Family Room Revealed

The family room/hall/entryway is what your guests see when they first walk in your home.  It's been said that you only have one chance to make a first impression.  The same goes with your home. 

When we first walked in to this house I went Uhhh... yeah.  Did boring, old people live here?  I saw wood (of course), gold, plain white walls and boring light green carpet.  However when I walked up the stairs to the main landing it got even more interesting.  That's when I saw the floor to ceiling levelor blinds.  *YAWN*  Anyone getting bored here?  Luckily, Ben and I both saw something special in this house.  We both instantly got a vision of what it could be.  Thankfully...

Here is the beautiful before.  Something very cool I have to note is that we have fairly brand new windows and if you know the saga we dealt with on the first home we put an offer on in Eastside Sandy you know this is very major for us! New windows rock.  And these were super cool becasue they open from both sides.  And look at the storm door.  YOu can pull the top frame down to become a screen.  Plus, the tile work at the entryway is new and in great condition.  Oh, and my best friend, Mr. McCafe, was a constant guest.  One more thing, see that lovely entryway light? I had to rip it out of Sarabear's hands because she wanted to keep it so bad.

To get things started here I enlisted the help of Skunk to start the sanding.  You will please note she is using the dreaded mouse sander.

Mouse Sander-Evil. 

We wanted to save some money so Ben ripped out all the carpet and padding himself.  And this is where I incured my first injury...

Be careful of the tacks for the carpet.  They are sneaky and will jump out and get you.  Sanding the railing spindles took F.O.R.E.V.E.R. because you have to sand them by hand.

Ahhh... Painting.  Little known fact before we started this was I am horrible at painting.  Luckily I have a man who is patient and taught me the ways of the brush.  I am now an expert painter.  Painted walls, baseboards, door mouldings, window sills.  And I spray painted the banisters and railing. Spray Painted.  Note: Tape off EVERYTHING you don't want to get black. EVERYTHING.  I had black boogers for a week.  And please invest in an attachment to go on your spray paint bottle. Your thumb will thank me.  I had loss of feeling in my thumb for two weeks.  No joke.  And then we got ready for carpet... Please notice that the floors are white.  Yes, we painted a primer on the wood floorboards.  The carpet guys told us this was the best thing to do to eliminate any sort of hidden odor the floorboards might be holding on to (ie. pet urine). So we did it...

We got the most beautiful, plush carpet.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE my carpet. 

Have I mentioned I love my carpet?  A BIG shout-out to Ward's Carpet.  I highly recommend them.  They came recommended to us and now I pass it along to you.  We did lots of price checks and research and they indeed are the best price, best quality and friendliest.  I even used them to replace some carpet in the dreaded townhome.  Another story for another time... On to happier things...

And without further interruptions may I present our family room...

 Classic. Simple. Chic.  Plus a puppy.

Changes:

New Paint on walls, baseboards, window sill, door trim

Spray Painted banister and railing

New entryway light fixture and hall light

New window treatments (ie. did you know that if you go over 96" width in faux wood blinds they charge you an extra $76 to ship it?  Yeah.  Split that width in half and get two blinds.  save $$)

New Carpet

Wish List:

Can lighting in ceiling (there is currently no lighting except for entryway light. weird. I know)

Drapery

Crown Moulding

Vinyl saying to go above my T.V. Haven't decided what yet...

Oh, and my tv cable to be hooked up.  Netflix is getting old.