Story of a Demolition. And the subsequent Remodel.

So here's the story of the Great Peterson Demolition and how we got there. We have been talking about replacing the nasty carpet for years. Carpet is just not conducive to 12 people on a farm.

This building was originally the milking parlor of an old barn (well, actually it was the wood of another old barn across town I've heard...) so the floor wasn't laid quite smoothly enough to put laminate down. Or hardwood, for that matter. So we bought a vinyl which looks quite realistically like wood.

Then we got down to business and I made mistake of saying, "While we are at it and don't care if we get paint on the carpet, we should paint the walls and trim too." And to get even crazier, since I have hated the popcorn on the ceiling ever since we moved in... I suggested sweetly that we take it down and repaint the ceiling, too.

So- we did. Boy was that a job. First we had to peel it all off.



Then vacuum it up. Then basically do a drywall patch job on the ceiling. Then paint it. All before we could do the walls.



And did I mention the children were here to "help" for most of it? So we painted the hallway a gold color... Empire Gold to be exact. I tried to get the color from the website, but they wouldn't let me copy it so you can go look there and look at it. So far I don't have a great photo of the hallway... sorry.




Then we painted most of the rest of the walls "Ponytail" tan... with our "helpers." Ahem.



Isn't she adorable with that little tongue sticking out?



They loved helping us paint. And going out to eat three times. That is not something we usually do since it is so expensive.

Then we took a deep breath and started the last wall... and painted it a bright red.



I was a bit nervous as Eric did the whole wall completely silently. I was sure he hated it. Then he stepped back and said, "You're a genius, Babe. It looks great."

Here's a photo of the two walls showing the red and the tan.



And isn't he talented? He paints... he holds babies. What a guy!



Emma helped put the switchplates back on in the hall. You can sort of see the gold color.



Then we had to wait a bit to get the floor put in. Like a week. But it eventually got put in.



And it looks wonderful.

Here is my kitchen. Note the red wall (note that this is all being underlined and I don't know why or how to stop it...)



Here's from the steps... looking straight.



Here's from the steps looking left. (The kitchen is just out of the picture on the left.)



And my red wall just makes me so happy.



Oh yeah... see the tan sofas? These were a find on goLSN - we bought them for an anniversary gift. They make me happy too. And the desk to the right of the photo? That's where my computer is... where I sit and drink my coffee, read my e-mails, look outside, and try to ignore the chaos that is happening right behind me. Like right now.