We had a room like that. We moved before I had time to tackle it. It was a difficult room to decorate and use because of the short wall perspective. I saw a tv show one day where they did a makeover in a room like that. They put wainscoting or chair rail about 4' high about around the room to break up the wall. Then they painted the upper part of the wall including the slopes above the wainscoting a coordinating color. ( I think they painted the ceiling the same color as the wall, but I can't remember.) It broke up the room so it looked more comfy and usable. I think the colors they used were a medium blue and a lighter blue up top. Blue might not be your color scheme, but I do think the room will feel better if you don't go dark. Using that as the basis for decorating, I would break the room up into two areas. One area would be a living room setup with the tv/wii up against the tall wall and pull-out sofa and chairs arranged so they are facing the tv. The sofa and chairs could be pulled out from the walls to make the area cozy, but not claustrophic. You could have an area rug and some kind of artwork on the tall walls behide the tv. I'd put storage shelves or bookshelves on some of the walls outside of that area in the other area. You could add another conversational or playing/reading area to this part of the room.

LOL Vj I've been on bedrest and there is nothing else to do but wander the forums (I'm having aol issues....I can't get my freaking email and itp's making me nuts LOPL) p(=moy sion is heul0ping type) poiuytrewwwwq You know, if you could find the perfect, just barely silver gray for those walls and leave the ceiling white I think the space would really be stunning. Then pop in the blue in your bedding and accents....yummy :) And then those wonderful costco fluffy sheep skin rugs for the floor to break up the blue and add an amazing texture :) LOL Yes we're playing in the house. I finished phase one of the dining room a month or so ago. When I found out I was going to lose the babies I gave up my bedrest and have been tearing down the parlor now :) Lemonaid from lemon's ya know. I'm going DEEP blue in there and can't wait to get the paint on the wall. DS encourages me by pulling paper off whenever he can reach it. :) It's a family sickness LOL No we didn't get the silver sink, but we're going to put one in here since the butlers pantry went missing in the 40's (we'll replace it). I loved that sink :) You know for your room...you could find a great window frame with glass in it and just frost it and hang it behind the bed. It would look gorgeous, maybe even do it in a distressed blue (dark dark dark) with white over the top so just a bit of the blue shows??? In my anchorage house I have a window frame with a picture I had blown up of the view (if there were a hole in the wall) on the inside...much cheaper than a muralist!! If our attic room weren't up in the attic I'd have taken it as our master...it's a few more steps than I want to do in the middle of the night when DS needs help but I do love the cozyness of the space. And now I must pull a space shuttle out of my arse....gad there's nothing like a sick 4 year old LOL He wants me to go get them in his other bedroom (in alaska) NOW!!!!

Almost a fifth of the price involves allowances. Allowances are not prices they are estimates. You will be expected to pay the actual cost of hiring an electrician and plumber which could be a far greater amount than estimated. Make sure the allowances are only for materials and subs; his labor should be in the base bid price. Ask if he will mark up materials and subs covered by allowances. You will need an exhaust fan with a duct to the outside. You didn't say where the project is located but you will probably have to provide heat for the space. It seems pretty obvious that this room will be used as a sleeping room so one or two hard wired smoke detectors will be needed. A carbon monoxide detector MUST be installed. I would guess the project will cost well over $20,000 not including what you buy unless the contractor is uninsured, and ignores licensing and permitting requirements. As for minimum space and height requirements, if the local code is based on the 2009 IRC, the 70 s.f. minimum floor space for a habitable space (bathrooms are not considered habitable spaces) includes the space where a sloped ceiling is 5 ft or higher and a level ceiling is 7 ft. or higher for a minimum of 50% of the required room floor area. The minimum height of a habitable room level ceiling is 7 ft and 5 ft at a sloped ceiling. A bathroom must have a ceiling height of 6-8 in front of each fixture. The required "means of egress" from all spaces in the house must be 3-0 wide for corridors and stairs and lead to an outside door without passing through a garage. Habitable attics and every sleeping room, in addition to a means of egress, must have an "emergency escape and rescue opening" of 5.7 s.f. (min. 24" high and 20" wide) with a max. sill height of 44" above the floor. You need to decide if the habitable space will be used as a sleeping space because the building inspector will either ask you or just assume it is one. As for insulation, some jurisdictions have different requirements for an existing structure which may be contained in the International Existing Building Code or state amendments to the IRC. Where I live the wall, floor and roof cavities must be filled with insulation equivalent to fiberglass batts however you might want more depending on your climate and cost of heating fuel. As for the structure, the framing seems fairly new so if it was really labeled as a "bonus" room on the original permit drawings it would have been designed for a habitable space load instead of a storage load. All of this should be covered by the tables in the building code so an engineer should not be needed unless the knee walls are intended to transfer rafter load to the floor joists. The worst case is you would need to open the garage ceiling to add some joists but it might be wise to open the ceiling anyway because the best way to seal the floor is to spray an inch or two of foam insulation from below, in fact I don't know of another way that works. Putting a sleeping room over a garage requires great care. I would have two CO detectors in the new space, one hard wired and one battery operated. CO is a dangerous killer. I would have lost a client if newly cut flowers had not wilted soon after delivery.

Wondering what you ended up doing? I mis-ordered a very expensive tall Andersen door (also terratone). Reframing to make it work would be too complicated. Would painting the plain wood interior (to make it exterior) be terrible? And painting the now terratone exterior white, to make it the interior surface? Feeling very stupid.. (I placed the order, but double checked with the architect and contractor - all missed the mistake).