Chronicles of a DIY-er

If you ever wanted to see a REAL home makeover- not one of these HGTV/TLC/ABC "reality" jobs, then take a look here. I will be chronicling the trials and tribulations as we renovate the house we purchased. First up: DESTRUCTION!

Here's a couple "Before & After" shots as we progress through the initial phases. (I will add comments or interesting tidbits- if any- along the way.)

Kitchen re-do: The Kitchen wall came down and it will accommodate a new counter top and bar that will extend into the Dining Room. The next step here is re-routing the hot/cold Pex lines going to the second floor bathrooms and the electrical lines for all the outlets.

The trick is going to be how we blend the 2 ceilings (Kitchen and DR). As you may know, skimming (plastering) a ceiling is almost an art form. Master plasterers each have their own unique "signature"- that is the way they run the swirls in the ceiling. Currently the 2 ceilings swirl in opposite directions. Fortunately (or unfortunately maybe), we have to re-skim the DR anyway because of a repair needed to the upstairs Master Bath shower drain (through said DR ceiling). This could go smoothly or be a real PITA. Stay tuned.

Before-


After:
Before-

After-

What Would You Do with This Chair?

We bought this chair, on first sight, no hesitation...


It was a floor model and in spotless condition. We negotiated a substantial markdown on it, even from the sale price- mainly because we were buying other furniture too, but this piece was really the "score" of the shopping spree. We would have paid full price for it, we liked it that much.

The material of the fabric (slightly off white) is a cotton, almost twill-type material. As you can see the black-patterned flowers decorate the fabric, but what's cool is they are raised and have this stenciled quality as they are composed of a velvet-like material. The picture does not do it justice, but it is such a cool piece in person that there was no way we were leaving without it.

Now the question is, "What do we do with it?" The conversation has ranged from bedroom accent chair to Living Room focal piece to Dining Room corner chair. But this is almost the beauty of a find like this- you really have so many options. The combination of basic black/white tones gives it the opportunity to either blend in or stand out in the space it occupies. It will all depend on what we build the room room around- it or the rest of the room. I may even play around in Google Sketchpad with ideas. But the question still stands,

What would you do?