Our Living Room Transformation

The begining of my story starts a little over 4 years ago. I was renting a house, right in the neighborhood I grew up in,  from a family friend. It was a spacious house with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths. Plenty of room. The owner of the house needed to sell and got my approval to have a realtor view the house. This spiked my curiosity about home ownership. I had recently gotten divorced and didn't know if I would even qualify for a loan. Much to my surprise, I had outstanding credit and was pre-approved for a loan. Now, I am not one of those people that try to purchase a house to the full extent of what the bank would loan me. I sat down with the loan officer and calculated what I thought I could easily afford. I said something between $600-$700 a month. I loved the house that I was currently renting, but she was asking $16,000 over what I was able to afford comfortably. It was in range of my pre-approval, but not what I wanted to pay. So, I began my search. I worked a short time with a realtor, but she mainly wanted to put me in really small new builds in questionable neighborhoods. I'm so glad I went with my instinct, because those neighborhoods are now run down and not worth what they paid for them.

 

 One evening my parents were on a walk and saw someone working on a house on their street. The house had been empty for a couple of years. So they stopped to talk to him. Long story-short, I got the house on my parents' street. It was in need of some repair and updating. Still is, really. During the Christmas holidays my ex-husband and I divide up the Christmas break. That particular year he had them from the time they were on break until Christmas eve. (Same schedule we had this last Chistmas). The kids didn't know that I was even looking to buy a house. I closed on the house while they were away to their dad's. And had 3 days to paint, clean, move everything, and decorate for Christmas, before they came back. I wanted it to be the best surprise ever. I picked them up Christmas Eve, and drove up to the new house. I told the kids that we were going to stop and sing Christmas Carols to them. We poked our heads in the side door to say hello, and then walked on in. My son had a surprised look and said "You moved all our stuff!". It was the best Christmas EVER! Nothing made me feel more independent, more like a provider and a good mom, than to buy my first house for my children. Finally somewhere to set our roots and watch the kids grow. What a great neighborhood.

 

To bring you up to date, we redecorated the living room right after Christmas. The original paint I had chosen 4 years ago was a bit dark. And Hubby and I wanted to lighten things up.

Here it is right after we moved in.

Now here it is in process.

 

Waiting for it to dry.



I think the kids like it.





Remember the HUGE entertainment center above? Yeh, it's now gone!



We got a new rug and pillows for the couch.
I'm now working on hanging a picture collage on the wall. I still have more to add to it. And some pictures above the TV.




I'm going to be painting all the frames black. I just wanted to get them up on the wall. The bare walls were bothering me.



I had put a message out on FB asking for some peacock feathers to put in our beautiful vase that Hubby's cousin made us. Aren't they pretty. They go so good with our new colors.



And I have 2 sets of candle holders. Garage sale finds that I spray painted so they look like rusted iron. I'm thinking of puting teal or white candles in them.


So far that's all I have. We are loving the new look. It makes it look so much larger. We love the new TV and entertainment center. It feels great to finally have some updated electronics.