Before - main floor edition

Here is the "before" tour of the main floor of the house. Our living room, dining room, and kitchen make up this floor. I have not painted anything on this level and honestly, there is still some unpacking to be done.

This is the view from coming down the stairs. The front door is to the right and the dining room is to the left. We have the same sage-green couches from the last place and a great rug that matches them perfectly. The couches are comfy and somehow have managed to fit in all of our homes, what a lucky break for us!

This picture was taken from the spot between the couches, in front of the small bookshelf. You'll notice that the TV is sitting on the coffee table. I kind of like it that way, but Frank isn't sold on the 'no coffee table' thing yet so we may come up with some sort of solution for that later. In my mind's eye (which, coincidentally has no budget whatsoever) I see a couple of cube ottomans that can be foot rests, coffee tables, and blanket storage - you know the ones that have a tray on the underside of the lid? Those.

Well, Hamilton is obviously bored with the living room so we'll move to the dining room. I'm sure it says absolutely nothing about us that the only functional piece of furniture in the dining room is the bar, and that it has been functional since day 2. I'm going to say that it is because the contents are so fragile and I just couldn't stand to leave it in boxes on the floor for fear of breaking something. Yes, that is exactly what happened.

This bookshelf-turned-china-cabinet may be my favorite feature (after the chair rail that you can't see in this picture). It will hold all of our dishes and cook wear that we use on a regular basis but can't fit in the kitchen. Lucky for us, as Tina pointed out, our dishes are very pretty and make a lovely display. The not so pretty things that don't stack well will go in the portions with doors for my sanity's sake.

And here is the table and that lovely chair rail that I'm so excited about! Once there is paint on the wall the chair rail will be much more noticeable. Below the rail will be red and above will be cream. I'm hoping for some awesome fabric to fall from the heavens from which I will sew curtains. Right now I'm dreaming of toile, we'll see if someone has a toile sale that just happens to match my paint....don't hold your breath, but intercessory prayer might be nice!

The table will not always be in the corner like that, once I paint and put more things away (like all of the boxes you see) the table will come more toward the center of the room so that there is room to sit. I'm also hoping to find the perfect rug for this room, but I think I may need to decide on the lay out before I know what the "perfect rug" is going to look like. I could go huge and try to cover the entire floor, or I could keep the table pushed toward the back wall and use a smaller area rug underneath to help separate the space. Huh, we'll see.

Now the kitchen. It is tiny, it has no dishwasher, a tiny window over the door, and almost no counter space - but it works! I have no intention of painting the kitchen right now, though I can't make promises for later. Perhaps a fresh coat of paint in a year when I'm not tired of painting anymore.

Past the (gas!) stove top and the fridge are the basement stairs. Sometimes I hoped there was a tiny pantry hiding back there but my dreams were dashed when we moved in and spacial reasoning kicked in. Luckily amazon.com and Prime shipping came to the rescue and we have a lovely kitchen rack at the bottom of the basement stairs that holds our cooking supplies, pots, pans, and assorted kitchen gadgets (the coffee maker, for example, lives in the basement when not in immediate use). Some things have already changed! I put the microwave on top of the fridge yesterday, freeing up a little room on the table and inching us closer to unpacked.

And that is all for now folks, the basement will have to wait! Oh, I have the pictures, I just like making you wait. And I'm enjoying that I am getting so many good posts out of these pictures - an added bonus to having 3 floors in the new digs!