A Not-So-Dramatic Reveal

While I am a fan of dramatic “reveals” where people post about a drab room in their house has magically transforms to a chic space in a single blog entry, that’s a bit unrealistic here.  If I were to attempt it, it would take months if not years for me to actually complete an entire room.  So, here’s what we’ve been up to in our front room.

We were fortunate enough to complete the insulating and drywalling before we left for Jack’s Texas internship.  That completed all the insulation in the house, from the attic down throughout the house.  It wasn’t until we returned though that I got serious about actually completing what was the front porch at one time.  After a few hearty days of drywall sanding, it was ready to be painted.

I liked the built in bookshelf so we left it in and though we won’t be using it for books (I’m thinking my sewing and beading accessories, along with some artwork will adorn that space), I painted on coat after coat of paint to make sure it was uniform and covered completely.  I went ahead and painted a few other items white too while I was at it.

While I was busy painting, Jack was a darling and hung some new lighting.  We had a pair of halogen lights we got on sale for $5 I’d been dying to put up for a couple of years.  We decided to leave the original light fixture where it was and use the halogen lights to spotlight what will be my crafting area.

After a fresh coat of a neutral-with-a-hint-of-yellow paint (someone mentioned yellow helps with creativity and it really makes the room cheery and bright), it was time to get started on the floor.  We had plenty of our old hardwood flooring leftover from the living room and since we were so happy with how it turned out last time, decided to use it again.

I was surprised it only took two and a half days to finish laying it since it takes quite the effort for me to get up and down now that I’m within a month of delivering another beautiful baby girl.  The girls were pretty helpful too, handing me tools and picking up spare nails I’d dropped or otherwise staying out of the way, baking copious amounts of mud pies in their kitchen while I worked.

Claire’s poor monkey got smashed in the mud a few times when I wasn’t looking.

Whenever I get overwhelmed and feel like I’m not making any progress (crazy, I know), I just dig up old photos of what the house looked like when we moved in.  Here’s one of the front porch area, hideous orange carpet, cheap blinds, rotted windows, wood paneling, someone else’s junk and all:

Just looking at this photo evokes a lot of emotions, mostly relief that though the room isn’t quite finished, at least it doesn’t still look like that.  It’s just a matter of some crown molding, trim, baseboard and sanding and varnishing the floor.

Jack snagged that beautiful chandelier for $10 (originally $150!).  He really knows how to make me swoon with a good clearance deal.