We’ve started demo-ing the family room/playroom. This is a better view of the room (the picture’s a little dark, we took it at night):

And we found…

TERMITE DAMAGE! Argh!

(Yes, it’s in an area prone to wood-boring insects, and yes, we had a termite inspection. No, we are not happy with our inspector at the moment.)

So far it looks like it’s confined to that room, thankfully. There was one eaten-up beam under the stairs (where we’ll be putting in a toy closet):

When we took down the wood paneling from the wall that the playroom shares with the garage we also found damage in those beams.

Juan already ripped them out and replaced them with new ones.

Because of the cold, there are no active termites now, and we have an exterminator lined up for the spring. We’re on the lookout for more damage but haven’t found any.

We knew we were going to run into frustrating surprises but this one was completely unexpected!

One of the biggest selling points that convinced us to buy this house is the gorgeous living/dining room. It has beautiful cathedral ceilings (currently covered in that awful popcorn, whose idea was THAT?), big windows that let in tons of light, and a brick fireplace.

View from the foyer: enter front door, the little “fence” is on the immediate left

We wanted to build a wall and coat closet in place of the “fence” but now it looks like it’ll make the foyer too dark and narrow. What do you think about a half-wall with nice pendants hanging over it (so that there’s a separation between the entry and the living room without closing it off)? Will it just become a dumping grounds for keys, backpacks, purses etc.?

The popcorn ceiling. Ugh!

We thought about painting the fireplace but now we’re reconsidering. What do you think? How do you clean the soot off of the brick?

Right now half of the room is sunken, which would be great as a playroom if it was a little bigger, but it’s too small (and I’d be terrified that the kids would constantly be banging their heads on the brick hearth). So we plan to fill it in and make the room one big living room/dining room.

The fireplace area will be the “living room”: a couch, recliner, area rug and coffee table (if we can find one!).

The other half will be the dining room.

View of dining area (I was standing in the sunken part when I took this picture)

I’m dreaming of wide, dark wood planks (or wood-look, which fits our budget and lifestyle better) on the floor. Our electrician (thankfully a friend of the family) is going to put in spotlights. We’re considering square directional spots like these:

Anyone have experience with them? They’re awfully pricey, so we want to know if it’s worth it or not before we put them in. We’re planning on putting in a lot of them – there’s great daylight in that room, but no lights at all for nighttime.

Also, we may put in a nice rectangular fixture in the middle of the room. We thought about a chandelier but it’ll look funny because our table will not be centered in this room. So we were thinking of something like this:

Dainolite Elise fixture

It’s pretty but a little expensive. Any ideas where I can get something like it for less? I know Dainolite is good quality but it’s a little out of our budget. So same idea, but less money?

What else can we do with this room? What color should we paint it? We’re going with a mostly gray palette for the downstairs.

Because the kitchen is our biggest (read: $$$) project, we’re starting to tear it out immediately. Check out these pics before the demo starts!

Entering the current breakfast room through the doorway opposite the front door:

Entering the current kitchen – check out the popcorn on those awful soffits!The breakfast area – viewed from the kitchen:Current kitchen (breakfast area in the back)Sliding door to the backyard – this will be the new breakfast room (we may push the wall on the right, next to the fire extinguisher, back to make this area bigger)View from the current breakfast room, looking towards the front door (the two doors visible through the doorway are the closet [closed] and the powder room [open]):Window in the current breakfast room – we will be replacing it to match the window in the kitchen:More kitchen views:We’re starting the demo early next week! Stay tuned to see it and please offer any ideas you may have!