Living and Dining Room DONE

Although the rooms are sparsely and randomly decorated, and some furniture still needs to be purchased, painted, or moved, the living and dining rooms are done!

Here's what it looked like when we first bought the house back in March.

And here are all the grueling changes my husband and his father made. It took a total of about 3 months to complete.

• Removed wood paneling and all molding from walls
• Removed carpet in living room and laminate in dining room.
• Removed old insulation and added new thicker insulation
• Hired a contractor to put up sheetrock on 5 out of 6 walls
• Primed and painted walls and ceiling
• Added a layer of plywood in both rooms to even out the floor
• Installed bamboo floors
• Painted and put up new crown molding, baseboard molding, molding around windows, and molding around doorways/hallways
• Replaced chandelier

Our renovation work in fast forward.

With a big sigh of satisfaction and relief, I bring you to the present. Welcome to our home!

Side-by-side comparison.

The light green couch is the only brand new piece of furniture we purchased for the house (if you're not counting 3 Ikea bookcases). It is THE most comfortable couch I've ever owned. The other new item I bought for the living room was the rug. It was a recent purchase from HomeGoods and I'm now seeing them pop-up everywhere in other bloggers homes. For once maybe I'm ahead of the curve?

A new "old" purchase we made is the farm-style dining room table with painted green legs. I bought it from a nearby consignment store and thankfully they delivered it for only $25 (cheaper than I would have had to pay for a UHaul!). We do have the leaf and it extends to a square-shape rather than a rectangle which is perfect for the size and shape of the room. As mentioned in previous posts, I plan on painting the dining chairs as well as the little hutch you see in the left corner of the first picture. 

Scattered here and there are my older furniture project pieces and yard sale finds like the coffee table, white bureau, painting on the bureau, floor lamp, and the rocking chair. The piano was my childhood piano from my parent's house that we moved up from Houston. It was difficult and awkward to move, but I'd like to think it was worth it to my husband considering Annie plays it everyday now.

We love being able to use these rooms now!!! We're finally able to "live" in our new home and use the furniture instead of navigating around and over it. Another big THANK YOU to Brendan and Poppa for all of their hard work. Also thanks to Momma (Brendan's mom), Uncle Jenny (yes we call her "Uncle"), and Uncle Terry for coming over and helping us when we needed it the most. And of course, thank you to my mom, dad, brother, and his fiance Jennifer for our wonderful washer, dryer, and stove. Thank goodness for family!!!

10 more days until my due date. EEEEEEEEEEEE!

Love the Beasts,

Emily

Smell Your Furniture and Other Finds

Here are my latest yard sale and curbside finds from the last few weeks. As you've likely noticed, yard sales are popping up everywhere and I can never pass them up, especially if I see chairs. Chairs are my sirens. They sing to me and lure me in no matter their condition.

This little rocking chair was a $6 yard sale find.

It had a cushion and a faint cigarette + air freshener smell. I washed the cushion twice, sat it out in the sun for 2 days, then promptly put it in our basement for future use (most likely for outdoor seating or for kneeling when gardening). The chair was scrubbed twice with vinegar and washed it down with Murphy's Oil Soap. It also sat in the sun for about 2 days and after that the smell was gone. Thank goodness! I was starting to think I was on a "nicotine streak" and everything I found or bought would have a cigarette smell to it (like the bag of batting I bought at Goodwill...boo). I'm not sure why I'm just now encountering these issues, but I've learned my lesson and I smell every piece of furniture, even the free stuff, before I bring anything home. Sure, I may look like a massive freak but it saves me a ton of trouble and frustration!

I also picked up 2 of these chairs for our dining room at a yard sale.

Sorry I'm too lazy to take a picture of it by itself, so it's a cropped close-up from another picture. These chairs will eventually be painted. The farm-style dining table we bought didn't come with any chairs and I really like the miss-matched chairs look. I'm thinking white or yellow for all the chairs but they likely won't get a makeover for at least 6 months. Hey! Don't give me a hard time! I'm due in 2 weeks!

Last of all, I picked up this little sewing bench for free this past Saturday during our neighborhood yard sale day.

This will make a great little storage box for Annie and the new baby. Or maybe an end table/nightstand? Or use it to hold toiletries for guests in the bathroom? Well I didn't know exactly how I'd use it, but I knew I could give it a quick makeover immediately. After wiping it down and letting it sit out in the sun for a few hours, I recovered the plastic fake-veneer top with one of my favorite fabrics. The blue fabric was what helped me sell one of my first huge consignments back in Houston. Oh yeah, still love that dining set!

And here's a preview of my next post. A peek at the new crown molding and new molding around the windows. So pretty! Yep, I'll finally show you the dining room and living room makeover. I know, I can't believe it either. The rooms are done!

Love the Beasts,
Emily