FREE fixes

How do you make a small house "work" for entertaining? I've blogged about this in the past (see link: prior Wixson house layouts), but never felt that we had quite the right setup.

The past two months we scoped out the options, which include:

1. Hire Contractor to tear out wall between living room and third bedroom on main level;
2. Hire Contractor to finish big room in basement; and
3. Put in a double-sided fireplace between living room and third bedroom on main level

BUT all three options were lots of $$$ and there was no guarantee we would get the same amount of $$$ back when we sell the house--someday.

Needless to say, I was disappointed.  I really wanted our house to be a place friends and family gathered, celebrated, and spent quality time with one another in a welcoming setting; not feeling squished, for instance.

Then, there was a suggestion from a good friend's mom, who just happens to be an interior decorator-- "it's free to move furniture." So we started MOVING (she also drew some helpful diagrams).

We ended up with this:

And it's GREAT.  Thanks, Linda!!!

Last night was our new setup debut.  We ended up having 19 friends come and go and it was a blast.  

The third bedroom is a work in progress--I'll blog about that later.  But here's an update on the cabinets:

We decided on a GRAY white color: "gray owl" (Matt loves referring to this as "growl").  We used ACE Hardware's cabinet paint, which is a latex paint, but works like an oil paint in terms of hardening. I wanted a color that worked with, but was a bit edgier than, our Kingsport Gray and Elmira White:

This project reinforced that my painting skills are rated at: "0".  But Matt is an awesome painter and now our cabinet boxes are DONE:

And the cabinet doors will hopefully be done by this Monday.  To anyone thinking about painting/redoing their cabinets, straight up painting the cabinets with ACE Hardware's paint is easier and cheaper than Rust-oleum.  You simply de-gloss or sand down the cabinets, paint two coats, and you're DONE.

Believe me, we've tried both.