The first afters

So I really am quite close to being all finished with my main level. Here are a few of the afters from the front living room and dining room.
Before: One wall was a huge mirror. It was a little over the top, plus the corner of it was pulling away from the wall, so we either needed to take it down, or re-secure it. I decided we'd take it down. It came off in one piece, but then it had to be broken to get it out of the room. No idea how they got it in there unless it was installed by the builders.

 But here is what we have done with it. This is my room that is going to be clean all of the time. No toys go in here, it's a place where, if I have an unexpected guest, I'll have a place that I can sit with them. (you know, as long as they don't look over and see the dining room, which may or may not be clean at any given moment.)

We even got new furniture for this room. It's the first time that we've ever bought new furniture (unless you count mattresses.)
And here is the dining room. I love that these two rooms both have crown molding, and the dining room has the chair rail. I didn't love the wall paper in the dining room. The day that we signed the papers, we headed over here, and Jesse and his dad worked on that mirror, and I started peeling wall paper. It was a beast!!! But, by the end, I figured things out, and had a pretty good system going on with the steamer, scraper and sprayer. Good to keep in mind as I need to strip the wall paper in the rest of the house. (powder room, and one bedroom.)
After I got the wall paper off, the wall was in bad shape, so my friend Colleen came over and helped me to basically Spackle the walls. It worked, and after some primer, they were ready to paint. I can't thank enough the friends that I have who came and helped me paint one day.

 And the after:

My friend Cindy came and helped me to hang the shelves, and many of the other pictures in the house. That is always a scary thing to do in my opinion.
So there you have it, a little bit of what I have done with my new house. I need to get up from the computer and start working on putting books on she bookshelves in the family room, and we have the mini-blinds to replace the ones that are kind of broken out there, and then that room will be finished too. Then maybe I can focus on some of the bedrooms and the powder room. :)