When I write this blog, I kind of doubt that anybody reads it.  I see stats, but I typically assume that those hits are all coming from my dad (hi, Dad).  One thing that struck me at the Midwest Clinic last week was the number of people who mentioned the blog to me — even citing specific entries.  I got all sorts of comments, from “I like your blog, but I can’t send my students there because the content isn’t always G-rated” (true) to “I like the food pictures, but you’re getting fat” to “you really offended Mr. X with your entry about Y, and I suggest you apologize.”  (What’s surprising about that last one is that I only heard it once.)  The most surprising comment I heard, though, was “I really like the home improvement pictures.”  Seriously?  I thought people would be bored by those.  There may only be one person reading who likes those entries, but for that person, this entry is for you…

I came home from Chicago on Saturday morning to that New House Smell. Several weeks ago, we ordered a rug for our living room, but we didn’t know when it would arrive.  It was delivered, unbeknownst to me, on Friday while I was in Chicago. AEJ had wanted to surprise me with it by having it installed while I was away, but she ran into some bad luck with the delivery guys getting it dirty, and had a horrible afternoon on Friday trying to arrange for rug cleaners to come to the house to fix their damage.  Why was it such a pain to clean the thing? Because it’s French Vanilla. (The delivery guys said, as soon as they saw the rug, “You don’t have kids, do you?”  That would be “No.”  Granted, I think I’m known for my love of kids — or wait, maybe not.)  By the time I got home on Saturday, it was perfect, and our living room was finally a real room. There are still a few little changes coming — like hanging window treatments — but this is now the Most Pleasant Room in the house.

Let’s start with a “Before” picture of the room. I took this picture when we closed on the house. Note the beige wall-to-wall carpeting.

And here’s the room now.

Here’s another angle, before.

And after.

Another before…

And after.

There’s a big range of furniture in here, including budget items like the side-tables that AEJ found on Craigslist. These used to be dark wood-stained with some ugly-ass knobs, but she painted them a high-gloss white and put mirrored pulls on them.

At the other extreme is AEJ’s critter chair from Oly Studio, or as I like to refer to it, her throne. Check out the sweet paw feet! She originally added the  sheepskin throw to keep the cat from jumping on top and scratching the leather (he’s done this before — he is, after all, a cat), but we love it. The end of it kind of looks like a fuzzy tongue.

Here’s a detail of one of the feet.  It even has tiny claws.

So that’s the living room. We’re making progress on the family room (the Plexiglass center speaker stand was delivered today!), but I’m holding off on pictures of that room until the fireplace is refaced. (Tile is ordered, but it’ll be a few more weeks.)

In the meantime, our cat Loki wishes you a Merry Christmas. (Is there anything cuter than Loki wrapping paper?!  The correct answer is : “no.”)