to have snuck in some extra storage both under the bed and next to the bed. Our son is thrilled that he himself is able to fit in the little storage area next to his bed and has been spending a lot of time thinking about what he should store down there, when he isn’t storing himself there that is.

Once we finished the bed frame, we started thinking hard about what we should do with the wall behind the bed. Before the base went in, the area between the bed and the bottom of the loft looked so empty and the proportions of the space seemed all wrong. Now, even though we didn’t add any sort of headboard, the area doesn’t look like a big empty space to us. We pile some big fluffy pillows up against the wall and things look a lot better than they did when the Ikea cushion lived back there (it was CONSTANTLY falling onto our heads also.) Now, we are completely unsure whether we should do anything to the wall behind the bed. I threw a bunch of ideas out on Instagram and the responses could be broken into two main categories. They are: “leave it alone, it looks good as is” and “that area could use some paint/wallpaper.” If you are torn on how you feel about this situation then I understand completely because SO ARE WE! Before I ask you to make a decision that I am incapable of myself, let me give you a tiny bit more info about the choices.

Time to vote!

Choice A: Leave it alone. This one is pretty self-explanatory. It is the easiest and cheapest option and requires us to do literally nothing.

Choice B: OK, this one is a little messier. Choice B basically means that you want to see some sort of color or pattern on the wall behind the bed. Some people told me they feel strongly that the entire wall behind the bed, including the area behind the loft, should be painted so that the loft sort of pops off the wall (the actual loft part will stay white.) Kind of like this awesome wall from housemixblog.com, but probably without the paneling:

Other people suggested that we only wallpaper or paint the wall under the loft and behind the bed. Sort of like this image from Amber Interiors:

Still others said to make the area under the loft feel like a little nook by painting/wallpapering the wall behind the bed and under the loft as well as the side walls under the loft. Sort of like this image from Benjamin Moore:

If you focus specifically on the bottom bunk, see how all of the walls are painted dark blue instead of just the back wall? This is the “nook” option.

Are you still with me? If so, which do you think would be best? They are all pretty good, right? If you are thinking “Just ask your kid, lady!” we tried that and he said, “Just don’t mess up my bed.” I don’t even know what that means, but it sure added a lot more pressure and no clarity whatsoever.

So, it is time to vote. If you choose choice A, your job is over and you can go on with your life. However, if you choose choice B, I would love to hear what you think we should do to the wall? Do you want to see the whole wall painted, just the back wall under the loft, or the whole area under the loft. If you have another idea completely, I might need you not to share that with me because another idea might make my head pop off. We can’t wait to see what you think! The poll closes tomorrow night (Friday) at 9:00.