There was plenty to love about our home when we first started house hunting after our move. I looked at about 13 houses in 3 days, but when I walked into our house, I knew.
I also knew the floor to ceiling paneling in the main living room had to go. My love for the house was basically built around the living room’s potential.
Eric on the other hand was not convinced – of my plans for the paneling that is. He loved the coziness of the room and had no desire to remove the paneling. But I persisted, and begged, and persuaded, and he finally agreed.
One of the first things we did was say goodbye to the built-in china cabinet. I felt slightly guilty about it, since it was original to the house and in great shape. But we did salvage as much as the wood as possible and I MOST DEFINITELY kept that amazing hardware.
In the midst of chipping away at the paneling, we also took down the uplighting. I had no guilt about this whatsoever. More than anything I felt like the massive structure made the wall appear much shorter than it actually was.
Once the paneling was out we moved on to the floors. If there was one thing I loved about the room, it was the ultra plush carpet. It was in great shape and less than a couple years old from what we know. So when the quote to carpet the tiny basement bedroom came back at around $900, the clear choice was to transplant the living room carpet (more on that to come!).
Eric had the joy of finishing the demo, which included removing the tile flooring in the dining room and tearing out the plaster wallpapered wall.
I came home after work (when he had been doing demo all day) and I immediately gravitated toward the pocket door between our living room and kitchen. I was head over heels when I saw that the support beam was double the size of the actual door opening, “Do you see what I see?! It HAS to come out, right now.” Eric’s reply was “We should just leave it, it can always come out later.” To which my reply was “No, right now! I’ll do it!”
After about 10 hours of demo, Eric was less than thrilled. But after about 2 minutes of watching me fail at removing the door, he stepped in. About 45 minutes later we had what I termed “THE BEST THING WE HAVE EVER DONE!” I was so demo drunk (that elated feeling when you are so excited about your progress that you can hardly think straight) I didn’t even get a proper after picture, only a giddy snapchat photo. Whoops?!
