the "before"

Hello and Happy New Year! As I mentioned in the last post, I love January. This particular January arrived with a bang--or sledgehammer I guess. Demolition on our downstairs started yesterday. Nothing like ringing in the new year with a little destruction. Both my boys (Andrew and Max) enjoyed it quite a bit.

These "before" pictures are really for me--but I thought you all would all want to see our living room progress too. Let's go on a tour of our living room!

When you walk in our front door, you are immediately in the living room. (Something that is not really handy when it comes to shoe/coat storage, but that's how it is.) If you look to the left, there is a door that goes to the stairway. This whole wall is coming down!!

More of that same wall:

This is the view from the middle of the room looking towards the front door.

This is the opposite wall. (Why yes, our TV is ancient and small!)

Ugly black ceiling fan! (I apologize if you like black ceiling fans...) I am blaming the embarrassing amount of dust on the drywall activity from upstairs.

This is the doorway that leads to the next room. (This wall has already been knocked out!) We use this room for a home office/toy room. This combination is not the greatest. One of the things about the remodel that I am looking forward to most is a dedicated office room. Possibly with a lock. Mamma needs one room where the kids can't go!

The wall of toys! Andrew made this cubby unit thing for us--I love it. It will be moving upstairs to the new playroom/library room. I think it will be so pretty up there!

I can't believe I'm showing you my desk. It is quite the disaster. I tend to pile things. I also tend to pile things up high where (hopefully) my lovely children can't reach them. I am successful about 50% of the time. Hopefully this beautiful desk will be prettier in a child-free room of its own. Side note on the desk: Andrew bought this at auction when we were dating. He showed it to me in a pile of pieces in the back of his truck. I thought it was a bad purchase. He was right: it refinished nicely.

This is the corner of the office room/playroom. The hallway leads back to our bedrooms and bathroom. I'm not sure what it will look like once the wall is all knocked down, but I'm sure it will be good!

This is the unfortunate meeting of putty colored paneling and a drop ceiling. When we moved in the paneling was wood colored, we painted it the putty color. It helped a little bit. I am going to try and branch out from my putty colored tendency when we re-paint!

There you have it! The tour of the living room before. The demolition started yesterday, so now it already looks a lot different. The kids and I are staying at my mom's house until things are livable again. Can't wait to see this old farmhouse transform!