The Cave/Library/Den/Family Room

On the second stop of our tour, I'd like to show you the darkest room in the house.  As you can see...this room has a lot of brown going on.  We could have an almost entirely wood paneled room if the floors under the carpet were wood, but alas, they're linoleum. Let's see...wood on walls-check! Wood on ceiling-check! Wood on crazy closet door-check! Wood on windows-check! Wood on floors- no check. Bummer.

We'll be removing all this extraneous stuff once we move in, but that plastic bottle of whiskey is kinda growing on me.  This shot (above) shows the view from near the french doors that lead to the backyard....you'll never guess, but they're also wood.

Oh, there are the doors. And the lovely window shutters. It was the peak of chic in the 60s I guess. For the record, my grandparents used this room as their TV/comfortable chair room. We are thinking of using as more of a library because frankly, there's no good place to put our TV. This room has three doorways/hallways, the French doors, a closet door, and the fireplace. It's enough to give Nate Berkus a double hernia, and I'd hate to do that to cute little Nate.

So what's the plan in here? PAINT and lots of it. But first, we'll be priming. We have a five gallon bucket of Killz primer just waiting in the garage for this room.  I think we'll do a light gray/beige with the fireplace white and the beams a slightly darker gray/beige? Not entirely sure yet, I'll make it a surprise.

Show Me What You're Working With

Welcome to our bloggity blog! We hope that this will help our friends and family follow our progress as we work on our new home.  Consider this the tour of the 'before' stage. We've been working on taking down wallpaper for a few weekends now, so we'll have some updated progress shots soon. We are very excited to move into this house and can't wait to put our personal touches on the rooms and make it our home.  We are looking forward to having celebrations, guests, and a family (eventually!) at our new place.

The Kitchen

Looking towards the laundry and eating area, we'll put our table and chairs here. The wallpaper is no longer up on these walls.

If I did a 180 from where I was in the above picture, this is what I'd see.  We've already taken off the scallop-y part above the sink and have sanded and primed all the cabinets (inside and out). Our next step in here is to start painting the cabinets.

Another view of the working side of the kitchen.  I'm going to have to adjust to using the wall oven, but I'll like not having to bend over to check on whatever goodies I'm baking! 

To finish off this post, here is my inspiration board for the kitchen.  We already have the bentwood chairs and pedestal table (Salvation Army for the table and Craigslist for the chairs). I'm planning on painting the exposed side of the oven wall, shown above, in chalkboard paint and replacing the doors to the laundry area with curtains made from drop cloths.  I'll be displaying my new collection of enamel teapots and bundt pans on the wall, and making a shade for the window out of a yet to be determined fabric. We'll also be replacing the carpeting with some laminate flooring or linoleum and possibly swapping out the counter tops with some Ikea butcher block. Not exactly sure what color the walls will be, but the cabinets and trim will be bright and shiny white!