Even though the kitchen is the big wow (and the biggest money stealer)--the living room will always hold a special place in our hearts. When we first saw it, it was "the room," everyone had an emotional reaction to. It was our wow.
Even with the terribly bad attempt at built ins, complete with piano hinge doors, half done electrical, and a fireplace hidden unsafely between wood on all sides, we loved it :)
One step towards the window, however, sent most of the contractors running. It seemed water had been running poorly down the side of the house, off of the driveway, and anywhere else it wanted to (for years) and the floor was all soft and rotten. You could tell an attempt to fix it had happened at one point, but the real issue was in the wall.
After the carpet came up and the wall came down, we had a better idea of what we were dealing with.
Again, I figured since we were at it, why not take out the built-ins too. I'll never forget it, that first day during demo, Eric and I had ran out to look at granite and my mom texted me a photo of the fireplace. I asked her what that was, and she replied "your fireplace!!" uh--ok, so behind those bookshelves was this super cool feature someone covered up. Sure.
We had trials and headaches trying to make the fireplace into something cool and custom, but with some help, we got it done. Rob at Specialty Gas was even so excited about the project that he made the faceplate at home in his shop, just to make sure it was exactly the piece that would be perfect in our home.
Also, I knew I wanted a mantle (for stockings) but a traditional mantle wouldn't work--so we got creative. We used some of the salvaged 12x's from the wall and floor and had our contractor repurpose them.
We even left the hand-forged nails in the edges and they make THE PERFECT stocking hangers! I absolutely love them.
So all in all, we had to patch some of the floor, which wasn't a big deal since we had to match floors in the kitchen too, figure out the fireplace and mantle, completely reframe and build the wall, take all the crown down and put it back up again (since it didn't match by the built-ins) and then decorate.
It took probably the longest of all the jobs, just because of all the moving parts and scared contractors, but it is THE COZIEST room ever.
I love that we kept the wood chute door and it's filled with our logs--even though we ran a propane line in there, much easier and cleaner with the little ones around. This is taken from the front entryway--I'm thinking I need another photo to help with perspective here :)
(view from the parlor/ playroom)
(coming around the corner from the dining room)
(view from near the stairs back towards the front porch, parlor on the left)
Even though the kitchen is the big wow (and the biggest money stealer)--the living room will always hold a special place in our hearts. When we first saw it, it was "the room," everyone had an emotional reaction to. It was our wow. 
Even with the terribly bad attempt at built ins, complete with piano hinge doors, half done electrical, and a fireplace hidden unsafely between wood on all sides, we loved it :)
One step towards the window, however, sent most of the contractors running. It seemed water had been running poorly down the side of the house, off of the driveway, and anywhere else it wanted to (for years) and the floor was all soft and rotten. You could tell an attempt to fix it had happened at one point, but the real issue was in the wall.
After the carpet came up and the wall came down, we had a better idea of what we were dealing with.
Again, I figured since we were at it, why not take out the built-ins too. I'll never forget it, that first day during demo, Eric and I had ran out to look at granite and my mom texted me a photo of the fireplace. I asked her what that was, and she replied "your fireplace!!" uh--ok, so behind those bookshelves was this super cool feature someone covered up. Sure.
We had trials and headaches trying to make the fireplace into something cool and custom, but with some help, we got it done. Rob at Specialty Gas was even so excited about the project that he made the faceplate at home in his shop, just to make sure it was exactly the piece that would be perfect in our home.
Also, I knew I wanted a mantle (for stockings) but a traditional mantle wouldn't work--so we got creative. We used some of the salvaged 12x's from the wall and floor and had our contractor repurpose them. 
We even left the hand-forged nails in the edges and they make THE PERFECT stocking hangers! I absolutely love them.
So all in all, we had to patch some of the floor, which wasn't a big deal since we had to match floors in the kitchen too, figure out the fireplace and mantle, completely reframe and build the wall, take all the crown down and put it back up again (since it didn't match by the built-ins) and then decorate. 
It took probably the longest of all the jobs, just because of all the moving parts and scared contractors, but it is THE COZIEST room ever. 
I love that we kept the wood chute door and it's filled with our logs--even though we ran a propane line in there, much easier and cleaner with the little ones around. This is taken from the front entryway--I'm thinking I need another photo to help with perspective here :)
(view from the parlor/ playroom)
(coming around the corner from the dining room)
(view from near the stairs back towards the front porch, parlor on the left)
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