1 month until closing!

The countdown is ON! While I am definitely not in any hurry for the summer to end, I am very excited about our own house - especially the CLOSETS, CABINETS, and COUNTER SPACE. These are three things that Mike and I have never had in the 3 apartments and 1 house we have shared together. Can't. Freaking. Wait.

While absolutely livable as-is, the entire house will need to be updated at some point, and we plan to start with the living room/dining room area. This will be the main entertaining area of our home, and the first thing we see when we walk in, so it is a logical first place to start.

This room has natural wood ceilings and hardwood floors. Right now the entire house has carpet (including the bathrooms, ick), which we will be removing when we close. There is hardwood underneath that we will be refinishing.

My main concern with this room is that it might be too "rustic" looking with all of the wood. Therefore, I am planning to go contemporary with the furnishings as not to make it look too country. We have fairly new leather furniture (just 2 years old), but I thought it would just be too much brown and dark in there. I got a steal on this couch/loveseat at Ashley:
We also purchased this rug to add more color:


The room has 2 very large picture windows, so perfect curtains are a must. Debbie picked these out for us:

But in this color



Our existing brown leather chair will go in the corner where the giant windows are, and the matching sleeper sofa will go into one of the other bedrooms to serve as the guest bed for the time being.

We are not sure about a wall color, but are leaning towards a green. I am not totally convinced that we will be painting right away. We did that with our house in Tampa, and ended up repainting every single room after we lived in it for awhile. We also have a fireplace that has been painted a purpley-red, and I'm not sure how long I can live with that.