Thursday, January 21, 2010

Remodeling: The Living Room Wall

I'm so excited to finally be able to show you before and after pictures of our recent remodel project. For all intensive purposes, we "finished" last night. So, here we go. How do you like this wall, huh? Can anyone say "gun safe"? Hello, yes, that puppy is huge. All three of these lovely pieces of furniture stuck out about two feet from the wall, making the living room seem even smaller than it is. Yes, I had pictures up there, but I had just taken down our Christmas decoration before we started tearing out the wonderful dark wood paneling (painted over white). As I said in a previous post, we were just going for functionality when we moved in and remodeled the basics. Our goal this time around was to try adding a touch of class and make the space seem larger.

Michael, our friend Hiram and Hailey are working on tearing out the paneling.

Our other friend, Billy, helped Michael and Hiram put up the drywall. You can see there used to be a fireplace behind this wall. They had to do a lot of work to the wall to improve the structure before we even got the sheet rock up.

After putting up drywall, taping, mudding, texturing, sanding it all down because the texture was too thick, mudding the entire wall again to make it smooth, sanding, mudding, sanding, mudding, sanding, primering, texturing, primering again and two coats of paint, this wall was FINALLY done! Michael also put in a new door to the hobby room and did all the trim work. Lots of staining there. And lets not forget to mention the CLEANING that I'm still doing!

I'm telling you this was test for our marriage, too. At one point, we got into a big fight. After 24 hours (a long time for us) of not even being able to speak to each other, we finally came to a common understanding and were able to work together in relative peace and harmony from that point forward.

We finally got the fireplace hooked up yesterday and mantle put together. I have yet to decorate the mantle. I'm planning on placing a tall looks-real plant in the open space you see on the right side of the fireplace. The little side table you see on the left belonged to Stacie and I when we were kids. It is now holding our DVD player. Every single wall in my house is painted white. This was a huge step for me to paint this wall and my hallway. I think I'm addicted to color now. I want to repaint every room in the house now. Somebody stop me! I'll be posting the pictures of the kitchen wall next. So stay tuned!
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13 comments:

Connie said...

Color transforms a home. So happy you are reaching the end. Looks so much better!

Camille said...

Wow ~ what a great improvement! Good for you Jackie! :) I agree with Connie ~ colour really does transform the home. Enjoy your new home...it looks great.

Blessings,
Camille

La Familia Garcia said...

It looks so good, and feels great to have little-by-litte joys in the home!

Jessica said...

It looks beautiful! I totally get your logic...first the necessities, then the glamor later! I looked at the "before" pic as I began reading your post, thinking it looked just fine. Then the "after" w/ the color was like you added some va va voom! It looks beautiful, you have great taste! Color is addicting, eh? Sorry you guys had a rough patch, but it's a true testament to your love that you came together and worked through it---good for you guys! I hope you all enjoy the "new" space!

Anonymous said...

Looks great! Remodel projects certainly can test a marriage!

Anonymous said...

YIPPIE SKIPPIE DOOO! Just look at that! What a great job you and hubs did (along with some helpers there) Just works perfect with your new hallway.


with love,

Olivia

Brenda said...

Wow - you guys have done a fantastic job with the remodeling project! The living room is beautiful!

RaD said...

Lookin' good! I'm not all that good at decorating, but I think you did a great job.

Rachel and Family said...

I am loving following your remodeling. How inspiring!

When my in-law lovebirds built their home from the ground up they said it was tough on their marraige. They are pleased with the results but said they'd never do it again! They'd rather stay married!

Also liked learning about the homemade cleaners. I catch a British show once in a while called "How Clean Is Your House?".
They use a lot of natural cleaners too. I bet you must save money too?

christy rose said...

I told you that once you went color you would never go back to white. :) I love it. It looks great!

Grandmabeckyl.blogspot said...

Great job--looks nice and color is good!! White-bleah, for me!! I get inspired to paint from people buying paint from hardware store where I work. I'm the cashier so I know what colors people choose. I'm hoping to get the living room painted. I have the paint and my friend said we'd tag team and get it done. She's taller than me and she can get the taller spots. Anyway, enough about me. I'm glad you two were able to come to a common ground and make things better in your life. It's not easy but it's a must to live happy with hubby and makes the kids happy too. Hang in there!! Looking good, in more ways than one! :p

christy rose said...

i have something fabulous for you over at my place.

Angela said...

Oh my precious sister..the joys of remodelling..the best part, cleaning up the sanding dust..GRRRRRRRRRRRRR...My precious hubby would do the sanding...than I would go and clean it all up...than he would decide to sand AGAIN..AFTER I finished cleaning it all up..oh my....yepper,,being a Proverbs 31 Woman and 'doing him good all the days of his life' were tough at times,,God IS good though,,,

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