Surprise! You are having a dining room instead!

It has been a busy April so far! While the weather is still decidedly winter-ish, The Husband and I are prepping for our first spring and summer in our home. A few weeks ago, he says to me "I have something I want to do, but I don't know how to pull it off without telling you about it." Uh, okay... He then proceeds to tell me he wanted to THROW ME A SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTY!!! Such a sweetheart...but he's right. There really is no way for him to pull it off without me knowing. You see, The Husband is a blue-collar worker. He doesn't sit at a desk, in front of a computer all day, like me and honestly, he can't even remember his username and password for the iTunes account he set up. He really is not computer savvy at all. Needless to say, I pay all the bills online and both our checks are directly deposited. So, I would see the money being withdrawn in large amounts and grow suspicious and ask millions of questions (which I am known to do around birthday and holiday time - LOL!). Anyway, we decide that we will continue on with the party, even though I am well aware of it, and figure it's good motivation to finally get the family room painted.

In order to get started on painting this past weekend, I needed to finalize the paint color for the rest of the room. I figured I would do a tan/beig/sand color, because it's neutral and easy to change up with accessories. However, I did not want a tan with red or pink in it. Since The Husband is colorblind, I enlisted the help of a high school friend with whom I have similar taste in home decoratin. We had breakfast plans the following morning anyway, so she just came over to help choose a color. (Funny sidestory: When we first moved in, she came over to help paint one of our bedrooms and saw all the colors we had picked and painted so far. THREE of our colors are colors she already had in HER house! So, when I say we have similar taste, I mean we REALLY have similar taste).

My friend comes over the next morning and she is really not a fan of the layout of the family room. It is an awkward space, I'll give you that. Everything seems to be off center. The fireplace and doorwall placement make it difficult to fit any decent size couch in there, so we had a loveseat and oversized chair. Our favorite couch was placed in the living room/dining room combination just on the other side of the family room fireplace. The space in there just didn't flow, though, and we barely spent any time in there so it was also wasted. My friend starts to talk about how the family room would make a great dining room and that the recently acquired 50" TV we have would fit so much better in the living room. After some questions, solutions and chosen paint colors, we are now turning the family room into a dining room and the dining/living room into the family room. Holy hot mess! To be fair, we considered this option when we first bought the house, but I always thought it would be cozy and fun to spend most of our time in the fireplace room, especially in the winter. But after our first gas bill (!!!) the fireplace stayed off for the rest of the winter (minus one night). There was also no cable outlet in the living room, but since The Husband is super handy, that was easily fixable.

So now here we are, five days later. The room was a B***H and a half to paint (the entire room took one coat of primer, the lower half of the walls took three coats and all of the trim took three coats), but we are finally (mostly) finished. I am still unsure of how I feel about it. It's difficult for me to accept it as a dining room and I'm not sure why. The ceiling fan was replaced with a chandelier last night, so that definitely helps. Once it's accessoried and curtains are added, maybe I will be more used to it. Either way, I don't think my husband will ever want to paint it again. We have had quite a few VERY long days and after all his hard work and lack of sleep, The Husband now has a case of acute bronchitis and has been ordered to lay around until Monday. Lucky guy! :)

Here are a few before and after shots. The top half of the walls are a chocolate brown, the bottom half and fireplace wall are all a semi-gloss white. These pictuers were taken before the chandelier and some accessories were added, and the doors still need to be painted white. I will hopefully share more once the curtains are up and some accessories are out and up on the walls.

Before (and obviously decorated for the holidays):



After:




So, what do you think? Still lots to do... The party is set for Saturday, April 16th (my actual birthday) and we are slowly getting the house ready for it's first bash! I got a lovely patio table and chairs from my parents as a birthday gift and we have scored some great deals on other outdoor accessories/furniture to really help us enjoy our first spring and summer here!