Progress! And, another change of plans.

We're getting there! Here's the living room with its brand new ceiling and walls:

The room feels so much bigger without the strange ceiling panels that were there before. It's really a huge improvement. Now picture it with the crown molding installed, the cabinet back in place in the corner, and some beautiful color on the walls, and we've got ourselves a real room!

Speaking of colors, I'm really leaning towards Martha Stewart's "Tobacco Leaf" paint color for this room. Here's the swatch:


It's a brownish/grayish/greenish earthy tone that I think could really pop against the white trim in the living room. This online swatch makes it look a little more gray/mauve than it looks in person. Who knows what kind of tones it will have in different kinds of light, though.

We do need to commit to paint colors very soon, as our contractor will be priming and painting the living room, stairwell, master bedroom, and all ceilings. Maybe some other rooms depending on the schedule. So we have to at least pick those out and the rest we can pick away at piece by piece.

The contractor ran into a snag with the dining room ceiling this week, which apparently needed to be completely restrapped. The beams were crooked and sagging, so he needed to redo everything to make sure the ceiling is strong enough to hold the sheetrock and is level. That set us back a bit in the timeline, so we're now actually going to be moving in at the end of June instead of this weekend. I'm a little relieved (though it meant switching around a vacation) and it is definitely the right move to wait until major construction is done before moving our stuff in. Luckily our current landlord is super flexible, so we're able to stick around here while our contractor is hard at work on the house. It's a little tough to be patient, but I know it'll be well worth the wait.

The dining room ceiling and walls are up now:

Last night we picked up a new chandelier at Home Depot for the dining room. It just happened to be the least expensive and the one that we liked most. Imagine that.

I'm pretty stumped on paint colors for the dining room. I'm thinking something pretty neutral, like a putty or a cream, will help the room flow into the living room. Gah! What to do?