Cheese!

Jacob LOVES to have his picture taken, and quickly picked up on the "cheese!" action. He doesn't say much, but what he does say is pretty funny :)
Hope this makes you smile

Before and After

Here is the official 'after' of our living room. The wall is gone, and so is the carpet. Some of the wood under the rug was painted, some of it was stained, and some, in the very middle of the room, was still completely natural. Apparently who ever stained to floor, way back when, decided to save some time and stain around their current area rug. So we had a nice 10X10 square in the middle of the room that we had to cover up with a piece of carpet that our dear friends donated to us :)
The difference is amazing, the room is so bright and so much bigger. We're planning on doing some furniture re-arranging as soon as we get a new TV that we can hang on the wall.
Hope you enjoy our pictures!
The "new" old floor in the dining room!

a sneak peek

Here is a quick "after" shot of our new living room. This was a hard picture to get, because during the day I'm shooting into the light from the windows, and at night it's far too dark. So on this gloomy morning I took a quick pic. Forgive the mess and the children. If you're wondering what they are looking at, the TV is now in the corner.

My husband and brother in law did a great job at taking down this wall. When I came home that evening the house was so clean you could barely tell antyhing occurred that day. Of course, plaster dust likes to linger, so I've been dusting everything everyday since then, but oh well. Eventually the dust will settle. We're thinking of pulling up the carpet sooner than later for the following reasons:

1- I now have a wall shaped bare patch in our carpet. This wouldn't be so bad if my littlest didn't think it was the greatest spot on earth. He likes to spray his apple juice on the wood to bring out any century old dirt and make a nice muddy mess. Yes, he's a boy.

2- My clumsy Emily has tripped on the carpet edge about, oh, a GAZILLION times.

3- We found out the the boards beneath the carpet have been previously stained, so we're hoping for the best :) If they're in super bad shape, we will paint the floor a dark brown until we are ready to dry wall.

And here's a good before/after shot:

House renovations

Here's what's been happening in our house lately:

I decided to re-paint the dining room. It was previously the same peachy colour as our living room, giving the dining room a very octogenarian feel. I wavered back and forth between sticking to my earth tone loving self and trying something new, like a pale blue-gray. But after the yellow-kitchen experiment I sided with old self and stuck with a rich olive green. It's practically the same colour as our old dining room on Gladstone, which I loved. And who likes change, right? :) Eventually the carpet will be torn out (who carpets a dining room - seriously. Someone without children I guess) and replaced with a walnut colour hard wood. The living room is next on the list for paint, but until the wall is down there's not much point in painting. I took these pictures just after setting the table quickly for thanksgiving dinner. I figured now was last chance to take some pictures before my house becomes a major construction zone on Monday. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Looking from the kitchen towards the living room

Standing in the living room looking towards the kitchenThis is the wall that will only be standing for the next 2 days. Once it's removed we will be able to enjoy the view of our stairs and double front doors. We will also have more room for our furniture and achieve a brighter and more spacious feel.