For Your Viewing Pleasure, Part II

In my last post, I showed photos of the first floor of our not-so-new-anymore house.  Despite my obsession with HGTV, I am a terrible decorator left to my own devices. I rely on the kindess of strangers and for a short period of time, a couple of professionals whom my husband greatly disliked (subject of another post!).

Here are a couple more notable changes that we made:

You may remember the mirrored wall that had been downstairs, and yikes..Leopard print carpet upstairs in the master bedroom! What were these people thinking? These bold design choices were not exactly my aesthetic (and the carpet was kind of old, although that did not stop our contractor from taking the discarded carpet and giving it to his brother, who apparently loved it. You don't want to know any more of the story than that, trust me.)

Ahh, neutral carpet (as they would say on HGTV), and soothing blue walls are a lot less hectic. You can't really see our Roman shades, which could be the subject of another post, they caused so much dissention.  But they are much better than the heavy curtains that were there before. The wall-to-wall covers the stairs all through the upstairs and although I initially wanted hardwoods, I have to say that a cushy carpet is great for kids - and moms. The master bathroom is pretty dated and we're planning to redo it next, so I will move on to the next room...

The main changes upstairs in the kids' rooms were primarily paint, canister lights, and closet doors - boring! So let's head downstairs to our finished basement, which is what sold me on this house.  It has a walkout to the backyard and a bathroom with a shower (that definitely needs updating, but not a priority item right now). Does it remind you perhaps of an office? Well you would be right - the previous owners ran a business here.  (Evidently, they also had a pool table - notice the fixture). First, we had to get rid of the acid yellow paint on the walls, the ghastly brown commercial carpet, and the fluorescent lights.

This photo is taken from the opposite end of the other one (the other one was taken where the TV is now). New canister lights and new tiles in the drop ceiling did a lot, as did a new carpet (I know you're not supposed to put carpet in the basement, but the Grump really wanted it and it is cushy and awesome).  Truth be told, I don't love the paint shade - it was supposed to be ice blue but looks pale violet - but I went through about seven other shades and just finally went with this one so the painters could finish.

If you look at the "before" photo, you can almost see that along the entire left side of the wall was a plain shelf. We had our contractor build shelves there, which is good because the Grump and I have not embraced the e-book trend. I'm glad we did the shelves because otherwise, you just know I would have stacked stuff on those plain surfaces and it would be a mess. The crown molding at the top of the shelves is the same as upstairs.

Past the pool lighting fixture in the "before" photo, you can see a doorway. That leads to this room, which I think was the main office. (There is another doorway where I am standing when I took the photo).  It's not technically a bedroom, since it has no doors, no closet, and no windows...

...but that did not stop me from turning it into a guestroom! Mom and dad don't need a closet when they visit anyway (the closet pictured is where the circuit breakers, etc. live).  I loved this patterned carpet in a shade of lilac-gray when I saw it in the store, but I wish it stood out better in real life - the lack of natural light causes it to look a little muddy.

The house is still a work in progress, but I am generally happy with it so far.  If you have thoughts or comments, I'd love to hear them!