House Remodel "Living Room"

My husband and I have been married 10 years, and most of that time we were poor college students with young children.  We have lived in single wide trailers, apartments, home rentals... You got the idea. When I was a  little girl I dreamed of having my own home and making it mine.  I still remember my favorite thing was to go through the JC Penny and Pottery Barn catalogs and clip out house pictures and put them in my folder.   Well, I finally got my childhood dream and got my own home.  We ended up getting a forcloser because it was more affordable.  We have saved up so we could gut the whole house and make it ours.  Let me tell you it has been a long, tuff, worthwhile, crazy, fun, HARD journey.  Gutting a house is not easy work, and it takes a lot longer than you think.  It also cost a LOT more than you plan. Home Depot really is our home.  Everyone knows us there, and they even know our kids names. 

Our house was YELLOW inside.  I love yellow, but it was a bright yellow, and it was too overbearing. They also had carpet that pets lived on, and it smelled really bad so it had to go.  The ceiling fan was white with no light on it.  We wanted a fan with a light.  We also had popcorn ceilings in every room.  I was the lucky one to scrape it all.  White stuff came out of me for days. :)  



 We ripped out the carpet and the base boards.  We took off the face plates to the outlets. This is a picture of our wall half painted.  You can tell the yellow is still at the top.

 I painted the top of my room with a tanish yellow and the bottom 36 inches I painted with a creamy white.  I thought I wanted ultra pure white, but I was wrong.  I got a pretty white called Vermont Cream (Home Depot Color).  I painted my ceilings with it too.

 We put chair rail up 36-37 inches from the floor. I painted it the same color as my white wall.  Soon I will put more molding up, but I have other rooms to do first. We also turned all of our power off and then we changed the outlets to white.  This was actually really fun for me.  I learned how to change my outlets.  When everything was painted we put in our wood floors.  We actually used solid strandwoven bamboo.  We got them at Ifloors.com.  If you are interested in our floors contact me and I will let you know all about them.  We love them. 

This is the fun part.  We moved in our furniture.  I have not decorated the walls yet because everything is still in boxes, but I can't wait to do that.  We also have to put our baseboards in.  I am hoping to get those painted today and put in tonight.  One step at a time.  I found my curtains at walmart and hung them with a decorative rod.  The pillows on my couch I made when we were in college.  I am not in love with the new rug I got.  I think I will take it out and replace it with something else.  My ceiling fan is actually one of my favorite things in my new house.  My husband found them and ordered them from Lowes. 

This is my living room, and we gutted the whole house, so I will have lots of pictures to come.