Living Room Renovation

I’ve mentioned here and there that we are having our living room renovated. We’ve been considering this for years and after installing the mini splits back in August we decided it was time to take the plunge. The main catalyst for this was to remove our wood burning stove and replace it with a gas fireplace. We burn 4 cords of wood every winter and that’s a lot of hauling and stacking and moving of firewood for Dale because, let’s be honest here, I don’t really help with that. At all.

And once we decided to remove the wood stove the rest became obvious. Take down the weird mantel from an old boarded up fireplace that was behind our couch. And install custom built in cabinets and shelves around our television. Please note: we are NOT putting the television over the fireplace. I know that’s the thing to do but it’s not our aesthetic and our room really doesn’t lend itself to that due to the placement of doors and windows.

Here are some photos that I took on Monday :

This is the current state of our dining room. The table is shoved over into the corner and you can see one of our chairs and our couch in front of it. The other chair is behind where I’m standing to take this photo. Our dining room is sort of the hub of our downstairs, the kitchen, living room, mudroom, and a small den are all connected to this room. I say that to give you an idea of the impact of having this room be full of stuff. Ya know?

The doorway from the dining room into the living room is a double door way, in this photo it’s just to the right of where our old tv mount is. If you go to this post and scroll down to the second photo you can see what I mean. The wall behind the make shift table is where our tv will be and it will have custom cabinets underneath it and where you see that old doorway (which Dale cleverly turned into a book case years ago) will be shelving. There will also be (narrow) shelving on the far side of that door way. In the photo from the old post it’s the corner behind the chair.

That opening is where the new gas fireplace is going. It’s clear glass with black around it and there will be black granite around that and then a custom mantel around the whole thing. You can also see that all of the old trim and baseboards have been removed and they will be replaced with trim is a bit nicer. Not super wider or fancy but with some detailing.

That big white patch is the old boarded up fireplace behind our sofa. You can see how I used to decorate it in the second photo of this post. I always thought it was awkward and weird to have it behind the couch but I still tried to make it look nice. Now it’s gone and our couch will be going back there but the wall behind it will be . . . just a wall. The sconces are gone and we aren’t putting in new ones.

The floors are down to the subfloor and we are putting in hardwood in the living room, dining room, and front entryway. Everything will be painted, including the dining room because you know that fresh white paint on the woodwork in the living room is going to make the trim in the dining room look dingy, and it will all be done . . . eventually.

It’s really exciting and I know it’s going to make a huge difference in how we enjoy our home. Even though it does mean that enjoying our home right now is a bit challenging. I’m super grateful that our contractor is someone who has done work in our home for years, from the first major remodel we did as a couple when we gutted and renovated the kitchen back in 1997, to the dining room upgrade in 2009, to the vinyl siding and new windows we installed in 2014. I’m completely comfortable with him being here while I’m here and the subcontractors he has brought in to work on the electrical and gas have been terrific.

All of this is to say that I know I’m privileged to do this and I don’t ever mean to sound like I’m complaining about it.

Even when I am.