We’re finishing up the first floor today and picking up in the Dining room, which is attached in one large open area to the living room.

The dining area has nice light from the window and the windows in the living room.  My sister’s hope is to extend similar styling from the living room into the dining room, while keeping it a little more formal than just an eating area.  One of the things on their house shopping list was a seperate dining room to have a space to host family meals and holidays. 

The room is one giant room so the paint color will obviously be the same and we’ll keep both rooms design in mind when working on the other.

The room behind those weird and totally unnecessary banisters is the kitchen.

The room is dated and has a lot going on with the black and white linoleum flooring, bright green walls, and wood cabinets. 

My sister’s excited to paint these cabinets and switch out the flooring, but our biggest obstacle will be this corner.

We’ve discussed ideas that range to quick fixes, like adding open shelving, to more intensive projects like knocking out the wall between the kitchen and dining room (guess who’s idea that was!).  This will probably wait for the space to be used a bit and see what the best option is.

Through the kitchen, and attached to the entry (we’ve gone in a circle if you’ve been following along each day), is the family room.

It’s a nice sized room with lots of natural light from the sliding doors that lead to the backyard.

The problem is it’s longer than it is wide and has a fireplace on one end, which is awesome, but mulitple doors and openings. 

The only space for the TV is the wall opposite the fireplace which creates two focal points, not to mention that the first thing you’ll see when you walk through the front door is the TV.  Hopefully we can make it look nice enough (and the living room on the other side inviting enough) that people will gravitate to that and this will be a more casual/comfortable room for family TV watching.

The planned projects in here include removing the carpet (it’s super wrinkly) and replacing with some laminate wood flooring, painting, and upgraded furniture.  Michelle is seriously crushing on this makeover from Chris Loves Julia.  So, I’m seeing creams, greens, and blues in her future.  It’s also the room that will most likely be addressed first, and will set the palate for the rest of the house.

Tomorrow we’re moving upstairs to check out the bedrooms and the rest of the bathrooms.