Crap That Didn't Get Done (And An Evil Chihuahua)

2012 was the year of crap that didn't get done around here. First, we had company coming a lot earlier than we anticipated while we were in the middle of sanding, priming, and painting floors, but that "company" stayed for months with a whole onslaught of dogs. So, needless to say, for months, nothing was really going to get done with that many people in the house.

BTW, not to go off on a tangent but we had the dog from hell staying with us via company. He was not much bigger than our hand, and bared an uncanny resemblance to Steve Buscemi.

I love Steve Buscemi.

He also bit anything that breathed, which is really worse than it already sounds considering that he is pitch black and so are my floors, so whenever he decided to attack you he had the perfect camouflage and disappeared into the floor, leaving you flailing your arms around helplessly and blindly while he ate you alive.

Anyways.....

On top of that, the house was gassed for termites! Eek! Chemicals and I don't mix so we stayed months at a hotel just to make sure I didn't come home to any icky after effects of the chemicals.  Health issues mixed in there and wow, well, we didn't get much done!

Now we find out we are moving and not given much time to lookie loo for a house! Not being negative or complaining, just sayin'.  So, all of these before and afters I promised my readers literally got flushed down the toilet. I'm dubbing 2012, The Year of Crap That Didn't Get Done. 

First, let me say when we moved here, everything was dirty white walls and funky brown trim that was painted with exterior paint! So, we came a long way just painting everything a soft-ish gray and bold white trim.

Here is some of what was suppose to get done:  ( There was really poor lighting in this house, especially this particular day)

 The Chinese war horse was suppose to be painted a lacquer white and put on the new bookshelves. He should have looked somewhat like this horse when finished:

 This is the light fixture my hubby bought me to replace the DIY I made in the photo below. I ended up changing my mind once we got it and decided I wanted something else.

Here is the materials we were going to use to make floor to ceiling and wall to wall bookcases:

It's mattress pallets!

 

These were going to be ultimately a lovely bright white. We would have put them up on a small platform that we would build ourselves, and along with lots of hammering and nails, decorative trim, paint, mdf to fill in the space from the top to ceiling, and crown molding, it should have looked something like this minus the gray paint, bead board, and word Bibliotheque:

The chandelier I was going to choose changed a billion times. Ultimately, this is the one I settled on. 

                                                                              

Though, from a design aspect, I'm not sure if it would have made the cut seeing as though everyone that was 6 ft. something rather may have gotten their heads scratched from walking underneath. : D Not to mention, price. I have been looking for a cheaper version.

On the other side of the living room you have this mantel:

 I mentioned on my blog before that I tend to post things before they are finished and this mantel was no exception. First, I was in a mood when I created it late at night. I had to use whatever I had on hand and could not purchase anything (everything was closed) to finish it. Ideally, there would have been a larger, neat stack of bright white books wrapped up in string sitting underneath the urn and add some candle holders from CB2.

For the windows that are on both sides of the mantel, we were making pelmets. They would have looked something like this only in a soft felt gray with white ribbon trim:

And of course the artwork that takes years to consider and collect over time would have been added to the now blank wall space where the love seat use to be.

Although that is far from what I would have done to the living room, it is the things that were getting ready to be tackled and at least I got some sense of closure by posting what I would have done on this blog.