The Living Room

Who doesn't need a burgundy accent wall?! The lone window? How about extremely yellowed poly coated floors? Those not doing it for you? Then I'd like to direct your attention to baseboard trim: the white line you can see between the floor and the baseboard in the second picture on the burgundy wall is a massive gap. Probably an inch (maybe more) to accommodate shag carpeting that once covered the floors. I can't speak to the decals on the walls (Where did they come from? What was the motivation?), but sadly the previous homeowner reclaimed the green drapes. A real tragedy.

I want you all to know that this room is actually the best room in the house and will require the least amount of work. I can practically hear the red flags waving in the tornado winds of this renovation project.

First things first: Central AC. Our HVAC contractor came back with great news about the central heating duct work - we are basically primed and ready to add a condenser and central AC to the whole house for not a lot of $$. The only way I can imagine that a house in Houston did not get central AC at the time of the furnace installation is the person who lived here got old before global warming made Houston the land of charming weather fluctuations (how about that week with a high of 85 and a low of 23, guys, that was fun, right?).

**Here are some cool facts you can skip if they are dull!** Right now, there are a couple of exterior changes that need to be made before work can begin (we'll be swapping some windows/doors to be detailed in later posts). The scheduling will need to be exterior door/window changes (and then masonry replacement), roof replacement (after demo of back patio area), then some insulation replacement in the attic, THEN we can add HVAC: basically the house has to have an unpleasant detox before we jumpstart its beauty regimen.

There was a lot of text there, and for that I am sorry as I know you're in it for the pics. HERE ARE PICS!

I know, same pic, but I would like to bring your attention to the fact that this room has 1 window. The red wall is not helping anything out either - it's like they watched HGTV from 1999 and decided that's all they needed to know. #Blessthismess So I'm going to Joanna Gaines this shit and tear out that back wall (it is structural so there will still be a header - a piece of wood that makes sure my house doesn't collapse while I made changes to satisfy my aesthetic preferences). I am hoping it looks something like this:

Do I have gorgeous 12 foot ceilings? No. But I do have a sad box for a living room and limited options: the living room shares a wall with one of the secondary bedrooms/hallway on one side and the garage on the other, neither of which are the arboreal paradises I hope for when looking to add some windows. The dining room is a little bit of a mess, but I think if there are windows on either end of an open-concept area the cave effect might be lessened.

To take care of that red wall and the slightly yellow white paint on the other walls & ceiling, we'll use Sherwin Williams Snowbound SW 7004. This will be the main house color. Live in a cave? Paint that shit white. Then it's a white cave. What about the ugly stained trim that sits an inch off the floor? Paint that shit white. How about the yellow floors? Well, friends, we're gonna paint that shit white, too.

Stop crying. I can't control the sideburns, can't control my mouth, can't control your lack of vision, so at the end of the day... I just don't care. Y'all it's going down. I'm painting these floors white and also making many other life choices which you cannot stop and probably won't like. It is simply my way (and will also ensure that when I knock out the wall between the dining/living the wood floor replacement will match).

Get out of my dreams and into my car.

So now that we are very fluffy and white, we need a fan for the living room and some recessed can light LEDs. I love Emerson's industrial-look fans because they have no light kits and come with a remote and a wall switch to adjust fan speed. Do you ever notice how you pull the string for the light and even though there's a 50% chance you'll get the right string you manage to pull the wrong one 100% of the time? I am too stupid for fans with light kits and require some idiot-proofing. Also light kits are hideous.

This fan has a 60" span and moves a ton of air: this will be important for another unpopular decision I will be making in the future so stay tuned!

Last reference to the "before" picture I swear. That door to the left opens to a hallway with a confusing feature for millennials called a "telephone shelf." Now I am old enough to remember the days when having my own telephone land line made me the envy of all the other elementary schoolers.

This was before I wished people would not call me for any reason. For the love of god just text me, what kind of a monster   I digress. We're taking out the telephone shelf and reframing that doorway to add some cool french doors.

This is of course the leggy 6 ft model version of the kind of doors that will fit in that doorway. I'm pretty sure the ceiling in the hallway is 6 inches shorter than the ceiling in the living room. Have not investigated that yet. It's giving me some stress. Anyway, hopefully these doors are not like my recent foray into boyfriend-fit jeans. Turns out boyfriend fit jeans look good on women who do not have the glamorous and much sought-after pear shape that I possess. The junk in my trunk makes them look like skinny jeans that got confused about halfway down. May this design choice be less disappointing.