In progess

I've been asked by some family members to post pictures of the floor. There are still lots of finishing touches to be done but the really hard labor part is complete.


It's hard to actually see the flooring in this picture but trust me, I LOVE IT! Not sure if this rug is staying. It was from our old house and I was hoping to repurpose it. I'm not crazy with how it looks with the drapes but maybe it'll look better once we get the table moved back.


I'm hoping to do the colors around my china and pull out the light blue. When we got married 16 years ago, my in-laws gave us 12 place settings of the china pattern I had selected. It was such a wonderful surprise! I swore I'd never be one of those people who put their china up and never use it. I had every intention of using it as often as possible.

Then kids entered the picture. And my lovely china has been safely stored away above the fridge. I pull it maybe once a year. If I'm lucky.

While we wanted to update the dining room for practical reasons (get rid of the old pet urine stained rug from the previous owner and update the marketability of the house should we suddenly decide to move someplace warm and exotic), I really wanted to update it for sentimental reasons.

Many of my fondest memories from childhood focus around my grandparents dining room. My grandmother was lucky enough to not just have one set of china but several sets...all with their own names. A big meal at their house not only involved wonderfully prepared food, but the big decision was what china should be set out for the occasion. I have lots of memories sitting around their dining room table. My grandmother was a tremendous cook and so wonderfully creative. My grandfather would drop his guard and become fun loving, relaxed grandpa figure at the dining room table. Not that my grandfather wasn't fun at other times, but he was an engineer and could be pretty "studious" at times. :)

So my goal in re-doing our dining room was to create an environment that was easy to intertain in and could be the basis for some continued wonderful family memories.

OK, enough sappiness...

Once the finishing details are done, my husband's next project is this shaker bookcase, which we are going to use as a buffet/hutch in the dining room. I hadn't found a piece of furniture that I'd liked at any local stores and this magazine arrived right as I'd given up hope.

Imagine this hutch in this spot...

Won't that look just perfect there and provide some great storage and a place to display my lovely china!? Yeah, well, with basketball season starting up, I'm not holding my breath for this just yet. I'll be happy to just finish up the details of the room before Christmas.