Week of Blogging Day 5: ideas and a photo

Isn't it nifty?  Image from Cottage Living, found here.

My older sister Rebecca and her two daughters will be coming out with my parents to visit us this summer--their first and possibly only time, as they are coming all the way from Alabama.  I am so excited!  So while we have been crazy busy this Spring, we are also trying to finish up a few home improvements that will make their stay more comfortable--like putting a door on the bathroom. 

Yes, I have mentioned before that our house has no interior doors, but I know that is a fact that does not really sink in until you come to stay.  Oh, wait, there is technically a door on the bedroom closet.  But there is no door on the bedroom--and no way to add one, given how tiny the doorway is.  We could have hung a curtain, but actually like how the rooms flow without it.  And since the kids have all grown up being so close to the noise and light from the kitchen, they sleep very well at night despite it.  From the bedroom you enter the bathroom or the shower room, both of which have curtains hung in the doorways.  Curtains that toddlers can eagerly fling aside in a flash, which is why when any guests are using either private room, I keep the kids out of the bedroom entirely--a good safe buffer zone to ensure privacy and help my guests feel safe doing their business.

But a door on the bathroom would be ideal, of course.  And while we will not be able to begin the bathroom remodel until after our guests leave, adding a door is something we might be able to do before they come. Retrofitting doors in this tiny house is literally a tough fit, and so we think the best solution for at least the bathroom will be a sliding barn door mechanism, like the one in the photo above.  The door does not have to be built into the wall, or need swinging room.  We will have to remove the door off the bedroom closet and replace it with a curtain, so when the bathroom door is slid open it will cover the closet, and when it is shut the closet curtain will be seen (the two narrow doorways are side by side with very little room in between, and no room on either side).  It might get tricky at bedtime, when kids are trying to get into the closet for their pj's while others are trying to get into the bathroom to brush their teeth--but we will figure out a way to make it work. . . .    

Our door will be made of redwood, of course.  And our barn door hardware will be something more antique looking--they come in oil rubbed bronze, which we like and suits our house.  Copper would be sweet!  Of course whenever it is done I will post photos for you all to see--but in the meantime, I love looking at cool home images for ideas.

I love the green chalkboard paint too! 

P.S. I know you all have been anxiously awaiting the house photos I promised.  I took photos and only waited to post them because the photo software was acting up.  But just the other night we had the entire data drive crash--the one with all our music and photos.  WAAAAAAAHHHHH!  DH is working to see if we can retrieve the data.  He does have a back-up, but he is not sure how recent it is, and while I thought he had backed everything up this past Jan (regrettable to lose several months of photos, but not as painful) he has a suspicion that his last full backup was one year ago.  Oh, I really and truly hope not!!!!!!  To lose the photos for half of Smiley's life thus far. . . : (   I hope I can soon tell you that it all worked out fine and we were able to retrieve the data, but until then, no house photos.