I feel the need to...........

re-arrange furniture, get some boxes and have a yard sale, get my life back on track.

I think my recent postings have made it perfectly clear that we've had a heck of a couple months around here - a death in the family that brought to a head some family issues from waaay back, issues getting our middle child back into his classes this fall, my sister moving to North Carolina and so on and so on. I've also been pretty clear on the fact that I'm finally feeling like we're regaining a bit of control (yeah right~) over it all again. But, as I look around the house, I'm feeling crowded...which is quite strange actually since Dallas is back at school and Nikki is house-sitting now for the sister that moved away from me (how DARE my baby sister do that?). But, strange again is how in another way, I don't feel cozy enough.....

First of all, we've done a lot of collecting of new old things since we moved here and as we brought in those new old things we just sort of shuffled things around - putting this in that cabinet or in that eave - and its now reached the point that I can't find anything! I've been saving things for Dallas that I've suddenly realized he may no interest in at all......so, today's itinerary includes heading into the eaves and grabbing any and every empty box I can find and then to get sorting. And then, a conversation with Dallas to see what he would like me to keep for him.....Nikki's already received most of her family things and they're kept in her storage unit in town awaiting her own housekeeping set up sometime in the near future.

And then there's that living room. That 14 x 24, long and narrow living room. I love cozy. I love seating arrangements that allow not only for family movie viewing but family conversation that doesn't result in a stiff neck for one or more of said family. I love that....but I haven't been able to achieve that. We don't watch a whole lot of T.V., but when we do, we'd like to be closer than 14 feet from the T.V. screen.

I thought that moving from a 27 in. screen to a 40 in. screen would at least fool us into thinking that we were more cozy then we actually were, but.....no way....14 feet is still 14 feet and it feels like it. The four windows, front entry door, doorways into both the dining room and office sort of limt me just as much as the dimensions of the room....So what to do?

I've been back to Better Homes and Gardens Arrange a Room and plugged in all the measurements of walls, windows, doors and furniture and I think I may have figured something out.....but of course, the wall where I want to move the T.V. has no cable/satelite outlet there .....so I have to call that company and have them come out and put one in. Have I ever mentioned how much they like coming out here, crawling under this house, searching for the wire/cable that was put in by someone who really didn't know what he was doing (or so they all say)?

Before I call that company and have them suffer going under the house (and me suffer from having to pay them for it) I really need to figure out if what Arrange a Room indicates will work will actually work....and that means I have to convince David to move the furniture to try it all out....and then move it back again until the outlet is put in (if the new arrangement works) and then, hopefully (because it did work), move it all back again! Have I ever mentioned how little patience David has for moving furniture around? Wish me luck....please.

This years project list~~

Here it is ~~ (were you holding your collective breath?)

1. Add more insulation to the attic to bring it up to code (and up the warmth factor) - This project begins today. We were going to have it blown in, but we got a great deal on some leftover insulation from a local job......so we're doing it ourselves ~ Craigs List is awesome~~.

2. Insulate, refloor, rewall the Harry Potter Cupboard (aka the cupboard under the stairs!) - we knew this little room needed to be done, but it wasn't until I sat on the stairs to paint the risers last fall that we realized just how badly it needed doing - I could feel a draft through the risers. - The floor is still the original flooring and sits inches below the dining room flooring.

3. Insulate and re-wall the only two closets upstairs - these aren't in as bad of shape as the Harry Potter Cupboard, but they are un-insulated.

4. Apply additional insulation to the underside of the house....during last years re-plumb it was discovered that the previous owner's contractors had done a patchwork of insulation under there (perhaps helping to explain the 10 degree temperature drop between the kitchen/office side of the house and the dining/living room side.)

5. Scrape, patch and paint Master Bedroom ceiling, paint walls, insulate the floor, put in a padded rug - this room is directly above the front porch and its floor is cold...very cold....there was carpeting when we moved in, we tore it out before we were ready to work on that room and we've had cold feet ever since~~

6. Complete the fencing project, sod the back yard. We fenced in the back yard last year and soon discovered that it was too small an area for us and four dogs. The dogs have destroyed all the sod out there with their rompings and left behind only weeds; once the fence is completed, we'll re-sod and hope for the best. We're also expanding the fenced area for added security - the economy has resulted in an increase of crime in our area...I'll feel better that the dogs can guard the whole yard and not just the rear....

7. Paint the kitchen cabinets.

8. Continue last year's project of re-doing the downstairs bathroom - this one has moved down the priority list due to this year's discovery of insulation issues.....we'll see how this one goes ....

Not a huge project list this year and most of it invisible to the eye once completed....hopefully the payoff will be in largely reduced energy bills...this very very cold winter opened our eyes to all the areas that had not been properly insulated by the p.o's......

Off to work then~ have a great day my friends....

Doing our small part~~~

to stimulate the economy~~ Regular readers know that each year, we plan a project list and budget and then work our butts off for about 3-6 months on renovating/restoring this old farmhouse. This year, despite the economic difficulties, we are doing it again.

What you might not know is that we also take a part of the budget and set it aside for a "splurge" item or two. We live very frugally during the year - we don't eat out a whole lot or go to the movies, we find "free" things to do like visit the plantations and other historical sites in our state (or almost free). Living this way allows us to not feel guilty when we go on our splurge trip.

I almost didn't post about this years splurge - in the face of the struggle so many are having this year, it felt kind of wrong to splurge and it felt kind of wrong to brag about it on the blog, but in the end, this is a farmhouse blog about those things that we do to and for the house......

All the components are inside the cupboard-we simply open the cabinets when we watch T.V. usually only in the evenings. We're going to build a platform, painted glossy black, to raise the T.V. to hide the hole that used to house the mirror - then secure the T.V. to the wall for additional safety from the rompings of 3 labs, a tripod, neices and various friends of our 13 year old.....at the moment, the room is off limits to normally allowed romping!

This is our first ever flat screen T.V.....it replaces one of those fat things that required a huge footprint because of the size of the entertainment center that housed it. And that is a cr. 1900 sideboard with a much smaller footprint then the old pressed board, fat, entertainment center that used to live there and house that fat old T.V. (which T.V. included a speaker squeal for the last 9 months or so - we would turn it on and then leave the room or plug our ears until the squeal went away - that was always fun~~)

Fat Old T.V. and Pressboard Ent. Ctr.

Our living room furniture was way too modern when we moved here five years ago - not only too modern, it was over sized and never fit quite right in our long narrow room. Our second year here, the living room was pretty much gutted and redone - but that old furniture had to wait to find a new home....it all went right back into the renovated room - and looked even more wrong then it had before
....

Our third year here was the year we splurged on new furniture - but that fat old T.V. and Entertainment Center remained....modern and not right. Why? Because I didn't know what I wanted in there. So we waited....for two more years while I browsed magazines and Internet photos hoping to find the perfect fit for our old house. And then came that squeal. And I knew that it was time to make a decision.

On my birthday in January, David and I went antique dreaming (you know, where you spend a morning going into store after store dreaming about being able to afford to buy this piece and that piece and walk out having not bought anything?) And we both had a revelation....a sideboard could be modified into an entertainment center for a flat screen~~ and we saw 3 of them in one store that would be perfect. Then we came home. And waited. And made our project list and set aside a "splurge" amount. And waited some more.

I knew that when we replaced that fat old T.V. it would be with a flat screen and probably a huge flat screen ( David and I argued over the size for months - he wanted huge and I wanted, well, not huge). I also knew that I didn't want folks walking into that living room that took so much of our time and energy to make beautiful saying "wow, a T.V." - instead of "wow, what an inviting room". That sideboard idea would work beautifully.....it would be the focal point, not the T.V.!

Three weekends back, we headed out to the antique store and got that sideboard, took it home, measured it to determine what size T.V. we needed to get and then headed back out to find the perfect T.V....and price. And luckily, the only modification to the sideboard that ended up being done was removal of the beveled glass mirror (which will be framed and hung in the downstairs bathroom) and loosening a slat in the back to allow the cords to come through....all modifications easily put back to their original state if in the future, we decide to use that sideboard for its original purpose (as a dining room piece).

Five Years On - Living Room Complete!

It's that time again.....

for a Project Update Post......

After months of renovation, plumbing and septic work, mudding, sanding, caulking walls and bead board, and all else that comes with a re-do....we have a bathroom again! It's not completely finished - David's working on the shelves, the new doors are curing as is the re-attached in shower towel rack; but we have running water and a toilet that flushes. Yeah! No more running down the stairs......maybe that's TMI?

Still to come - shelving above the toilet and triming out the window
with the salvaged trim from the Masters House.

The new tub doors!

The new sink, faucet, mirror and lighting fixtures....

The painting in the living and dining rooms is progressing, however, the green of the dining room became the same bronze/gold of the living room.

The bronzy-gold in the Living Room.....





Two days were spent just making the decision regarding the dining room paint color.....

First attempt at transitioning the colors......we thought that painting the dining room side of the posts would do the trick......didn't do the doorway justice.....

and we didn't like the green panels.....so we painted the panels Ben Moore's White Sands
it still didn't look just right .............


so we painted one of the posts green and left just a little bit of the bronzy gold showing
and painted the edging of the panels that same color.....

and we compared the looks....

and then expanded the paint to get a more clear idea of the final product....



After painting the trim at the end of the room which includes the dividing door to the L.R., the Harry Potter Cupboard Door (Cupboard under the stairs) and the bathroom door, David and I spent an evening living with the color...and as the evening progressed, we liked it less and less. It was just too much and despite numerous attempts at getting that dividing doorway just right, the transition wasn't working. I think part of it is that the green is not near enough to a natural wood tone and with the amount of trim and doors in that room it just didn't feel right....and it was very difficult for the eye to find a place to rest.

The decision to continue the bronzy gold from the Living Room into the Dining Room was a good one.....and five days from the start of the job, this is what we have now.....


We still have to add the new chair rail (well....salvaged new chairrail) under the the blue plate you see on the dividing wall...it's been painted and is drying as I type....and that chandelier? Well, its supposed to get a new paint job as well....black or copper....just have to make the decision! One of these days, I'll find the perfect light fixture for this room....but for now, paint will do the trick.



Then it was on to the staircase; a day was spent scrubbing and painting that....and another putting the second and third coats on.



The photo wall, which has yet to get its new coat of B. M. White Sands, now has real photos in the frames and Nikki and I are slowly making fabric mats for each one...if you look closely, you'll see the fabric mat completed in three of the photos...when completed, each photo will have either a gold, blue, green or red fabric mat......!

And the little table on the staircase wall? That one was picked up at the flea market for a very nice price.....

I just love progress! We're onto the kitchen now....the red accent walls have been primed and the first coat of the green paint is on the doors and trim....and in this room, it looks great! More photos to come.....

It's been a while~~~

since my last post.....it isn't that nothing has been happening.....life is always full in a world with three labs, one tripod, two cats, a rabbit, 3 children and an old married couple......~it's just that I've been out of commission with my back once again.....

After 7 days of almost complete bed/couch rest, I'm finally up and moving again.....I've slowly painted the living room trim the same bronze/gold as the upstairs landing and the nearly completed bathroom and am moving on into the dining room.....

The dining room is taking some time because I am having to experiment to get the look just right.....the dividing archway (not really an archway but I can't seem to come up with a better word) is causing the delay....I can't quite get the transition of the two colors (bronze/gold and green) to come out just right.

If you've been following this blog, then you'll remember that I am stepping out of my comfort zone by painting the doors and trim of each room in one of four colors....bronze/gold, green, dark blue, or autum-y red....using page 92 of September's County Home Magazine as my inspiration....

The living room looks awesome, the painted trim warms up the room. Warmth in that room has always been an issue both physically and visually - from the 1/2 inch gaps between the sheet rock and sills under the windows when we first moved in - to the gaps between the floor and the walls that a crowbar could fit through and reach the ground we found when we gutted and redid the room in 2006 - to furnishing the long narrow room for a comfy and cozy feel. When that trim was painted in an slightly off white, it still didn't quite feel warm and cozy; the bronze/gold did the trick, finally.

A second benefit of the freshly painted trim is that is draws more attention to the paint technique on the walls in that room.....the paint job I refer to as my one brilliant moment of design.....I'm equally pleased about that....

But, I'm entering day three of the experiment in the dining room and I'm still working on the wall which divides the living room from the dining room.....

I need another brilliant moment of design....

Wish me luck.

Country Home~~~

I've been going through magazines like crazy lately. The kids are back in school and now is the time of year when I get back to decorating...which includes not only pulling out the fall decorations but finishing up and/or beginning the many painting projects that I have lined up. (I usually don't paint rooms when the house is full of folks - its too disrupting to all of us!).

I've already been through my collection of Country Living, Country Home, Traditional Living and Cottage Living mags; I've cut out idea photos and gotten them all organized, but today...while shopping at the Depot for some roofing materials, I picked up the new issue of Country Home to browse while David shopped.

About 3/4's of the way through, I stopped flipping pages. I walked over to David and showed him the photographs that had so caught my attention....."there, this is what I've been trying to achieve. It will work because...look....and look....~". He disguised his dis-interest rather well I must say. After all, he was concentrating on what he needed to fix up the new roof leak that we discovered in one of the rain bands from Gustav that came through last week. But, he's been married to me long enough to know enough to just nod and say "I like it!". And then grimace just a bit as I added the magazine I was just going to browse through to our cart!

After returning home, Nikki and I spent a pleasant hour with the magazine and our cups of coffee..and then I surfed on over to the Country Home Site to see if I could link to a photo or two, just so you could see the colors that so caught my attention, but there is no link to that particular story and no photos that I could find.....I guess ya'll just have to pick up a copy in your own local Depot....~

"92 LIVING COLOR The improvisational decorating style of Monique Shay results in a color-filled home, thanks in large part to her collection of vividly painted French-Canadian farmhouse furniture. "

I've so wanted to play with colors in this house but the most I've been brave enough to attempt is the blue of Hunter's room; I've gone back to my trusty Benjamin Moore's various shades of yellow in every other room. Hunter's blue was a great success and bolstered my courage a bit but I still was afraid to just fly with my "vision" of what the rooms in this house could take.

This particular article has shown me that I can take some risk with color....according to the designer, the various shades of blue and green, yellow and red that she used throughout the different rooms (on the trim and on pieces of primitive French Canadian furniture) work because she stuck to shades of "vanilla" for the walls of each room. Which was a bit of a surprise to me because, due to the impact of the colors that filled each room with interest, I never even noticed that the walls were all such a neutral.

All the trim in this old farmhouse of ours is painted with Benjamin Moore's White Drift and we have no plans to strip away the 100 years of paint as we have no way of knowing what is original and what had been replaced by our PO's. With the menagerie of animals and people that live in this place, keeping them clean is a constant battle....I have long entertained the idea of going with darker colors that won't show so much of the living that goes on in this home. This article has shown me that painting with those colors throughout the house can work.......with my basic yellow walls (Benjamin Moore's Montgomery White, Philladelphia Cream, and Waterbury Cream from their Historical Collection).
And the primitive pieces we have (some painted, some just refreshed with Antique Restore) will also work in this style of decorating and adding interest with color. The designer layered on even more color with throw rugs, pillows and blankets throughout the house....another thing I love and have already attempted to do.

As I said, now that the kids are back in school and quiet time can be found in this old farmhouse for at least 5 hours each day, I'll resume my interior painting projects. Hunter's game room is next on the list...with the landing and bathroom and Master Bedroom to follow.....and then the downstairs....with the kitchen cabinets finally going from 90's stain to a more appropriate antiqued green.....

I am energized.....wish me luck on breaking free from the habit of "yellow". I'll post photos as I go!

Rate My Space.....

Living Rooms - Most Recent Living Rooms - Rate My Space - HGTV

So, have you seen the TV show or been to the website yet? I just discovered the show last evening when I finally sat down to rest after a very long day and then this morning, over coffee, I visited the website....along with several other thousand folks apparently. That site was s .... l ..... o ..... w ..... and then eventually, it kicked me off....

Despite the fact that the website was slow, it was a interesting visit. There are rooms of every shape and size and decorating style. There are folks who give advice and folks who want advice; all in all, it is a cool place. I'm even thinking of taking some photos of our long and narrow living room and asking for some advice.....(as if I need another website to demand more of my attention!).

You see, I've spent the last week doing some re-arranging of our downstairs rooms; the long and narrow living room has been the bain of my decorating attempts since the day we moved in. We had lots of friends down here helping us in exchange for a barbecue in the evening; to move things along, I had used a software program to map out where all the furniture was going to go.....should have been easy right? Well, David and I had not done a perfect job of measuring out the room on one of our visits down here and as a result, we were a few inches off on the placement of doors and windows in our design plan.

So, what's a few inches? A whole heck of a lot when it comes to placing over sized modern furniture in a long, narrow, 100 year old living room! I had to stop the moving in of furniture and tell the guys to go grab and drink and take a break. Then we women stood in that living room and brainstormed as to how it all would fit in. Eventually we came up with a "plan" that even I knew would be a temporary fix....the guys however, were starting to riot cuz they wanted to get that huge piano in the house ..."darn it!".

A month or so later and I still hadn't gotten that room right, so I called in my stepmother Janice the Interior Designer. She came riding to the rescue and we spent two days painting the walls a warm yellowish color....and then, we pretty much put the furniture back in the same place but tilted it just a bit this way or that way...brought in an antique bureau that I had placed in the dining room and then Jan did her thing with accessorizing; she eventually returned to her own home leaving me a list of things to buy to finish off the room. I learned the importance of that part of decorating during those two days....believe me, accessorizing can be the most important thing in decorating an awkward room.

Since returning from South Carolina inspired by our touring of some of the old homes in Charleston - I decided to be brave and do what I'd wanted to do all along....create a conversation zone in that room. You see, without a separate "family room" and "living room", this long narrow room had to function as both but it really only functioned well as a T.V. room. Guests to our home all gathered around our kitchen table because there was no conversation area in the living room. While I have no real issue with that as I love the kitchen and consider it to be the real heart of this house, I disliked feeling that there was no choice in the matter.

Our living room was set up for five people to watch TV together, but if you tried to have guests in there to hold a conversation in lieu of watching a show, those who sat in the side chairs had to get a crook in the neck to speak to those who sat on the couch! So we all gathered in the kitchen instead.

Its been in the back of my mind all along that for most of the year, there are only three of us in this house.....even with Nikki living at home, she works evenings and is out most of those evenings when she isn't working. The reality is that the couch gets the most use in that room. So why did I have to have those side chairs facing the TV all the time?

So, this week I moved those side chairs to either side of the T.V. and facing the couch and scooted that couch forward (20 feet from the TV is just too far away, isn't it? Okay, it was more like 13 feet but that's still too far for these old eyes!). And I took the drop leaf antique table that belonged to David's grandmother and set it up behind the couch for card playing, puzzle working, and other family activities that we USED to do all the time but haven't in this house. We moved the piano out to the dining room where the side table we just can't find was supposed to go to avoid the feeling of too much furniture (and I love it there, when Dallas plays in that room the sound is glorious and flows through the entire house!).

And ironically, when Nikki and her friend, Gerard the Professional Painter/Musician came home that afternoon, they initially didn't like the room.....however, fifteen minutes later, the three of us were using that conversation zone for the first time.....and they changed their minds, admitting that it was the accessorizing that was lacking in the new arrangement. You see, on every previous visit, the three of us had sat....you guessed it....at the kitchen table..and here we were, using the living room for something other than to watch T.V.!

But, now I'm stuck.

It is the accessorizing, stupid! I can't get it right just yet. I know some of it is because I have two boys underfoot who want to talk with me, get me to watch just one more UTube video, go to the beach or just simply talk about something that is on their minds.....I need quiet and space to be creative......and those two things are in short supply this week!

So, who knows....you might see my long, narrow, living/family room on Rate My Space.......

Happy Fourth of July!

So what about that screen door?

You may remember that I posted a bit about gnat season and gneeding a screen door on the front of the house.....if you don't, here's an update....it's gnat season and we needed a screen door on the front of the house!

While I was in South Carolina visiting Daddy Mac after his open heart surgery, David and Hunter went garage sale searching....and they found stain glassed windows from the Civil War era but David wasn't 100% certain I'd like them so took a chance and didn't snap them up...when I returned, we went back to the house they had found them to see if they had been sold...which they hadn't....so we bought them for the bathroom....

The house we were visiting is in the historic district of St. Augustine and had been renovated by its current owners who also happen to be restoring an 1890 house in Lincolnville....AND who also just happened to have an old screen door for sale from THAT house. (Every now and then, we get the awesome adventure of meeting other old house enthusiasts and usually it ends up beneficial for all concerned...this was one of the every now and then occassions!)

One of the things you run into in these old houses is larger than average entry doors....if you're really lucky, either the original is still there and in good condition or a previous owner already paid the exorbitant cost of a new door in a style that you consider appropriate for your old house.....in our case, our door is the original and in great condition....but it needed a screen door....and we'd found out our first summer here that to get a "good" one special ordered to fit would be approximately $700.00~ now, when you have electrical issues, plumbing issues, roofing issues among other things, $700.00 for a screen door just isn't practical at all. So we waited.

We searched flea markets and estate sales and antique stores looking for just the right door....to no avail....David and I had even begun to discuss his building a replica of one so that we could sit inside our living room and enjoy the view out the front door without the need for bug spray and zapper lights. We were thrilled to find that this couple had a screen door from their 1890 house that they were willing to sell....so we made arrangements to go see that door....fully expecting it to be quite expensive, but if it suited us, we'd bite the bullet....

Well, I'm thrilled to say that we now have a very appropriate screen door! It needs some adjustment because even this old door wasn't quite tall enough although the width was perfect....and although it is tied with a peice of yarn at the moment until we can get a the perfect latch kit for it and although it has a crocheted, stuffed "worm" at its foot.....we are very happy with our find....and with the price.....!

And, since this house was built with 26 windows designed to enhance the air flow in the hot summer months, our electric bill should go down as well as we'll now have a full cross breeze from front to back........!

~~~

Windows And Walls

One of the disappointments in this old farmhouse is that the old windows were replaced by the P.O.'s; it had been part of our farmhouse dream to restore any house we might be blessed to live in AND the windows....of the 26 windows in this house only two are "original" and even those were put in cr. 1950 or so. On the pro-side of this however, is that 24 of the windows are double paned and therefore are somewhat energy efficient (if they had all been properly installed but that is another story for another day!).

Although we're replacing the downstairs bathroom this year we still want it to look as if it belongs to this old house and not a bathroom from a house you might find in our old subdivision......with that in mind, we salvaged the 1910 beadboard from the Masters House....and today, we went to a historic house in our neighboring town and purchased a set of stained glass windows for the bathroom. These large windows are from the civil war era so are a lot older than our old farmhouse, but the simplicity of the details are perfect......we also may have lucked into a vintage screen door for the front of the house.....Our front door is taller than today's doors and we thought we'd have to special order from a vintage retailer and pay about $700.00 for one....! We'll go and measure and check out the pricing on the one we've gotten wind of on Saturday......

A screen door in the front would be a great addition to our home; last evening after dinner, there was a chill to the ever present winds of this open farmland and although I wanted to watch the sun setting through the oak and pecan trees, I chose to sit inside on my couch instead...but I left the front door open to be able to still enjoy the view.....for all of 5 minutes......David suddenly came in from the kitchen saying "gnats.....all over the kitchen".....and promptly shut off my view!

Gnat season has arrived.......and I wasn't ready for it. Wish us luck on that screen door!

The Living Room Redo…..

When we moved in (2004), water leaks had ruined the ceiling in about 4 different places and in 2 spots even the walls were damaged……and the original hardwood flooring had not been salvageable when our P.O’s moved into the house so they had put in plywood and carpeting……We lived with the damaged ceilings and walls while we took care of more important upgrades to the house….finally in the spring of 2006 we began the project.

In April, we removed all the furniture, placing the L.R. into the dining room, the dining room into the kitchen and other bits and pieces wherever else they could be shoved…mostly in my office. I thought I’d be okay living like that for the 6 weeks we had projected for the project…….little did we know it would be September before we put that Living Room back together.

Doing the kitchen floor and counters, we’d run into a few issues with wiring and insulation and things like that but while they slowed down the project a little, they were nothing compared to what we found in the living room…..David began the project by ripping open the ceiling in the damaged areas to be certain there were no more leak issues that would undo our hard work…..

The first spot he started on was underneath the upstairs bathroom…………..as he exposed the beams and plumbing, he got a huge shock….the gentleman (cough) who had put in the plumbing for the P.O’s had, instead of moving the plumbing over a bit, cut out a major piece of the joist…..which was held up by one nail! Directly above that basically useless joist was the bathtub! David and I exchanged a look of both disgust and of horror……that tub was basically floating in mid-air with no support. Suddenly, the 40 year old water heater was not a source of complaint but a blessing in disguise….we had all been using the downstairs shower instead of the upstairs tub/shower combo due to the wait time for hot water….

Anyway, this little glitch in the project took about 3 weeks to remedy and a lot more of our funding than we expected......eventually though we got to re-sheet -rock, re-mud, texturize and paint the ceiling...leaving holes for ceiling fans with light kits....Next we tackled the water ruined walls - insulating, more mudding and sanding until finally it was time for the paint technique....I sponged it three times until it has the look of parchment - ....Then came the flooring......that was a long job; repairing the gaps left by the previous renovation where crow bars could go under the house and bring back up weeds(!), installation, sanding, staining and varnishing....and then waiting.....seven days for it all to cure and be safe to reload.

Pevious Owners Formal Living Room

Ours before rennovation

Current (2008) photos of the Living Room!