Home Thoughts From A Broad: The Family Room... first of the proper makeovers..

So, this was the first room in the house to get the full makeover treatment.. The Family Room.

It's one big room with the kitchen and the breakfast area.. which is very typical here, and it runs across the back of the house..

The transformation started about 5 years ago now.. and its still on going to be honest. But the bulk of the work took about 8 weeks from start to finish.

Sorry about the quality of some of the photo's by the way, Rick took them with his camera and I had to scan them from copies into the computer..

So this is what it looked like BEFORE we even moved in..

Now do bear in mind that NONE of this furniture is ours.. its was the previous owners.

Absolutely everything has changed.. carpet, fireplace, patio doors, window treatments, light fixtures [or rather lack thereof]... even the position of the tv cable, since right here in this photo you can see the light from the patio doors reflecting on the screen.

God I hate corner fireplaces... but if you've GOT to have one.. at least put the wretched thing in the right bloody corner... sigh.. deep breath.

We did live with it for a while..

I've heard it said many times that you should not rush to decorate, but wait 'til you know the house a bit better... where the light comes from at various times of the day and so on... so we did.

But I knew that fireplace had to go... and it did, first chance I got...

We hired a great chippy called Rick, and he disconnected the pellet stove and removed the brick plinth.

At that point this is what it looked like...

The black pipe in the middle of wall is for the new fireplace.

We got $750 for the stove from a guy who brought his truck over from Vancouver.. we were thrilled, but so was he. This one was immaculate [the old owner had even left the manuals] and new they're about $4000.. so everybody was happy.

You can also see why we had to have new carpet.. which was actually a shame, because it was super quality and I didn't hate the colour.. but it didn't go under the plinth, and I wasn't about to try and patch it.

Then Rick framed in the new central chimney breast..

And dry-lined it..

And then the fireplace went in.

You can also see in this photo some of the work our electrician Frank did. Of course there was quite a lot hidden behind the drywall for the electronic ignition on the fireplace and so on. But you'll see we now have two electrical outlets in the ceiling, plus.. he'd moved the cable outlet and put two new sockets, into the alcove to the left of the chimney breast.

Rick brought in an old chap called Al to tape and skim the dry lining and re-finish the ceiling round the chimney, so it matched the rest of the room.

We didn't have gas on the property although it was in the street outside, so we had to pay the gas board to lay it up to the house for us... which was $400.

I have to say.. they dug a huge trench right across our front lawn to lay the pipe... and when they had finished, I couldn't have told you where it was.

A local company called Panda [Gordy] supplied the fireplace, after I'd called 6 firms and only 2 had bothered to get back to me...
Back in 2005/6 there was an enormous amout of new build going on where I live.. so all the heating and plumbing companies had lots of developer work to keep them busy. As a result they treated ordinary customers like me like s**t. Of course with the recession the building work has dried up and they are all struggling for business. Serves them right.

Gordy at Panda however was fabulous, quoted me the best price, turned up when he said he would to do the initial inspection.. and blow me down if he didn't say when he walked in through the door.. 'I fitted that pellet stove you know.. 13 years ago'. In fact it was Gordy who put us in touch with the guy in Van who bought the old one.. so we were thrilled with the service.

Ok so here Bill and I have finished the painting, Frank has put up the light fittings, [Canadian Tire] the surround has gone on the fireplace, and the new carpet has been installed by a local firm called Grants Flooring [Andrew]...