mantle

Though we still wait (somewhat) patiently for our "Mantel Guy" to get our mantel installed, this space already feels transformed. We have been using our formal living room more often for fires and family dinners around the coffee table. The kids enjoy Saturday nights or Sunday afternoons dancing, watching movies on floor pillows with the fire warming their backs, reading books in their comfy chairs, or just racing around the upstairs in non-stop circles. It has really changed from the unused formal space it was to a warm family gathering spot and I love that. The hearth really is the heart of the home.

I do not love the raspberries that have been smushed into the sofa, NOR the flying ember that burnt a hole in one of the seat cushions, but that's our lesson learned after removing our fireplace insert and replacing it with a screen that has an open top. Even without the mantel, it is already such a dramatic before and after.

With the previous owner's furniture, as it was for our inspection

On Move In Day, sans ANYTHING

With furniture last spring. Here is where it is important to note the walls. You might not be able to tell from these pictures, but that paint is pink and it was everywhere upstairs. Pink.





Prior to our amazing painter coming to rid the house of the PINK, we explored just how difficult it would be to remove that off-centered "mantel" and before we realized it, all three pieces were in the trunk of the SUV headed to the dump with that fireplace insert I had been itching to remove. It's been like this since January and though it clearly unfinished, it is a huge improvement. The walls ALONE make the house feel brand new. That mantel should be coming anyday now and it is going to tie it all together. If all goes well, "the mantel guy" will be helping to make somereally impressive changes to the family room in the coming months.