Original State

The 2nd Floor when we bought the house was in by far the worst condition. As the family grew up and moved away from the family house (eventually leaving only the aged mother living at the house), the focus of the living spaces moved down toward the ground floor. When we bought the house, the electricity and water had been disconnected from the top floor, and the rooms looked like they had not been used for many years. While this floor was the least habitable, it also offered the greatest potential for renovation, and hence for increasing the value of the property for eventual re-sale many years down the road.

The 2nd Floor consisted of a main bedroom, Bedroom 5, (with an adjacent storage room that may once have been a bathroom) with another bedroom, Bedroom 5a, through a connecting door to the main bedroom. There was also a Storage Room, similar to the one on the 1st Floor, and an entrance Foyer separated by double-doors from the Stairwell. A communal toilet served this floor. The largest room was a Loft room, that was currently used for storage of unused furniture and other paraphernalia. Off this Loft room, was another small room, also being used for storage. This room had a window out into the Lightwell.

2nd FLOOR - OLD

As noted above, the 2nd Floor hadn't been used for quite some time, and this was well illustrated by the state of Bedroom 5 on the day when Iain and Kaz inspected the house for us. But despite the mess (and the lack of electricity), it was clear that this bedroom was very similar to Bedroom 1 on the 1st Floor.

Bedroom 5 also had an adjoining room that could be used to create Ensuite 5. While it had some bathroom items in the room, it looked like they had never been connected, and the wardrobe doors made it look like it had only ever been used as a dressing room. Above the wardrobe was a hole in the ceiling, through which access could be gained to the attic space in the roof above.

Through a connecting door, Bedroom 5a was connected to Bedroom 5. The reason for the connecting door was unclear, since this room also had a door out into the Foyer. From the colour of the walls, the style of furniture and the album covers pinned to the walls and ceiling, it was apparent that this room had long ago been the room of a teenage member of the family. Once again, this room was similar in size and arrangement to Bedroom 3 below.

Next to Bedroom 5a was another Storage Room, similar to that on the 1st Floor, except that the cupboard doors ran along the back of the room, rather than along each side wall. Above this room was a skylight, and in the floor was a glass slab allowing light down to the storage room below.

On this floor, there was another communal Toilet, very similar in shape and size to the toilet on the 1st Floor, but with older style fittings (and no water or drainage pipes connected).

The bedrooms, toilet and storage room all connected to a central Foyer, which was connected to the Stairwell through a set of double-doors. From the look of the ceiling in the Foyer, it was clear that it had been water damaged in the past, even though the attic space was now quite dry and dusty. Clearly, however, these ceilings would need to be pulled down in any renovation

One of the most interesting rooms on the 2nd Floor was the Loft, seen here with Iain Noble doing the inspection. This room was very large, was painted in a dark blue colour for some reason, and was full of old furniture and assorted odds and ends. There were no windows in this room, apart from two small skylights in the roof. On the Rue Gambetta side of the room, the roof came down to about 1.2m from the floor. All in all, it was a bit of a mess, but it was the room which probably convinced us to buy the property. The huge wooden beams in view and the size of this room gave us many ideas for creative renovation (our first thoughts were of a music room for the steel pans or a studio for the painting classes!).

Adjoining the Loft was another room that was being used as a Storage Room (for a radio antenna, many suitcases and lots of pickling bottles). Water had been connected to a sink in this room, but it had long ago been disconnected.

One of the surprising aspects of this room was that it had a large window that opened into the lightwell. Again, we were not sure of the reason for this (we suspect it may have been living quarters for a live-in maid in the past), but looking out of this window into the Lightwell gave us several interesting ideas for the renovation.

Above the Storage Room (future Ensuite) off Bedroom 5, we found a doorway which gave an entrance to the attic. Having a look in there showed that it was pretty dry and dusty (which was a good sign that there had been no recent water ingress from the roof), but we were surprised to find a skylight in the roof giving light to the attic. We were impressed by the size of the structural timbers supporting the roof.