The Living Room Re-Do

I never thought this room would be clean...EVER!

~Wall Color is Martha Stewart Cornbread~

As I have mentioned my hubs was a professional painter for 10 years, so we buy PPG Porter Paint,  they can match any paint swatch you bring in

My darling husband bought me an old house I could fix up... I thought it would be SO easy, cuz I'm creative and crafty... WELL that only has a little to do with it! You need to have a LOT little extra cash and be willing to get REALLY dirty and work harder than you thought you were capable!

First things first.. tear out carpet! Next.. sweep up all that nasty dirt. 

Oh and did I mention that there was sub-floor screwed AND nailed down to the original hardwood floors.. No I did not, because I thought it would be the death of me! Not only were they screwed AND nailed, there were like 10 different types of screws and nails (we estimated we tore out, or pounded in over 300 nails and screws!)... It was like they ran out of one style so they just grabbed whatever was in the toolbox... Needless to say, my floors have character, lots and lots of character!  

  Then you take crowbars, hammers, jack hammers(totally serious bout this one, my Dad had a hand-held one that I went to town with!) 

And start ripping down the sheetrock, only to find lathe & plaster underneath, which has to come out too! 

 This was one of the hardest things to do, it is VERY time consuming! 

We could only haul it out in bucket loads because the plaster is SO heavy!! 

We pretty much tore every wall down to the studs except a few, because that 'few' were brick under the sheetrock. 

We also replaced all the electrical throughout the whole house (which is a whole other nightmare for another post :) BUT, the electrician did tell me that I am the hardest working 'Woman homeowner' he had seen in his 20 yrs in construction! (woot woot)

  Obviously we had to put up new sheetrock, mud it, and install trim. ~I went with 8in flat trim~

 I had a cabinet maker come give us a bid to build a new mantle, well lets just say, I designed it, and Eli and I built it for $210 LESS than what he quoted me, and he wasn't even going to paint it!! We are pretty proud of how it turned out. 

   Luckily my hubs was a painter for 10 yrs before he transitioned into Law Enforcement, so the painting was almost the easiest part (for him) I was SO impatient by this time, I drove him nuts! PLUS picking the paint colors was WAY harder than I thought it would be, I am sure I changed my mind everyday!

   We used MINWAX Dark Walnut to stain the floors, I LOVE how rich they look!

   

And OF COURSE I had fun decorating it, just in time for CHRISTMAS!!!!

Recap