What we wanted - What we Got (Bonus Room)

So on our infamous list of what we wanted in our new house, you'll notice that #1 was "dog".

Just for the record, we were not expecting any owners to leave us their dog, we just wanted to make sure what ever place we purchased was or could be doggified up. Needless to say, a few things have since gotten in the way of the immediate doggy move in, but we are still very much on track for a spring dog show visit which I am certain will be followed by a visit to the pound and a new friend in our house. I've been trying to avoid this. Like the plague. Cause I like to travel, I like my floors and I just know that I'm a hot mess right now and taking care of one more living, breathing being would just be asking for a world of trouble right now. Give me a month.

Moving on.

#2 on our list says Bonus Room.

In our last house, this is what our bonus room looked like:

In our new house, we have two (well, sort of three) bonus options:

This is the upstairs landing. In most of the houses on our block with a similar floorplan, they went ahead and made this into another bedroom. Guess they figured we had plenty of bedrooms at 5 so they left this open. It is directly across from our master suite entry.

This is also our upstairs landing. The short wall on the left frames the stairs. If you walk straight off the stairs you land in the first room above. If you turn left, you end up here. Originally, I thought I would turn this into a scrap cove and the other part of the landing would be more "kid friendly" (says the girl with no kids).

This is currently an "unofficial" 6th bedroom on the lower level (it goes lower, main and upper level with this place). This room is downstairs in what we've dubbed the Mom Please Move in With Us Suite. There is an official bedroom down there (complete with awesome walk in closet) and then there is this extra room. Technically, I believe this is our media room (as advertised) but it's sort of smallish (relatively speaking) for the kind of set up we want (how far back you need to be for optimal screen viewing and surround sound set up) and we're well on our way to building out the main living room entertainment center so...this was quickly pieced together as a guest bedroom for holiday guests.

I suppose what I really need to do is rethink what "bonus room" means to us. Right now, we are sharing an office space. A space that originally, back in my less pay, more service days, I thought I would turn into a work from home/consulting space. He quickly took it over. Which I've obliged because it gives me more say in NOT turning the "unofficial 6th bedroom" into an in-home wood workshop. I'm just saying. Not for ripping up carpet and transitioning spaces that flow into spaces that just really only meet our own very niche needs. Like, say, a scrap room.

All to say, the upper landing is the bonus room space that I think I'm going to go with. Now I just need to figure on what I'm going to do with it.

Currently (photos should probably come here, but they won't cause this post will be long forgotten), the main landing is Christmas tree #3 central and the secondary landing is a reading nook. I think I want to transition the reading nook back over to the main landing (great light over there, might get something really cool going on there) and then the secondary landing I'd love to back a desk up to that short wall and make it into my own office space separate from the shared office.

We'll see what ideas I come across there for transformation.