Three years in the making

(Warning: No knitting content. If you don't want to see slightly blurry remodeling photos, then just skip this post...)

I've been putting off this post for a good long while, but finally I'm getting around to showing you what room I remodeled before DS's room.

It was a long time coming on the road to finishing our living room. We spent one Christmas with boxes of wood flooring as a coffee table and another one with only subflooring.

In the good days (before all that), this is what the room looked like. (Apparently I didn't take any photos of the room by itself, so here's a couple with some people. You can ignore them, if you wish.)

I had a typical 80s living room--all country blue and mauve. (DD#1's senior prom pic). I had cross stitched the picture behind her head and crocheted the afghan on the couch. (I had years of crocheting obsession before I switched over to knitting.)




The walls were a slight blue and the woodwork was all a country blue. (DH and DD#2).



I'm just showing you this you so can see one of the pics we're saving for blackmailing DS#2 later. Yes, he really was sleeping like that.



Last winter, DS came home, looked at the state of the floor (or lack thereof), and decided to get me moving by helping out. The helping out really turned into doing it mostly himself, and he did a really great job.

This is the beginning, before we hammered the first nail.




Here's the hallway. Not much room for maneuvering, is there?




Before we did the floor, I painted the walls a creamy beige. The woodwork was painted a color called "baby bear" that sounds really cute but turns out a bit too pink. I lived with it for several months, but then finally decided to repaint it in a chocolate brown which was a MUCH better choice.

You can see in this picture the stairs and light switch are the lighter color and the door is the darker one.



I bought sticky-back tile and redid the foyer floor.



Here are the finished stairs. (Ignore the dirt. And the dog scratchings on the door that I already have to repaint.)



Then, DS left me and I had to finish the quarter round molding by myself. All these little pieces had to be cut and the corners mitered (I like mitering much better in knitting than in wood).





We finished the floor by the end of February, enjoyed it for a couple of months, then DS#1 came back home and DS#2's stuff moved into the living room while we painted his room. Over the weekend we finally cleaned it out again and I rushed to take pictures before it gets messed up again.

You've seen pieces of the floor and the rug, but here it is all together (with a new slipcover and the beginnings of a new afghan.)












My kids have been warned: We ARE NOT starting any new projects.

AND I MEAN IT!