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While I love my little pocket office, its secure ceiling joists, and its pocket door, adding these elements separates the office from a fairly large, mostly usable, area of our basement. Nothing in our house exists without working for us, and this hallway is no exception. The freezer has been in its spot for years, and there is no chance it is moving anytime soon. If it does, it will be replaced by appliance movers. These are hefty! So, I wanted to work around the freezer and make use of the old water heater position by the chimney. These really amounted to two separate problems that we were able to address with a lot of salvaged components and some left over lumber. This is about the 6" gap between the freezer and the wall: a tight space to make something work for us! 
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Even before the kids took over the old office for a bedroom, I figured the back storage would be something else eventually: most likely some kind of office, homework, or hangout space. Still, it’s a teeny room that has needed a bit of help in finding its own sea legs as it were. I started it way back in 2020 when we insulated and framed out for two bedrooms (one the aforementioned office-now bedroom). It made sense to get the whole span done at once. In 2021, I wanted to make it fun and functional, no matter what its use was. So, I added slat wall panels for an entire wall, and painted them in the same “sunset rainbow” that I painted our basement stairs. I still really love these colors and how well they play off the room. Then I added bead board on the two remaining walls, painted these SW Midnight (6264), had the water heater relocated to the back corner… and there it’s been. A flexible dumping ground of storage, office, and freezer space.  It’d be a lie to say that we aren’t feverishly working on our house to keep our living options open. Being completely honest, we always felt like this is our forever house, and every decision I have made for it is for us. But… we’re also living, as usual my dear Millennials, in unprecedented times. So, we’re fixing as much as we can, and we’re doing it the right: no hidden problems, just real solutions we’d be happy with no matter who lives here. Progress has been fairly steady the past several weeks as I rage-build. We have a laundry list of projects to do this year! Mostly, I’m finishing things that are already started or making better projects that we did early on. We’ve been in this house for nearly a decade, and I have learned a lot here. One thing I learned is not to ignore signs of stress. So with the broken joist -that has always been broken for us- in our office and the always crooked dining room buffet telling us it was time to get the sinking around our chimney buttoned up, I knew I had to get working.  When I changed the back office to a bedroom almost two years ago, I moved walls, added pocket doors, and reconfigured the whole space for one of our growing kids… but I never quite finished the closet! I finally got back in this winter and buttoned it up. The storage needs, after sharing a room for so long, were always fairly light for this kid, but I am so excited for them to have a bit more room to expand and explore who they are as they move into their teenage years.  Last year was such a mixed bag of personal challenges, slow shifts, and hard decisions that it’s difficult to encapsulate! House progress was slow, and largely consisted or triaging things that were broken or making smart swaps to improve our lives. Though I can finally say the library is in the home-stretch! …And I still need to tackle the attic. Personally, it’s hard to quantify the struggles we had this year in our household, but I will say that a lot of my close relationships grew in ways I never could have imagined: it’s enough to thank the past year for that time. Our household after five long, hard years is back to being a two-dog family. We adopted Henry just before his first birthday! He’s black lab, doberman mix: all legs. Perfect for getting me back into running and mixing us all up a little.  |
Katie SwansonI am a parent, creative spirit, and old house lover. My big passions are sustainable design and preservation. Bringing these together is key to moving existing homes into the future. * By subscribing to the monthly newsletter, you consent to receive links this month's blog posts and other relevant blog updates, a round up of things I love, and as a throwback to my DIY days, I may toss in an exclusive knit or crochet pattern of mine. Archives
June 2026
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