Up in the Attic, New Millennium Style

Fred E. Bernstien
The New York Times
Thursday, March 29th, 2007
pgs D1&D5
The Story
The Summary: The attic, tradtionally used for storage, is getting a make-over into interesting living space.

I've always love spaces like attics or basements. Little corners of houses where you could hide, they were different and interesting from the norm.

There was a room in my grandma's basement that was an "office." It was actually a very small bedroom that my brothers and I would play office in, it even had an old typewriter. I think that's part of the fun of attics and basements. All of the old things stored there. Things with family history, fun things from the past, just things that aren't part of a normal routine.

The spaces these families created with their attics are incredible, especially the one in Texas. (Check out the article... pictures are attached!)

I love interesting spaces. I think that's part of why I like the house I live in. At one point it was a traditional "Bemidji Skinny" (a thin house located in Bemidji, they were supposedly very popular back in the day) Someone purchased it and, due to its close location to campus, realized they could make money if the split the house into two apartments - up and downstairs. So they created a bathroom and kitchen out of nothing upstairs. We also have a random sink in the back room surrounded by cabinents, we still haven't figured out what they're for, and we've been living here for 1.5 years. After awhile, the owners of our house realized there was wasted land in the backyard, and added on a third apartment, they added on a poorly constructed third apartment. At somepoint, someone decided that it could once again be two apartments instead of three. So we live in a house that has five sinks, 4+ bedrooms, and strange additions everywhere.

I wish you could get pictures of a house through the years before you move into it. Like, this is what it looked like when it was first built, this is what changed in the '72 remodeling, here's what we changed in the 90s... Information like that is sometimes crucial, but also interesting.

I wish I had the money to buy a house and create a space like the ones from this article. They're fantastic!