Renovation Realities

Ok People. This is what we did this last weekend. All I can say is YIKES! If you are a frequent reader of my amazing blog :), you know that last year we "made over" my in-laws' master bedroom. Well.... apparently we are a little cuckoo and decided that this year we should tackle the living room. :) Our biggest obstacle was this ever so slightly hideous fireplace. So, we have been planning for months. I am talking countless discussions and plans, shopping, online research, drawings and measuring. As you will see, the fireplace has this beautiful black lava rock looking stuff over the fireplace and gorgeous tile on the mantle and wall. Well, we decided that we could build and frame and drywall over the rock and paint the tile. This may not be the optimal way, but it was what could be done with only two days and a limited budget. Things did not go smoothly at all. Things seemed to take way longer than they should and LOTS of things went wrong. I can say that it looks WAY better than before and I know they liked it. We still need to go back and finish the lighting and the tile. We were really rushed and the drywall over the fireplace is a little rough. Hopefully we will have the motivation to "touch things up" :). Let's just say that with my arthritis and being on our feet for 16 hours on Saturday and at least half that Sunday, we are exhausted. Here are some pictures to document this experience, which we actually learned from and made some amazing people pretty happy :). Enjoy the pics!

Before-there was about six layers of wallpaper and paint that Melissa, Daniel and Joe removed

Beautiful Fireplace

Joe covered in just a small amount of drywall dust

Making progress.....

Finished product

Voila!

Karla has senior and baby pics of all her kids. We replaced broken frames and painted them all the same color.

I also created four collages of family pics. Lots of hours, but turned out great

Thanks to Melissa, Daniel, Joe, John and Ashton for their financial, physical and emotional contributions! You guys helped us make this happen! WE LOVE YOU!