A Not-So-Simple Home Improvement Project

As I've mentioned, once school started, things seemed to spiral out of control.  And, here we are, in November, and, I'm finally, this week, feeling like life is back to normal.  Part of it came from having 2 in school this year and a quirky Kindergarten schedule.  Part of it came from pinching my sciatic nerve 2 weeks into the school year (6 weeks later, the numbness finally dissipated).  And, part of it came from the following story:

Whenever you move into a new place, you usually bring the furniture from your old place with you.  Sometimes, you luck out, and everything fits into the new space.  Other times, not so much.  

The latter was the case with our new house.  When we moved in, we had no choice, but to arrange our furniture like this:

We still had a tiny 32" TV (which, was the perfect size for our last house!), and, now needed to use the 3rd bedroom for more than an office.  So, we stuck a bookcase and computer cabinet in the media niche, with another bookshelf along the wall, next to the couch.  {I'm taking this picture while sitting on the couch, so you can see the bookshelf in the mirror.}  TACKY.  There's really no other way to describe it.

The very first time I walked into this house, I knew it was home.  At the same time, I knew something would need to be done in the media niche space.  

Fast forward one year, and we sold our house in Colorado (yay!), and Brian passed his FINAL Actuarial Exam (bigger yay!).  Brian and I had made a deal that I could have some of the money from selling the house for a home improvement project and he could get a huge TV when he passed his exam.  

So, I started looking all over the internet to find ideas for our media niche space.  And, I decided exactly what I wanted.  

We hired someone to build our cabinet and an electrician so we could hang the TV above the fireplace.  Everything went well....for about 2 weeks.  And, then, our contractor got hurt.  At that point, we had already moved the bookshelves and cabinets in preparation for the install.  We had also purchased the new 60" TV, which, Brian had pulled in and out of the box twice now, to watch BYU Football.  

With the electrical done, we were at least able to hang the new TV.

 Lucky for us, we have LOTS of counter space in the kitchen!  Our bar became our "office" during this whole process.

 And, here, Carson is helping build the Ikea bedroom furniture, which, for almost 6 weeks, sat in boxes in our bedroom.  (We were waiting to finish the project downstairs before working on the upstairs, but, had bought the furniture when it was on sale.)

 After several weeks of putting us off, our contractor finally brought over the cabinets.  However, there was a catch--He wasn't able to do the install.  We would have to find someone else to do it.  So, we called around and found a carpenter friend to help us.  Only, he was on vacation that week and wouldn't be back until early the following week.  So, for 10 days, our custom cabinet rested in the Living Room.  (Here's where I brag that I have AWESOME kids, because they didn't touch this enticing jungle gym the entire time!!  They were fabulous!)


Here's the finished project.  This photo was taken during the day, so I don't have all the fancy lights turned on, but there are spotlights up top and an under cabinet computer light.    It turned out perfect!

Here's the whole wall, finished.   Since this project took so long, I also found lots of new homes for the toys that used to line the fireplace.  :)