A Facelift for Hotel PM

So you know how the Super 8 Motel is ALWAYS under renovation? And how the sign ALWAYS says "Your inn for a super stay" (which always makes me hope that it's an intentional pun and not just a comment on the inadequacy of today's education system when it comes to homonyms).

Well, Hotel PM beat the Super 8 - we're updated and ready set for a super stay! Wanna see some pics?

(Note:  A design blogger I am not. A blurry-picture-poor-lighting-totally-not-the-same-angles blogger I definitely am.)

Here is the quasi-before of the quest room. It's actually after a fair bit of work, but I am also of the forget-to-take-proper-before-pictures variety of bloggers. That window? Used to be teeny weeny and definitely not ok if you were any larger than The Boy and needed to get out in a hurry. Also, you can kind of see on the right that the column of shelves continued further down the wall and they've been removed and patched.

And now look how pretty! 

Here you can see exactly where those shelves were. We took them out because there was already a lot of storage space and having them there definitely made the room seem smaller since you couldn't walk there.

Why is there a "bulletin board" made of the backside of a sheet of plywood that is framed for some reason? And a little closet door that leads to the water meter (even though you can totally get to it from the other side)? Good questions! The answer is that this house is 100 years old and we've learned not to ask "why" anymore.

(For example - why is the button to open the garage door located not by the door to the garage but instead tucked beneath the shelf in the closet in the laundry room so it took us two weeks to even find it? Again...we don't ask.)

But there's no "why" that can't be solved by a bit of paint:

Now I must ask you to oooh and aaah with me in surprise at The Husband's mad DIY skillz. I knew he would do amazing things with metal (RIP, sweet, sweet Jetta), but wood? This I did not know. And yet, who whipped out a built-in desk in a couple of hours? Yeah, I pretty much have that Carson the carpenter guy from that HGTV show living at my house. Who knew?

And now onto the room that would totally win all the votes if we were playing "what is the strangest room in PM's house" - the downstairs bathroom.

AKA - holy how-many-trees-died-to-make-this Batman?

AKA - huh - who knew that you could cover an ENTIRE bathroom in wood panelling.

AKA - this bathroom is bigger than most bedrooms but features an airplane-sized sink and squishes ALL the fixtures up onto one wall.

THIS bathroom:

Seriously. Every time I used it I would shake my head and say, why??

But now I go in there and I smile:

Is it still kind of crazy? Yes. I mean - what is this?? Some kind of dry sauna sans doors? Some kind of grow-op? (You know I'm totally starting my seedlings in here next spring.)

But add a bit of white paint and suddenly it's much more worthy of pretty new towels than of greenhouse comparisons.

So. Much. Paneling.

Still a crazy amount of paneling. But now prettier! And brighter!

You'll notice I went with classic white. I am NEVER painting this room again, so I didn't dare take a risk with any colour that might go out of style in the next 50 years. See those grooves? All those little corners? Ack - it took me so unbelievably long to paint. And so much oil-based primer to cover the wood. I lost a lot of brain cells. But so worth it!

Now you're possibly wondering why Hotel PM downgraded to a single bed guest room as there typically aren't many reservations for that type of room. I'm pleased to announce that we are at 100% occupancy from now until after Christmas - we have the sweetest, most wonderful young woman from France living with us who will be working as a teacher intern at The Boy's school. We're loving getting to know her and practicing our French while she is being very patient with us and working on her own English skillz. And hopefully she's feeling cozy and homey down in her new super stay digs!