The Fixer-Upper

I have a confession that I probably should have told my husband prior to marriage. Instead, it was sorta like he got sucker-punched. Twice. You see... I love fixing up houses. You may have thought the title of this post was in reference to the house, but it's actually about me. You see, growing up, my step-dad worked in construction. Our home in Seattle was under perma-remodel. My poor mother spent a whole summer with a kitchen under remodel, doing dishes in the bathtub. When we moved to Sequim, Lane began work on our home there. Perhaps, I can blame the constant construction on my house-fixing expectations.

At any rate, we have lived in our current house since September 2008 and thus far we have removed popcorn ceilings, painted 6 rooms, ripped out carpet & replaced it with hand-carved (fake) wood floors, installed shelves & cabinets, swapped out 5 light fixtures, installed a woodstove, new carpet in 3 rooms, (almost finished) crown molding, and some new trim. Not to mention the necessary improvements - new roof, stove, and fridge. I wish I had before and after pictures for all the rooms because they would be amazing.

Here's an update on the downstairs. Without the "Before" picture, just imagine nasty, outdated carpet. Oddly placed, cinder-block fireplace with random space on either side. And, now we have this...

My handy husband tiled the floor & fireplace. Then, our new friend, Bryan Jacobson of Tacoma Woodworks, built the awesome cabinetry and mantle to help provide storage (cus you can never have enough of that) and to add clean lines to the room, rather than weird, spider-inviting nooks. The odd string that you may faintly see at the top is to draw cable cords through to the cabinets. Eventually, there will be a TV mounted above the mantle.

Next, I just need to decide on a paint swatch. So far I've ruled out the three colors below, but we're getting there!

Woodlawn Blue, Sea Glass, & Embellished Blue

Our downstairs ceiling is currently very classy, school ceiling tiles and I'm hoping for an upgrade. Please vote via comments. Should the ceiling be remodeled with wainscoting or drywall? Help us decide!