The old [dog] couch has gone.  R.I.P.

It has breathed its last breath … and ate Arriba for the last time

After getting gradually stinkier and stinkier (it was primarily used as our basset hound’s bed during the day – do you know how much bassets smell?), it has finally been laid to rest at the dump. Now we have a blank canvas…

In case you’re wondering where the rest of the furniture has gone to (from the first photo) …. the little glass crescent table is currently being used in our DVD nook until we find a more suitable replacement; the small TV was initially moved to the other side of the living room before being replaced with this beauty (it is now living in the game room upstairs); the keyboard is currently situated in the office.

For now, we’re putting one of the leather sofas over there until we figure our the final furniture configuration.  You know, when we get floors, a rug, side tables, curtains, redo the fireplace, install crown molding and baseboards, replace the windows, did I mention floors?

We’re still a long way from finishing this space, but hey at least it is now 100% less stinky (and probably at least 80% less ugly).

The reupholstery project on our free Queen Anne chairs has begun!

This little beauty has been stripped naked and the legs are currently being stained a dark ebony color.

We even managed to find some luxurious looking faux-leather fabric… at 50% off (marking it down from $14.99/yard to $7.99/yard).  Score!

I snapped a pic on my iPhone of the material in the store.  I couldn’t decide between the black or red color.  You’ll just have to wait and see which one we ended up choosing.  Stay tuned!

I’ve mentioned before that back in May 2010 I scored this Queen Anne chair for free on Craigslist:

Fast forward to the beginning of January 2011.  I was perusing the free section on Craigslist and spied another Queen Anne chair on offer.  The photo looked *very* similar to the chair we picked up back in May.  I talked to Rick about whether we should try and get a matching pair.  Free things in decent shape tend to go very quickly on Craigslist.  So we were pleasantly surprised that within 1 hour we were headed into town to pick up the chair.  As we neared the destination, we both had a feeling of deja vu.  Had we been here before?  No, surely not.

As we headed up the drive, it became apparent that this was the exact house we picked the first chair up from.   The guy even remembered us.  He said he had a pair of these chairs that had been mauled by their pet cat (in the exact same places on both chairs – around the bottom of the seat and on the left wing). The first chair was in worse shape which is why he let that one go first.  The second chair was in better condition … until their cat had its way with that one.

Either way, it came home with us.  So now we have two of these beauties just waiting to be recovered.

How strange that out of all the thousands of people that check Craigslist and could have responded to the ad, that we were the ones to get both chairs offered 6 months apart. Do you have any funny stories about getting things from Craigslist?

So now we have moved our DVD and electronics to the newly-named “DVD nook”

we had to move the DVD case we had originally (but temporarily) hung in this location.  Check out this old photo from before we had painted the walls and removed the brown trim…

The question was – where do we move it to?  We spend 95% of the time watching TV in the living room (the smaller TV has been moved to the game room – more on that later).  Plus, seeing as we play DVD’s through the PS3 (rather than a dedicated DVD player) and the PS3 lives in the DVD nook with the other electronics, we needed to keep the DVD storage somewhere close.  Somewhere in the living room.  Makes sense – it’s not neuroscience, you say. Yes, but there was no obvious place to hang this rather large DVD case (what can I say, we have a lot of DVD’s).  One of the great things about open plan living rooms is all the space.  One of the drawbacks about open plan living rooms … is all the space.  As in, very few walls to hang stuff.

You can see the floorplan of our first floor below.  The stairs divides the two open-plan living rooms.  The living room on the right is where we spend our time watching TV. The sofa goes along the entryway wall, the adjacent wall has windows, the fireplace is at an angle leading to the doorway to the dining room.  Hmmm.

Then it came to me.  Let’s use some of the unused storage space … under the stairs.  Lemme explain…

We have this nice staircase in the middle of our entry way (that separates the two living rooms downstairs).  At the top, one staircase goes to the master suite (to the right), the other stairs lead to the other bedrooms/games/laundry. We therefore have a very long walk-in closet under the stairs and I figured we could maximize some of this space for the DVD cases.  Yep, we have two (although we only originally hung one of them).

After a little measuring and some drywall removal, we are able to recess the media cabinets into the wall…

We didn’t lose too much space in the walk-in closet behind.  The DVD cabinets are only slightly wider than the width of the wall, so we still have plenty of storage space.

Here’s a pic of both storage cabinets, one either side of the stairs (please ignore the half completed stair railing and stain job we started before Christmas)

So far, these media cabinets are in the perfect location.  Near enough to be near the TV when we want to watch a movie, but stashed away enough and not taking up any floor or cabinet space.  All in all, we’re starting to get this place looking the way we want it.  I think the biggest makeover will come when we remove the last of the old wood floor an install darker hardwoods to match the stairs.  Lush.  Can’t wait.

Now we have a new (and better proportioned) TV above our fireplace in the living room, we had to figure out a way to move the electronics – and all their associated cables and wires – across the room. That meant rerouting the wires behind the drywall – up the TV wall, across the ceiling and down to the soon-to-be DVD nook.

One big advantage of not having flooring down yet is it is still relatively easy to pry up the subfloor for wiring projects such as this.  The room directly above the living room is the master bedroom.  A little clear out of the (minimal) furniture we have in the bedroom and adjacent changing area and the floors came up…

The corner of wall (with the drywall cut out) is the chimney flue from the fireplace below.  So the electrical, co-ax and HDMI cables popped out there from below, then were run along the floor joists.

Taking up the flooring gave us the chance to take up a few of the remaining carpet tack strips (and sweep under the bed – gross!)

In short, our bedroom was a complete disaster zone for about 24 hours…

But the upheaval was only temporary and totally worth it.  The DVD/DVR and other electronics are all now sitting nicely over in the new DVD nook.  The wires will still look a little unsightly until we get a better media cabinet than the old glass table we’re currently using…

I am liking this cabinet from Ikea.  It has glass doors so that the remote controls for the DVD/DVR will work.  Those small drawers will also come in handy for stashing PS3 controllers and other small electronics.  But of course the main thing is that the cabinet will hide all those ugly wires.

Ikea actually sells this as a linen cabinet, but the proportions are perfect for media storage.  At 20 inches deep, it is deep enough to hold the DVD/DVR (with a little extra room for wires at the back).  It’s about 50 inches tall  – higher than most TV or media cabinets.  The extra height works perfectly for us as we want to be able to use the remote control across the room without the sofas getting in the line of sight. A little photoshop magic shows how the cabinet might look in the space.

Picture the cabinet with some cool art above it, maybe a lamp or a plant or two.  And best of all, no wires in sight.  I’m really liking how we’re going to be able to have the TV on one wall and the electronics on a different wall 15 feet away with no ugly electrical wires in view.  So I guess we’re not going to need this wireless media extender after all.  What ways do you use to hide or reroute wires in your house?

At the end of last year, I lamented about the size of our television in relation to the fireplace.  Don’t even get me started on all those electronics and wires showing…

The fireplace is a whopping 85 inches across, and the 32″ television we bought several years ago was just not right for the space.  Plus,  the fireplace wall is on an angle to the rest of the room, so there really is no place near for the electronics equipment to be stashed. So we’ve been living with this less-than-ideal TV setup  for a few months now.  Sexy.

As part of Rick’s birthday present, we decided to break down and buy a larger TV.  A 55 inch one no less. We had to get a new bracket to support the larger TV – a few screws later and it was easily installed.

Rick also removed a little bit of the drywall behind the TV to set the plugs into the wall.  And voila!

Much better.  The TV is a better proportion to the fireplace.  Not to mention that extra viewing space in HD   I havent completely figured out how to correctly dress the mantle … hence the measly looking small blue vases from Ikea (which I love).  I think we might eventually install light sconces either side of the television, but nothing is set in stone.

Next, we had to figure out a plan for moving all those pesky DVD/DVR cables away from the fireplace to the nook by the dining room…

The wires will be routed through the walls, so we won’t have any of those ugly cables showing again.  Stay tuned for the those details, coming Wednesday.

I really want one of these:

What is it?  It’s a little device that wirelessly transmits audio/video signal between your TV, satellite, DVD player, your PC monitor … basically any AV device anywhere in your home.  That means no more unsightly wires running between your electronics like this:

Not good. And if you choose to move your TV or electronics to another room, you don’t have to worry about running wires through floors and walls.  You can even use it to create a wireless home/office surveillance system by connecting with a camcorder or CCD camera.  Still not convinced?  How about being able to listen to your iPod in a remote location without having to run wires from your stereo/docking system to your speakers? Cool, huh?

Rick is making fantastic progress sanding the stairs, gradually removing the old pine color from the treads and railing (eventually we’ll be replacing it with a darker stain).  It’s been a huge job to tackle on his own.  But given the amount of dust that this project has generated, maybe it is best that I have been away for this part (we don’t want a replay of the asthma attack following the carpet removal when we first moved in).

Here are a few pics taken by Rick to document the progress he is making.  The one dark stair tread was a test run on a replacement stain color. Check out those doggy footprints in the dust!

In this pic, Rick has totally removed the stair railing and all the spindles in order to finish the sanding.  It looks so open and airy without stair railing – it’s a shame it’s such a death trap!

I love that there is so much dust in the air that even the camera has little specks of dust in the lens.

You can really see the difference between the sanded stair treads and the original orangey color of the floor.  I think that using a rich chocolate brown on the stairs will add depth and sophistication, and hopefully the “wow-factor”, to the entryway.

The next decision we have to make is what to do with the stair risers.  Keep them white as a nice contrast to the darker stain on the treads?  Or stain them for a cohesive look?  Or do something daring such as paint them a different color, add wallpaper, or even tiles?  What do you think?

It is a common sight in many modernized households to see flat screen TV’s mounted above the fireplace.  Technology has progressed so much in the last decade making TV’s thinner and thinner (could someone find a way to apply that technology to me, please? Pretty please?!?).  In many homes, the mounted television has replaced the omnipresent mirror as the go-to accessory over the fireplace. Our house is no exception:

I’ve talked before about wanting to get a larger TV to replace our modestly-sized older model.  I know for a fact that Rick would love any TV over the 50″ mark. Whilst that is a whopping-sized television, I have to admit that it would fit the space above the fireplace much better than our current one.  Here’s a mock-up of what the fireplace might look like if we invest in a larger TV:

But here’s the problem.  When the television is not in use, it can become a big black eyesore.  So what are some of the options out there for covering the TV? A quick googley  and a common solution pops up.  Turn the television into a piece of art!  The simplest option is to frame the TV in, making it look more placed and grounded, rather than randomly floating above the fireplace.  Or you can go a step further and cover the TV with artwork of your choice.  It can simply be hung in front of the TV, or you can invest in a mechanized system that, at the a touch of a button, rolls out the artwork when the TV needs hiding, then rolls back in place when the footy comes on.

These systems can be expensive, but there should be a way to DIY this set-up for less moolah.  Another fab (but expensive) option is to cover the TV with a two-way mirror:

Advanced beam splitter mirror technology (which I don’t pretend to understand!) enables you to watch the TV as normal when it is turned on, but when you turn off your TV, it is transformed into a decorative mirror.  I’m not sure if it would be possible to DIY this set-up given the speciality glass, but this solution definitely combines function and style well.

What solutions are you using / have you come across that hide the TV?  Do you prefer the artwork idea, or the mirror one?  Or something else? Or maybe you’re not bothered that the TV is on display when not in use.  Spill it.

Can you tell the time at all? Yep, cos you’re a huge mirrored clock I found for a bargain at HomeGoods!

Right now, its sitting above the fireplace mantel in the left-side living room (ignore the mudded sheetrock that needs to be painted and the outdated brass ceiling fan peeps). 

I think the scale is perfect – the clock looked really huge in the box, but put above the fireplace, it fits the space well. I am tempted with the idea of moving it to the dining room though.  I think the shiny feel would go well against the charcoal grey walls and bring a bit more drama to the room. Check out this gorgeous mirrored clock and see how it is complimented by the grey background (image source: Red Candy)

I haven’t decided yet, but for now, it will stay in the left-side living room.  I’m going to have to come up with better names for the two front rooms. Parlor?  Too Victorian-esque.  Lounge? Too Vegas piano bar.  Drawing room? We don’t … draw. Maybe we should just name the room after its main function.  The BDSM room?  Just kidding.  Anyhoo, I digress…

Getting back to scale and dimension, we have our TV sitting above the fireplace in the right-side living room (I think we can safely call this the TV room).  Our 32″ flat screen is looking very sad and small in relation to the space.  Rick is using this rationale to reason that we have to NEED to upgrade our TV to at least a 52″.

I’d love to upgrade to a larger TV, but I don’t think we NEED one right now.  All in good time, my dear husband, all in good time.