Great Room Make Over...Part 1

First and foremost let me first apologize for the sorry state of the after pictures. I have a new camera, that is actually a very good camera. Well the user..me...decided to tweak it. Not a good plan. I am trying to figure out how to get it back to the factory settings so I can not touch it from there. The 20 page get started booklet was not very useful. Right now it ranks right up there with the evil cable company. I should have better ones shortly.

Well we are back in the land of the living. I must admit that I wasn't the one that was sick, but Dennis was probably sicker than he has ever been in the almost eight years we have been together. I learned one thing about him being sick, boy he sure can whine about it.......

I thought it was about time to show everyone where we were at in our great room redo. As you can see by the before pictures if the full length mirrors on the foyer wall didn't make us run screaming out of the house when we came for a viewing than the color overload might have. I had to have a bit of an imagination to see the possibilities and Dennis did twist my arm a little to see past the colors and my dislike of the cabinets to see the houses true potential. Plus come spring wait till you see our yard. (By far the best part of our house when we moved in.)

There were six different colors in the room. Now granted our great room combines the family room, kitchen, and breakfast area, but still that is a little much since many of the colors were not complimentary. In fact as the cable guy put it we looked like we lived in an ice cream parlor. Hmm....I am not real sure that was a compliment.

Our cabinets were pickled oak and the counter tops are a solid surface. I wanted all of the cabinets painted but haven't quite decided yet if the countertops need to be changed. I am leaning on changing them because of the "incident." I will have to explain the incident in a different post because it is a bit detailed. Lets just say it didn't involve me and a blow torch, but it was very toxic.

Let me get back on track.....we had to buy a new refrigerator since there wasn't one with this house and our old one conveyed with the sell of our old house. Yes I know it doesn't match but there is a plan to get all new appliances. We also bought all new pulls for the kitchen, family room, and dining room. Plus new paint everywhere including the cabinets. We also purchased new sofas. Hip, Hip, Hooray. Our old sofa is now in the Florida Room/Dog Room. Those sofas sure have held up. I purchased them when I moved out on my own at 19.

I am going to admit our painter painted the cabinets and the crown molding. Our crown molding was not the same color as the rest of the molding in the house. Our painter happened to find out the hard way that all of the moldings were initially painted with oil base paint but then painted over with latex so we will have to redo the rest of the molding eventually. Fortunately he didn't charge us extra for his extra work of sanding and repainting the crown molding.

We did a few things ourselves. We painted the walls with the help of my mother-in-law. We removed the mirror back splash from behind the counters. I also deep cleaned all of the grout. A little vinegar, baking soda and brute force drastically changed the color.

I am sure you noticed this was Part 1. We have a few more projects to finish before I will consider it finished.

1. A new dishwasher - Stainless (Ours is new but I would never recommend this dishwasher to anyone.)
   


2. A new range and hood - Stainless
   


3. A new coffee and end table.
   


4. We need some extra seating.
   


5. Redo the kitchen stools that old owners left.
   


6. Purchase a bigger table.
   


7. Decorate - Art on the walls and curtains. (I need to decide to keep the blinds or not.)
   
   
   
   
   

I could go on and on and on about the future but I will save that for later. Back to trying to paint over Mother Earth. I hope everyone had a great weekend.