The night we took down the Christmas tree, I put the living room back in order and then sat on the couch looking at my room. I thought about how much easier it would be to rearrange the furniture if we didn't have the fireplace. We have lived in our house five years and have not used the fireplace once because when it was inspected, they told us the inside was cracked. And on top of that, Jon never wanted a mess in the house and I guess he has something against awesome smelling, warm crackling fires.
I will give you a tour around the rest of my living room so you can see the dilemma in my head. The outside living room wall has a bay window and the front door.
Looking in from the front door you can see the opposite wall is the entrance to the kitchen and dining room with a stupid little closet built right in the middle of it. To the left is a set of stairs going up and going down.
So unless you want to block off the bay window, the only place to put the couch is where I have it now and where we have had it for five years. So I simply put a post on Facebook asking if anyone knew somebody who could rip my fireplace from the wall and within thirty minutes I was on the phone and a masonry guy was coming over the next night.
I make snap decisions...frequently.
The guy gave me a very reasonable price, about $150.00 less than what I was expecting so a few days later he came back with his tool bag and got to work. Jon kept saying he didn't care what I did, but that's just his way of saying "I think it would be a good idea too but I don't want everyone giving me all the shit they are giving you, so I'll keep my thoughts to myself."
After the guy got there, Jon asked more than once if I was sure and when it was apparent that I wasn't changing my mind, he put a condom on his head and pitched in to help the guy!
Look at this dude, he's like seven foot tall (and in a way looked like an old boyfriend which really creeped me out...mom, you know the one). He was super nice though and worked fast even though he had Ryan hot on his heels wanting to sweep up the mess. He not only let Ryan sweep but he asked him to make measurement lines, carry wood, etc. so that was really nice.
He figured out that the blocks from the chimney came pretty far down the wall so instead of trying to piece everything together, it would just be easier to drywall the entire wall.
He has been back two days now to mud/sand and now we have one entire wall! I know that most people would rather have the fireplace but this is just going to work so much better for us. Jon was worried about reducing the value of our house but honestly, I have no plans to move so I think we make it work for the present.
I can't wait to paint this weekend and show you the room when it's all put back together, but before then I need your advice! Since we won't be able to match the wainscoting I plan to paint the new wall one of the solid colors (sage green or tan) which I still have. Since it will be the only wall without the wainscoting, should it be something totally different? Help a girl out here.
7 comments:
That looks totally fantastic! I have a house kinda like that, there are all these wide doorways which make for a more "open" floorplan but really screw you if you like to move furniture around!
I'd pick an accent color other than the ones already there for the third wall to really make it pop, but I can't wait to see what you do with it!
When I first saw the "guy", I thought OMG, that is xxUxx! I see now that it was not. Wow, looks just like him from a distance.
Although I am a fireplace lover, I think this was the best choice for that particular room.
I would pick a different accent color also. If you want to stick with one of those 2 colors you already have, I would definitely pick the sage.
White or possibly a very dark sage. Will be awesome no matter what you decide!
it's going to look great! I say go with sage green!
Has to be the sage. Toss the tan in the trash bin! So are you going to put the couch against that wall? Then where will you put the TV? Will that little green bookshelf fit under the window? Or is it too tall?
How FUN!!
I would do the sage green, since the couch is tan and will most likely go on that wall. I can't wait to see it when it's done!
I can't wait to see the final product! We have one entire wall in the living room that's a brick fireplace with a hearth. It's enormous. Our actual living room is not. I go back and forth between what to do with it, but I don't think the hubs would go for this.
Anyway. Like I said, it looks great and I'm sure you'll love the change!
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