When we moved into our house, the living room was awful. It had a carpet that smelled like animals, a massive built in entertainment center with enough shelving to hold 100s of VHS tapes, and the walls were dark red and stained pine, giving the entire thing the feel of an abandoned hunting cabin.
We knew next to nothing about DIY projects, but that has changed! I can finally sign off on our living room being finished, and I love it. We put in hardwood floors, painted everything, tore out one of the walls down to the studs and rebuilt it to match the rest of the room.
It's also filled with memories. Our friend Maryjo gave us our coffee table when we got married ($9 from a yard sale on her street) and we've kept it through every move. The paintings are by Katy's grandfather, the shelves are full of books for the girls (finally easily accessible right next to the couch!), and the couch was from my parents house when they moved. We all picked it out as a family, and I lobbied hard for a couch with neck support, but mostly I love the memory of us all walking around the furniture store together cheerfully arguing.
We did a couple little touches, like the shelf below the television, which was a piece of hardwood I found in our barn, planed, sanded, and finished with mineral oil. And the curtains. I'd put in hundreds of hours into our house when Katy remarked that she just wanted curtains, and we got them that afternoon.
It's good to be done!
