What we did last weekend

Friday we were sitting in the family room figuring out what we wanted to do for the weekend and decided it felt like the right time to start remodeling.

When we bought our house we decided we'd wait a minimum of 3 months before making any major purchases or doing any renovations so that we'd have time to really get the feel of the space. There were a lot of things we wanted to do and we wanted to save up and pay cash (well, use a CC for the points/rewards, but immediately pay off the balance) for everything.

Then I got knocked up, the company Jerad was working for got busier and busier, and here we are 11 months later and all we've done is paint a few rooms. My biggest pet peeve is our family room. It's where we spend most of our time, and there are so many things that drive me crazy.

Those pictures are from when we first moved in, so there have been a few furniture placement changes but you can get the idea.

The hallway that is adjacent had low ceilings, dark walls, and all the doors were painted dark as well. I can't find a pic, but its the same as it is in the laundry room:

In the family room pictures its hard to tell, but the walls are 4 different colors. The mantle is too high. The builder-basic tile on the fireplace surround is dingy and doesn't match anything. Well, it matches the same ugly tile that is on the hallway, laundry, dining, and kitchen floors. The bench thing under the fireplace makes furniture placement really tricky and I worry about Marshall gashing his head open on the sharp edges. All the trim is cheap looking and painted brown. There are no lights except for the ones on the fan, and I hate the carpet.

Hmm, that all sounded pretty negative.

I guess I could have just said "there isn't one thing that I honestly like about this room."

If you follow me on pinterest (http://pinterest.com/sbrownthinks/) you know that I've been pinning lots of house stuff lately. This board is what I've been envisioning for the family room.

Basically tall white board and batten molding:

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 Re-frame all the doors and windows like this to add some character:

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Build new wooden fireplace surround, add some decorative trim, and lower mantle,

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and change shape of the bench below to be like this:

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Create built-in  bench under window with cubbies for the kid toys and shelves for books:

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I also wanted some doors and drawers in the built-in, and arches at the top of the bookcases which would match the arch we have going from the living room to the kitchen:

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The built-ins, moldings, and fireplace would all be painted white with just a two foot strip of wall painted above:

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The wall would be Benjamin Moore's "Wythe Blue" which is what we painted our guestroom:

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Anyways, that in a nutshell was the plan. We've been waiting because we can't do the board and batten until after we replace the carpet with wood flooring because then we'd have to rip all of the baseboards back off and touch up paint which makes no sense. Then Jerad mentioned that we could do the flooring down the road without tearing out the molding if I was okay with a little shoe molding against the baseboard like this:

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Which I was! So he did a quick Autocad drawing to plan out what we needed, we pushed all the furniture to the middle of the room, and started ripping the fireplace down:

My uncle came over to help Jerad because me trying to help while watching two children under two was laughable. At best.

Marshall thought this was the most amazing thing ever and was thrilled to "help" by beating the wall with a hammer. Hopefully that doesn't come back to bite us in the ass later in the form of him busting holes in other walls....

After a bit Marshall needed to stop "helping" and take a nap, which he refused to do because everything was too exciting. So I did something that probably took me out of the running for my Mother of the Year Award. I put him in a playpen in front of a movie (Hop. So cute!) in the other room. Then I sprinkled some snacks in there. We rarely, rarely watch TV and ESPECIALLY not when its a beautiful day outside but you gotta do what you gotta do right?

I only took a few pictures, but here's an in progress shot:

And how we left off Sunday night:

The mirror and fireplace still get more decorative trim. After we demo'd the bench under the fireplace we decided we liked it better with nothing there, so we're just going to leave it like this. Once everything is painted, I think it'll look really nice!

Our goal is to have everything ready for paint by next weekend. Then if we're still feeling gung-ho we'll (I keep saying "we" but we all know I mean "Jerad") knock down the half wall between the family room and dining room so that we can continue the board and batten into the kitchen, and be able to center the dining table between the two sliding glass doors which will give us more room between it and the bar.

Wish us luck. And sanity. The only thing harder than home improvement projects with two children awake, is trying to get them to go to sleep with the sounds of hammers, saws, nail guns, and air compressors.

Edited to add: We did manage to get outside and have a little fun:)