The New Family Room, Kitchen and Hallway Update

Our family room is actually an addition with no basement. Which means it gets as cold as a witch's patootie in the winter. We have been working on remedying that. Insulated drapes are on the list and we shall be working on those in November. Here are some of the renovations that have been going on in there. We decided to put the kids' computer up here. We found this unbearably cute desk on the side of the road in the trash and I bought the chair for $5 at Goodwill. Ignore all the wires running around. Those will be re-located.

We moved the yellow chest (another Goodwill purchase from long ago and painted yellow with gingko leaves)in here because it houses our extensive DVD collection (which will be useless when the Blu-Ray or whatever the new thing is comes along). The mirror was a Pier One import sale find. The shrine was a $15 flea market find and I need to find some candles. The Saint is the patron for lost causes--Saint Anthony, I think--and Lord knows we're all lost causes in one way or another. And lost articles and don't even get me started on that. As a non-catholic, I find certain aspects of the religion very intriguing.

And I finally moved my dust-collecting doll collection from the bedroom to the china cabinet (another E-bay deal--a whole dining room set for $100 and this is the china cabinet).

I so love my old dolls. They get me all tingly when I look at them. Finding wigs for the baldies is certainly a bitch, though. I found one in the trash on Weselyan University's big moving out day though. That was a gift. On e-bay they cost an arm and a leg.

Here are snaps from the kitchen. My much loved and used washer and dryer. I feel so European when I use them! And no more trudging up and down the treacherous basement stairs with a fully overloaded laundry basket!

This is the garden window. I got a great deal on those little stone mosaic tiles so I had to put them to good use. They were about $3 for a sheet of 3 x 12. I found them on a tippy top shelf at Home Depot and I bought every one of them! They have an amber glass tile in there that gave me hot flashes. The extra I used in the basement bathroom around the shower, intersperseed with the stone tiles. Underneath the counter is a bookshelf for cookbooks. The kids' stools fit in the niche so they can eat breakfast or lunch there. It's also good for sitting and chopping when I cook.






And last but not least, the hallway that we turned into a kids' art gallery. The jazzy, wool kilmn from E-bay ($23.50 including shipping)brightens up the floor.