EXTREME Old House Makeover - Living Room

IN the beginning there was a very old house.  It was a charmer, from the OUTSIDE - but the 1970's were not kind to our little, old house.  My sister called it, "The house where the color BROWN came to die."  Brown carpet, brown formica, brown painted wood, and lots of brown wood paneling. 

Did I mention, the previous owners lowered the high celings with office acoustic-type tiles? Now, I'm all for cozy, but that was going a bit far.  I 'get' bell bottoms, and Wonder Woman, and Led Zeppelin, but seriously, did ya not want any light or spaciousness in the 70's people?????

As you enter our home, you are immediately in the Living Room and Dining Room space.  This was the first place that demolition occured - and we had LOTS of family help :)  Seems guys really like to tear stuff up! 

Here's the old Living Room, as it's being torn apart.

My brother, and my brother-in-law are going to town here!  You can see all the brown, and the yucky tiles comming down. 

There was this umm 'lovely' shelf feature - cut through a structural wall, I may add.  It allowed you to sit in the comfort of the LR, and watch someone entering, or better yet, exiting the bathroom.

Once we removed the old celing tiles, we realized their purpose.  VERY FIRST OLD HOUSE LESSON - If it's hiding something, there's a reason why.  In our case, the ceiling was sagging, after nearly 100 years of weight.  Took some leveling out with lumber to get that even again, but it looks great now.

Drywall in the LR.

And here goes, pulling up all the old brown carpet!

Our Living Room has continued to change from that first month of binge-remodeling. But would ya look at it NOW!

The back wall in the first photo is where you NOW see french doors.  They now lead into an office/den. 

Where you see the old curio shelf - that is where the river painting now hangs above the couch.  It's a nice space for some original artwork. 

We sure are grateful to all of our family who helped us those many weeks getting the house ready to move in, and then, of course, the many years after of helping us finish! 

Next post:  Dining room and removal of the chimney.