The New Digs Part 2: Dining Room, Foyer and Living Room (Playroom)

Next up, the Dining room, foyer and living room (which is being used as a playroom right now). As you can see, we don't have enough furniture to fill up this house...but that's ok for now...

The dining room has been a catch-all for a lot of the things that have been unpacked and just don't have a place to go.  You can see there is no light fixture in here (the one exclusion of the seller's which was OK with us), so that will have to be replaced soon.  I also would like to paint in here, but I just haven't decided on a color.  Do you like my folding table, i.e. dining room table?  I had a crafting party here a few weekends ago, and we used this as the crafting headquarters.  Since we are having a large Packer party for the Packer/Viking game tomorrow, I am keeping it up for now. 

The dining room has two doors -- one to the kitchen and another to the foyer.  The door to the kitchen has an actual door on it, and we've installed a gate leading to the foyer, so this is also a kid free room for the time being (except that little Max knows how to get into this room and does so frequently to get his vacuum so he can vacuum after meal times).  We had originally thought to take the door down, but once we realized it helped us in terms of kid proofing the house, we decided to keep it up for a little bit longer :).



Here is the front foyer.  You can see the entrance to the dining room and the stairs that lead to the second floor.  We'll need to replace the front door (drafty and not in the greatest condition).  I also would like to eventually replace this wallpaper (not really my style).  But, that is going to be a large project seeing as it goes up to the second floor on the staircase wall...so I am putting it off for the time being.

The view of the foyer leading into the kitchen.  Here you can see the shutter doors that close off the kitchen to the foyer/front of the house.  Again, as with the dining room door, we had originally thought we would remove these doors, but they are proving to be very handy in terms of keeping kids (and pets) out of certain areas of the house.  So, removal will happen later...

Another view into the dinette area of the kitchen from the front foyer.

This is the first room to your right when you enter the house from the front door.  The 'formal' living room.  If you know me, you know I am far from formal, so this room will likely never serve that purpose.  I do have paint picked out for this room, I just need to find the time to paint it.  And, right now it is serving as the catch all for the kids PLETHORA of toys (holy cow do we have a lot -- please NO MORE TOYS!!).

The windows in this room are gorgeous and LOW.  The boys just LOVE sitting on the window ledge (often crawling behind that table and using it as a little desk).

Here's the full view of the room.  Max and I disagree, but I would like to eventually put french doors in the wall where the entertainment center is currently to open this room to the family room in the back of the house.  I think it would give the house a more open feel.  Max disagrees because it would take away the wall on which his TV is stationed.  Again, it is not an immediate project, but one that I am definitely keeping in the back of my head.

Toys, toys and more toys.  These boys are spoiled.  :)

The view looking from the back of the room towards the foyer.  I love these bookshelves/cubbies.  They used to be out in the extension at the old house, and they are the perfect size for storing totes and toys.  I had originally bought them to be a part of my office set (they matched my desk), but they were too impractical to use as bookshelves (because the shelves are so deep), so this is the perfect repurpose.

Hope you enjoyed part 2 of the tour!  I should have kitchen/family room pictures tomorrow!!