Home part 2...

This post is the one I like to think of as the heart of the house. The floor plan is set up with the living and dining rooms in the center of the house. The kitchen, laundry room, half bath, and garage are on the east end of the house and the 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms are on the west side of the house. When we walked into the house for the first time, I kept telling myself "It has good bones, it has good bones..." because the decor was horrid! And, the layout of the living & dining rooms was exactly what I was looking for. I wanted a place that Ron and I could live in comfortably and affordably, but was large enough to have the family over for dinner.

The previous owners had put up wallpaper in both rooms. The living room had a pink/mauve/gold splatter print and the dining room had coordinating colors. The dining room had a deep rose on the back wall and a burlap type paper on the end walls. We ended up stripping paper, ripping up carpet, and painting the paneling. Eventually, we would like to pull down the paneling, but for now we are very please with how things have turned out.

I will start the pictures with a few shots taken when we bought the house. The first is of the wallpaper in the living room and the ghastly spindles that separate the entry way from the living room...

then, a shot of the dining room from the living room. The wallpaper here had sort of a burlap feel. But, it did coordinate with the swirls in the kitchen and the splatters in the living room.

Next, a view of the fireplace & bookshelf in the living room.

Now for a few "during" pictures. Once again, when Rebecca discovered that the paper would come off so easily, we started peeling, and peeling, and peeling...

Even Seth helped out. Of course, his favorite part was spraying the wall to moisten the paper.

Once the paper was off, we primed the wall and were ready for paint.

And here is the final result. Looking into the dining room from the kitchen...

my wonderful table that seats everyone comfortably...

and finally, two pictures of the dining room from the far side of the living room

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As you can see, we used the Tuscan accent paint on the walls and painted the paneling with the red over black treatment. We switched out the dark ceiling fans for some bright white ones, and replace the carpet with the large tile. I think it ended up feeling warm and inviting; is large enough for family gatherings, yet cozy when it is just the two of us here.

So, these two rooms are one of the 2 main reasons we bought this house. More to follow in the next post!